TORONTO - "Polytechnique," a haunting, black-and-white rendering of the 1989 Montreal massacre, nabbed a leading 11 Genie nominations Monday, as Canada's answer to the Oscars spread accolades among a mix of English and French-language pictures but largely ignored the widely acclaimed debut of Quebec phenom Xavier Dolan.

"Nurse.Fighter.Boy," director Charles Officer's urban tale of a single mother and her son, earned 10 nominations, while the Inuit survival story "Before Tomorrow" -- from co-directors Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu -- snagged nine.

Officer yelped with excitement upon hearing his name called out at a downtown news conference hosted by veteran actor Gordon Pinsent and actress Tatiana Maslany.

"I'm sweaty, I'm nervous, I can't wait to actually send an email or two," Officer said after learning he had scored nods in the biggest categories, including best picture, best director, best actor, and best actress.

"I want to streak in the streets naked ... because I'm really excited. But I won't. I feel a lot of things."

Officer's feature film debut faces stiff competition from Denis Villeneuve's widely acclaimed "Polytechnique," a stark re-telling of the shooting rampage at Ecole Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989. The two films are in the running for best picture, along with "Before Tomorrow" and "Fifty Dead Men Walking."

Notably absent is Dolan's searing mother-son portrait, "I Killed My Mother," ("J'ai tue ma mere") a critical darling that debuted to raves at the Cannes International Film Festival last spring and was Canada's submission to the Oscars for best foreign-language film.

Still, Dolan was selected as this year's recipient of the Claude Jutra Award, presented annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television to a first-time filmmaker.

Academy head Sara Morton said nominations are chosen by a jury of experts from across the country.

"They made their decision on the day looking at 'J'ai tue ma mere' against the rest of the field," said Morton, who faced similar questions last summer when the final season of the TV smash "Corner Gas" was snubbed by the Geminis.

"They did decide to award it the best first feature film and I think that was entirely appropriate. It is an audacious and a brave first feature film and certainly deserves to be recognized."

Other big nominees include the Quebec film "Grande Ourse: La Cle des possibles" ("The Master Key"), which received eight nominations, and Kari Skogland's "Fifty Dead Men Walking," about a security agent who infiltrated the Irish Republican Army, which got seven.

Skogland said the nominations should go a long way towards countering a lingering sexism in the film industry, noting that some financiers questioned her abilities when she tried to raise funds for "Fifty Dead Men Walking."

"I won't name names and I won't go into details but of course, they were saying, 'Gee, a girl doing action, hmm, how's that going to be?' " said Skogland, whose future projects include an action-packed account of the Battle of Hastings, called "William the Bastard, 1066."

"And so I had to make sure that I proved myself, that I could do action and that I could nail it. And we did."

"That conversation I don't expect will ever come up again," she said.

Skogland said she was similarly buoyed by the recent triumphs of U.S. director Kathryn Bigelow, whose war film "The Hurt Locker" is a leading Oscar nominee.

The Genie Awards, which are marking their 30th anniversary this year, celebrate the best in Canadian film.

Last year, the academy took the Genies on the road and handed out the prizes in Ottawa. This year's show, to be held April 12, will return to Toronto.

"Polytechnique"'s Villeneuve faced intense public apprehension and scrutiny when he originally announced his attention to film the harrowing story, based on interviews with survivors of the Montreal shooting.

But he has been widely lauded for his handling of the difficult subject matter, with Toronto Film Critics Association naming "Polytechnique" best Canadian feature of 2009 in January.

The film's Genie nominations include best director for Villeneuve, and acting nods for Karine Vanasse and Maxim Gaudette.

Made for $6 million, "Polytechnique" was shot in English and in French. It was released on DVD in September.