From the Canadian Press:
Link: Unité 9 locks up Prix Gémeaux victory; District 31 takes Prix du public
Unité 9, a gritty show about a group of women in a Quebec prison, won the award for best year-long drama at the Prix Gémeaux gala Sunday night.
It was the fourth consecutive year the hugely popular show took the prize. Continue reading.
Anne with an E showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett, Letterkenny and Bad Blood production company New Metric Media, and veteran producer Sheila Hockin were among the Canadians feted during the Rockie Awards gala on Tuesday night at the Banff World Media Festival.
Hosted by Tony Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth—who began the show by munching ketchup potato chips and Timbits and closed with a stirring rendition of “The Prayer”—the evening also saluted Canadians who’ve made good in Hollywood. Jeremy Podeswa captured the Award of Excellence for his body of work as a director of such programs as Game of Thrones, Queer as Folk, The Tudors and The Pacific. David Shore was on hand to accept The Hollywood Reporter Impact Award for his hit medical drama The Good Doctor.
“Support is at the heart of innovation,” Mark Montefiore, New Metric Media’s president and executive producer of Letterkenny, Bad Blood and What Would Sal Do?, said upon receiving the Innovative Producer Award. “One can dream big all day long, but without the support of countless people, those ideas would simply remain as big dreams and not realities.”
Hockin was given the Canadian Award of Distinction for producing such shows as Vikings, The Handmaid’s Tale, Penny Dreadful, The Borgias, The Tudors, Canada’s Next Top Model and Queer as Folk.
Walley-Beckett accepted the Showrunner of the Year Award for her work on Anne with an E, set to return for Season 2 on Netflix next month and CBC in September.
“[Showrunning] is like conducting a full orchestra to play a symphony that you composed,” she said on-stage. “At the end of every season, I celebrate that I’ve lived to tell the tale. I love my work. Sleep is overrated. So is sanity.”
Here is the complete list of winners:
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Jeremy Podeswa
INNOVATIVE PRODUCER AWARD
New Metric Media
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER IMPACT AWARD
The Good Doctor
A&E INCLUSION AWARD
Elizabeth Vargas
CANADIAN AWARD OF DISTINCTION
Sheila Hockin
SHOWRUNNER OF THE YEAR
Moira Walley-Beckett
PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
This Is Us
SIR PETER USTINOV COMEDY AWARD
Sean Hayes
COMPANY OF DISTINCTION
NBCUniversal
From a media release:
The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) is proud to announce the winners of the 2018 Rockie Awards Program Competition and the $25,000 Rogers Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content.
Canadian actor/comedian, Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience), hosted the Rockie Awards Program Competition at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Top international media executives gathered to recognize and celebrate excellence in television and digital media content from around the world. One of the largest competitions of its kind, the Rockie Awards Program Competition presented awards in twenty-five (25) categories spanning Documentary & Factual, Arts & Entertainment, Children & Youth, Scripted, and Francophone Program of the Year.
Countries taking home top Rockies honours include:
– USA: 11 awards
– Canada: 6 awards
– UK: 5 awards
– France: 3 awards
– Japan & Singapore: each take 1 award
Program Competition winners include:
Television Miniseries
Big Little Lies
HBO / David E. Kelly Productions / Pacific Standard / Blossom Films
USA
Drama Series: English Language
Peaky Blinders
BBC / Caryn Manabach Productions / Tiger Aspect Productions / BBC Two
UK
Comedy Series: English Language
black-ish
Disney|ABC / ABC Studios
USA
Comedy Series: Non-English Language
Freefall/Lâcher prise
Encore Télévision – Distribution Inc
Canada
Drama Series: Non-English Language
Hokuto: The Conversion of a Killer
WOWOW Inc / Toei Movie Studios
Japan
Preschool Program
Sesame Street
Sesame Workshop / HBO
USA
Children & Youth Non-Fiction Series
Giver
Sinking Ship Entertainment
Canada
Reality Program
Undercover High
A&E / Lucky 8 TV / Learning Tree Productions
USA
Interactive Content
Bury me, my Love / Enterre-moi, mon Amour
ARTE France / The Pixel Hunt / Figs
France
Crime & Investigative Program
Storyville – Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web
Raw TV / Vice / BBC Four
UK
History & Biography Program
Residente
Story House Entertainment
USA
Melodrama
The Good Doctor
Sony Pictures Television
USA
Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Action Series
Travelers
Peacock Alley Entertainment / Corus Entertainment
Canada
Rogers Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content
Winner: Travelers (Peacock Alley Entertainment)
The Rogers Prize is awarded to the highest-scoring Canadian program or property in the Rockies Program Competition across two rounds of independent jury review.
Rockies Program Competition Grand Jury Prize
The Grand Jury Prize recognizes the “best in show” from all Program Competition winning entries. The winner will be unveiled Tuesday, June 12 at the Rockie Awards Gala, hosted by Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth.
The 2018 finalists are:
– Big Little Lies
– Dear Basketball
– Peaky Blinders
– Sesame Street
– The Child in Time
From Sabrina Furminger of YVR Screen Scene:
Link: Diverse storytelling wins big at final night of 2018 Leos
A feature film about life in Afghanistan, a music-driven documentary about the fight for Indigenous rights in Canada, and a short about four Arab teens on a quest to find a public pool in their new city took home the top prizes at the 2018 Leo Awards.
The Leo Awards recognize excellence in the homegrown film and television industry, and Black Kite – a gripping feature-length drama about a father in Afghanistan who defies the Taliban’s ban on kites in order to bring some joy into his daughter’s childhood – won Best Screenwriting and Best Direction for Tarique Qayumi, and Best Motion Picture for producer Tajana Prka. Continue reading.
From Sabrina Furminger of YVR Screen Scene:
Link: Passion-driven storytelling recognized at Leo Awards night #2
If the first night of the Leo Awards shines the spotlight on behind-the-scenes superstars, then the second night shifts the focus to DIY indie storytellers.
Actor Peter Kelamis hosted Celebration Awards Two of the 2018 Leo Awards on Saturday night in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Trophies were handed out to web series creators and actors, as well as to an array of artists working in the children’s television, animation, short and feature-length documentary, lifestyle and information, dramatic series, television movie, short drama, music video, and motion picture spheres. Continue reading.
