28th Canadian Film Awards

The 28th Canadian Film Awards were held on November 20, 1977 to honour achievements in Canadian film. The ceremony was hosted by actor Gordon Pinsent.

For this year's awards, 143 films were submitted, including 11 features, 78 documentaries and 23 TV dramas. Also, the organizing committee announced a new selection process; films would now be assessed through secret ballot. This eliminated the selection practice using the nominating pre-selection committee and the international jury for the final selection. Now, a new jury group composed of one representative from each member organization chose four nominees in each category from a first ballot, then selected the winners from that group.

Despite the 1976 agreement that Quebec would organize the awards every other year, there were no Francophones on this year's organizing committee. CTV was meant to broadcast the ceremony but withdrew, so the CBC aired a one-hour special called All About the Canadian Film Awards.

Special Awards

 * Ralph L. Thomas: "for increasing the stature of film drama on television in Canada".
 * Wendy Michener Award: Zale Dalen - "for outstanding artistic achievement in Skip Tracer".
 * Golden Reel Award: Lawrence Hertzog - Why Shoot the Teacher? - "for highest-grossing film".
 * John Grierson Award: Fernand Dansereau - "for outstanding contributions to Canadian cinema".