CBC’s Andi Petrillo, The Communist’s Daughter‘s George Stroumboulopoulos, Farm Crimes and 21 Black Futures were among the individuals and programs to win during Night 2 of 2022 Canadian Screen Awards Online Presentations.
The first portion of the live streaming celebration focused on Sports Programming hosted by Jennifer Hedger, followed by the Digital & Immersive categories hosted bySupinder Wraich.
Here are the winners in Tuesday’s key categories:
Best Sports Host Andi Petrillo, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on CBC
Best Sports Program or Series Nike’s Big Bet
Best Supporting Performance, Web Program or Series George Stroumboulopoulos, The Communist’s Daughter
Best Lead Performance, Web Program or Series Lovell Adams-Gray, 21 Black Futures
Best Host, Web Program or Series ET Canada Live
Best Video Game Narrative The Vale: Shadow of the Crown
Best Writing, Web Program or Series Amanda Parris, 21 Black Futures – The Death News
Best Web Program or Series, Non-Fiction Farm Crime
Best Web Program or Series, Fiction 21 Black Futures
AMI, in partnership with Winterhouse Films Inc. (Wild Archaeology, Three Lives of Kate), is pleased to announce the debut of Breaking Character, Wednesday, April 27, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.
In the past decade, less than three percent of films featured a character with a disability. And, often, these rarest of roles have been taken by neuro-typical and able-bodied actors. But the industry is at a tipping point as it feels the push for a more inclusive representation. Major broadcasters have committed to auditioning actors with disabilities. Advertisers are creating campaigns that reflect disabilities in a relatable manner while promoting their products. Those leading the fight aren’t just the ones in front of the camera but the people representing them.
Breaking Character is a candid 10-part documentary series capturing the journey these mold-breaking performers make as they navigate the fast-paced and sometimes cutthroat entertainment industry in Hollywood North. Each episode delves into the performers’ daily lives and takes us behind the scenes as they go through the audition process, hone their craft, eagerly await news of whether they got the gig, and adapt to the pressures of life in the business.
Meet the performers
Alexia Vassos — Stage and Screen Actor, Little Person Alexia was the first Little Person to graduate from her university’s theatre and drama program. After leaving the safe haven of academia, she’s embarking on a journey to find her place in the industry—whether on stage, screen or in an audio booth. Alexia is open to many avenues, but one thing’s for certain: she will not be tokenized.
Dan Barra-Berger — Comedian, Legally Blind Dan, a stand-up comic who is partially sighted, made the long list of CBC’s Next Up competition series. Now he just needs to become a regular on the comedy club circuit. Though humour is at the core of everything he does, so is storytelling. With the support of his partner, Michelle, Dan is on a path to combining those talents to make people laugh, subvert their expectations and advocate for a more accessible world.
Caeden Lawrence — TV/Film Actor, Hard of Hearing A bartender by day, Caeden has scored multiple bit parts in both film and TV. But after being diagnosed with genetic progressive hearing loss, he’s navigating new barriers in the industry. Caeden worries that the powers-that-be see him as a “liability” on set, and wonders if he would he be better off finding security in the restaurant industry.
Tai Young — Performer/Personality, Wheelchair User At 17, Tai is already a seasoned performer having appeared in numerous musical theatre productions, commercials and TV shows. As a wheelchair user, he’s passionate about disability representation in the media and has been part of national advocacy campaigns. Tai counts photography, makeup, fashion, tennis and skiing among his many interests. As for what happens after he graduates, Tai refuses to be pinned down.
Catherine Joell McKinnon — Actor/Filmmaker/ASL Coach, Deaf An established actress who is Deaf, Catherine was raised on the east coast and has lived in Toronto since the ‘90s. One of the highlights of her career was playing—in the same year—Alexander Graham Bell’s wife on-screen in Murdoch Mysteries and his mother on stage in Silence. Besides acting, Catherine has made a name for herself as a Master Dialect Coach and Deaf consultant for major productions. Though juggling being in front and behind the camera has its challenges, Catherine is determined to make it work.
Rachel Romu — Model/Musician/Activist, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome A Thunder Bay, Ontario, native, Rachel is a model, musician and activist with a connective tissue disorder and a history of multiple surgeries for spinal tumours. After having to re-invent themselves post-surgery and diagnosis, they are hellbent on becoming a disability mogul one record and runway at a time.
Season one of Breaking Character features Integrated Described Video (IDV) making it accessible to individuals who are blind or partially sighted. Breaking Character was filmed under strict local COVID-19 protocols.
Breaking Character debuts Wednesday, April 27, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv. Episodes can be streamed on demand on AMI.ca and the AMI-tv App for Apple and Android.
AMI and TVO’s Employable Me, the documentary Oscar Peterson: Black + White and CTV broadcaster Lisa LaFlamme were among the individuals and programs to win during Night 1 of 2022 Canadian Screen Awards Online Presentations.
The first portion of the live streaming celebration focused on Broadcast News, narrated by news personality Brandon Gonez, followed by the Documentary & Factual categories narrated by ET Canada’s Sangita Patel.
Here are the winners in Monday’s key categories:
Best News or Information Program The Fifth Estate: 15 Deadly Hours
Best News or Information Series APTN Investigates
Best News Anchor, Local Anita Bathe, CBC Vancouver News at 6
Best Local Newscast CTV News Toronto at 6
Best News Anchor, National Lisa LaFlamme, CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme
Best National Newscast CBC News: The National
Best Social/Political Documentary Program Ghosts of Afghanistan
Best Short Documentary Nalujuk Night
Best Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series Borealis
Best History Documentary Program or Series How to Start a Revolution
Best Biography or Arts Documentary Program or Series Oscar Peterson: Black + White
Best Factual Series Employable Me
Best Documentary Program Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur
It would have been easy for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to take the easier route to hand out this year’s pandemic restricted Canadian Screen Awards by doing it all virtually with pre-taped acceptance speeches. But that’s not the Academy’s style.
Though there is no live audience dressed to the nines in a ballroom or theatre, the Academy will be handing out a plethora of hardware over the next week, capped off by a gala on CBC and CBC Gem on Sunday night.
We spoke to Beth Janson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, ahead of the festivities.
Beth, you announced that Catherine O’Hara, Tatiana Maslany, Arissa Cox, Andrew Phung, Ron MacLean and others are participating this week. Are you able to give any details on their roles? Beth Janson: We’re trying to think of the big show on CBC as a television show that has a cast. Those people are what we would consider our featured players or the people who are sort of making up the cast of this show. There’s a variety of ways that they’re involved. Some are presenting different categories. Some are a part of vignettes that we’re making around different sort of milestone moments. And some are animating the show in different ways.
Kudos to everybody on the team for being able to put out award shows in the first place, no matter what kind of form they’re in. BJ: That’s something that we don’t really talk about a lot, but our staff here at the Academy have been going through the same things that everyone in the world has been going through to different degrees and struggling with COVID, and mental health and family members that have to be cared for and that sort of thing.
We’re no different from other people, but we are also in the business of celebrating, so it takes that extra lift of emotional energy to put yourself in that mind frame when you feel like the world around you is crumbling. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the whole team for keeping it together. And really, I feel like our work is getting better and better each year in COVID, like nobody is just sitting back and being like, ‘Ah, I don’t have to do it as well because…’ It’s really been phenomenal and epic, I think.
Tallboyz couldn’t be better for being the hosts of Sunday’s gala. Are they the ring leaders of this whole thing? BJ: Yes, that’s a good way of putting it. We work in a very different context from something like the Oscars or the Emmys. I’m always excited when we can just take the talent that is doing really world-class work and give them a platform. That’s how I feel about Tallboyz. I think their brand of comedy is really unique. It’s very strong and hilarious. They just signed a deal with Fuse TV in the U.S. I hope that even more people will be able to discover them that way.
Beth Janson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
Canada has always really kind of punched above its weight when it comes to its films and its television shows. I feel like there’s never been more people around the world seeing Canadian TV than right now. BJ: That’s a really strong point. There is a big part that the streamers play because they have a very different business model. Network television has to market to a very specific demographic. They make lots of assumptions about what that demographic wants to see. And streamers are serving a much wider audience and you can go deep into a niche audience on a streamer. I think that’s been a huge game-changer for a lot of our creators that have really expanded their audiences.
You’ve got nine awards ceremonies that are going to be rolling out during Canadian Screen Week. Remind me of how that’s going to work? BJ: All of our winners will be accepting live, so they are nine live shows. We’ll have a host who’s in a studio in Etobicoke and we have done an insane amount of work sort of editing all of the nominee packs and those sorts of things, but ultimately, each winner will be able to accept live. It’s an enormous amount of computer superpower that goes on behind the scenes.
Let’s say we have 16 categories in one program. Let’s say you have an average of five nominees, so you basically have to set up 80 calls and coordinate all that per show. It is a huge amount of coordination and work. We have some amazing producers who have produced live off-air shows before and they transitioned to doing these on-air shows.
When people tune in and watch the broadcast, what do you want them to get out of it? A celebration of Canadian TV and Canadian film, and embracing it and getting out there and watching it? BJ: It is a celebration and I hope that people learn something too. Not everyone is familiar with our Canadian talent and actually what is being made here. So, I think there’s discovery, there’s a celebration and pride in being Canadian and in our industry because I think there is a lot to be proud of.
The series, which returns Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on YTV, leans into the supernatural for its sophomore season. Picking up six months after the events of Season 1, the 10 episodes follow Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe Hardy (Alexander Elliot) as they investigate a missing classmate and the odd circumstances surrounding it. Before long, Frank, Joe, Callie (Keana Lyn), Chet (Adam Swain), Phil (Cristian Perri) and Biff (Riley O’Donnell) are plunged into a case where no one can be trusted.
We spoke to Chris Pozzebon—who joined The Hardy Boys for its second season as co-showrunner and head writer—about what fans can expect.
This is your first season on The Hardy Boys. How did you end up on the show? Chris Pozzebon: They were looking for a head writer and co-showrunner. I had just moved back to Canada from Los Angeles when the pandemic was kind of ramping up and this kind of came about. And I guess it was a right fit for everybody.
It was pretty simple. I was available and interested, and they liked me. And I was able to pitch out a version of Season 2 that I think everybody responded to and that we all collaborated on with the networks. It was very fortuitous for me just to be in the conversation because I was such a huge fan of the books as a kid and just The Hardy Boys brand in general. So it was a very cool thing to start doing when a global pandemic hit.
What else excited you about the project? CP: I had been working on a show that I loved, Blindspot for NBC, and that show was massive. And you’re working with these FBI agents who are like these big adult heroes. The thing that Blindspot didn’t have was that element of magic, actual magic. I mean, the show was magic on its own, but when I found out that The Hardy Boys had a supernatural element to it that wasn’t in the books, I was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s really interesting to me.’ The Hardy Boy‘s brand was always mystery and adventure.
At first, seemingly, part of the mystery was always debunked. Right? That ghost howling in the wood was always like, oh, it was an owl. And it was screeching because bank robbers were out there. They figure it out.
What was appealing about this version of the show was that it actually could be a ghost in the woods this time. Season 1 was a slow burn towards that reveal. But once we established that, I was really excited. Just kind of going full force into the possibility of the supernatural, even if some things may not be what they seem.
On Monday’s return, Frank experiences dreams and visions. Was that something hammered out in the writer’s room organically? CP: It was part of the big Season 2 pitch. It was looking at where we ended last season and thinking about how to lean into that magic and mythology and the eye relic that they find as a central part of the show. It was about still keeping that mystery and that magic connected personally to our characters, not just starting fresh with a new adventure. It’s always with an eye towards the past and the backstory.
But at the same time, we did want to build in an actual new mystery. It’s not just the visions that Frank’s having and the supernatural stuff that stems from Season 1 that is going to be the throughline. There is a brand new mystery afoot.
I mentioned this to co-showrunner Jason Stone last year when we chatted. I love the 80s setting and all that entails. CP: That’s kind of the appeal for the people making the show too, is that you get to include these little nods to your own youth and you can separate yourself from the technology today and the way people would solve history today and focus on other avenues to solve a mystery. And it allows being in that time and helps our young folks and the heroes of the show pursue actual clues that aren’t just punched away on their cell phones.
In Episode 1, a fellow student goes missing. By the end, there are teases about the eye, as well as something going on in an abandoned mine. Is that all part of the A-story this season? CP: Everything is wrapped into each other. What’s going on with Dennis is the main focus. What’s going on with the eye plays into the main focus. Both of those things are kind of just the beginning. The story is going to take twists and turns that we don’t even allude to in Episode 1.
That said, those are the through lines and it is all deeply connected. And one of the things that we really wanted to do was just start building out the world. We are introduced to some shady characters and some people we can’t trust, maybe who are closer to us. That was just something that we felt we could push a little further in the second season.
Who else did you have in the writers’ room with you aside from yourself and Jason? CP: It was myself, Ramona Barckert, Laura Seaton, Madeleine Lambur, Sabrina Sherif, Heather Taylor, Nile Seguin and Michael Hanley.
What is your strength in the writing room? CP: I think finding a way to make an absolutely bonkers idea work would be my strength. You got to be good at everything, but, I mean, no, one’s going to pitch a crazier idea than me. That’s both a blessing and a curse.
The Hardy Boys airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on YTV.
