[1] Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, and the partial but incomplete progress of public vaccination, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced that the ceremony would proceed virtually, but Academy CEO Beth Janson stated that "it’s not going to be just a Zoom call of an awards show.
[1] The Academy also introduced a number of new projects in 2020 to foster increased representation of diversity in the Canadian film industry, including an equity and inclusion fund to help defray the award submission fees for work by emerging content creators of colour, and new rules requiring indigenous-themed content to demonstrate direct indigenous engagement in the production, in accordance with the Indigenous Screen Office's principles of narrative sovereignty.
[4] The eligible streaming platforms for the 9th Canadian Screen Awards included Amazon Prime, CBC Gem, the Cineplex Store, Club Illico, Crave, The Criterion Channel, CuriosityStream, Documentary Online Cinema, the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox, Disney+, Dove Channel, Fandor, FlixFling, Google Play, Greetings from Isolation, GuideDoc, Highball TV, Hollywood Suite, Hoopla, Ignite TV On Demand, iTunes, Kanopy, Microsoft Films & TV, MUBI, Netflix, Pantaflix, Popcornflix, Shudder, Spuul, SundanceNow, Super Channel on Demand, Tubi, Vimeo on Demand and YouTube Premium.
[10] One major category is currently presented without regard to the distinction between film, television or web media content.
Two major categories are presented based on online voting by fans through social media engagement.