Tag Archives: Featured

Awards, Featured

Canadian Screen Awards’ Beth Janson: “We are focusing on the content”

Last year, the pandemic played havoc with the Canadian Screen Awards. Originally scheduled for the last week of March in Toronto with the usual in-person fan and industry events capped off by a gala, it was all delayed, ultimately going virtual last May.

Now the Canadian Screen Awards are back and, once again, being handed out virtually. But, with a year of experience at this sort of thing, Beth Janson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, says the Academy is ready to deliver.

Congratulations on another Canadian Screen Awards. You all have become veterans now because you’ve had a year of the pandemic under your belt to pull this off again.
Beth Janson: Yes. I know. It’s not really an expertise I would have chosen. But we are excited that we have done everything, start to finish, virtually, this year. So it’s been very, very strange, but successful. So, we’re happy about that.

In all seriousness you have had more than a year to plan for this, whereas, last year, you had moving targets all the time. How did you tackle things this year? Did things go more smoothly, what were some things that you decided you wanted to do this year that maybe you weren’t able to do last year?
Yes, last year was very much, a not ideal scenario. This year, we really were able to take more time to think about the creative behind the shows. We hired a creative producer. It’s all original music in our shows. I think it allowed us to take more care with the details. We’re still not having a Zoom acceptance speech award show because, despite everything we’ve seen this whole quarantine or pandemic, we don’t feel like that makes for a very exciting viewing experience.

We still are focusing on the content, so we’re taking more time. We’re playing clips. So much of our awards is about discoverability. And even people who are in our industry sometimes don’t realize the breadth of what’s out there. We’re able to sort of let them breathe more and sort of have it be more of a creative exercise, than a panic exercise.

Is focusing on the creative side of it maybe one of the positives of this situation?
I certainly think that it will change the way we do our shows once we’re back in person because it really is something that resonates. Our model before this was huge events. I mean, we had four galas before and the broadcast was 1,500 people. The galas before were up to 1,000 people. It’s going to be different when we’re able to gather again, and I think that’s going to be OK. I think it’s made us better and stronger for sure.

I was talking to someone recently who complained about the length of the U.S. awards shows. I said, ‘Folks could take a note from the Canadian Screen Awards,’ because you run a tight ship for that gala. It’s an hour long, in the traditional sense when it was on TV, giving out the top awards, and get in and get out.
Well, thank you for saying that, first of all. That’s really, really nice to hear. I think that when you do confine yourself, you have to get creative about how you’re doing things, and every single moment counts. Right?

I think award shows are going to get better after this pandemic, just in general. I know that ratings have been going down, and everyone’s questioning award shows in general in the industry. It’s got some new, fresh energy into the production. Even though the Oscars were not successful, in the viewership it certainly was a completely different show than what we’re used to. And I think that’s good, because you had to make these massive changes, and now you can take what worked there and take the best parts of the big, live show and combine them.

Let’s get into some of the trends. Blood Quantum, 10 nominations. Only in a country like Canada, can you have a zombie horror movie, starring an Indigenous cast and written by someone who is Indigenous, can you have that. I love that about this country.
Yes, me too. You’ll also see that Possessor was also in the mix there. And it’s nice that our members are honouring genre film because we have a huge, long, successful history in that genre. I thought it was really, really great that it was being acknowledged. It’s really exciting that the work that’s nominated this year is probably the most audience-friendly fare that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s good to see because I want as many people to see these films as possible, so I get excited when it’s mixed up, and you have very different films in the mix. It’s not all sort of similar stories.

Looking at the television categories, and Schitt’s Creek with 21 nominations, Canada’s Drag Race has seven nominations. You can’t help but be proud of the storytelling.
Our industry really has a responsibility, a unique responsibility, and an opportunity to contribute to diversity and equity. And I think the direction is really positive. I think there’s a lot more work to do.

But, especially when we’re talking about our industry, what we produce and who we empower to tell the story shape the way so much of the country and the general public perceives experience. It’s really important. You can see it, even in the time that I’ve been here, these programs that seek to fund gender parity. Now we’re moving into funding more diverse creators. It has an impact. I hope that it’s systemic, but I think we’re sort of looking at the right ways to change.

What do you want people to experience during this week of celebrations for the Canadian Screen Awards?
I want everyone to have at least one moment of discovery when they’re watching the show, like, ‘Huh, that looks really interesting,’ and to seek it out.

Stream the Canadian Screen Awards on the Academy website, Twitter and YouTube.

Check out the list of nominees.

Monday, May 17, 2021
7 p.m. ET: Canadian Screen Awards – News & Documentary, Presented by CBC (Narrator: Ginella Massa)

8 p.m. ET: CTV presents the Canadian Screen Awards – Lifestyle & Reality (Narrator: Priyanka)

Tuesday, May 18, 2021
7 p.m. ET: Canadian Screen Awards – Children’s & Animation, Presented by Shaw Rocket Fund (Narrator: Eric Bauza)

8 p.m. ET: Canadian Screen Awards РDigital & Immersive, Presented with the participation of the Independent Production Fund (Narrator: Dont̩ Colley)

Wednesday, May 19, 2021
7 p.m. ET: CTV presents the Canadian Screen Awards – Creative Arts & Performance (Narrator: Tyrone Edwards)

Thursday, May 20, 2021
7 p.m. ET: Canadian Screen Awards РCinematic Arts, Presented by Telefilm Canada, Supported by Cineplex (Narrator: Nah̩ma Ricci)

8 p.m. ET: 2021 Canadian Screen Awards (Narrators: Stephan James and Karine Vanasse)

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Drew Hayden Taylor is Going Native on APTN

I first saw Drew Hayden Taylor in the CBC POV documentary “Searching for Winnetou.” Available on CBC Gem, the episode followed Taylor as he explored the German obsession with Indigenous North Americans. The curious and entertaining documentary stuck with me for awhile. So, I was pleased to learn he was back on TV, this time as the star of his own series.

Going Native—debuting with the first of 13 episodes on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on APTN—finds the celebrated Anishinaabe humorist and author exploring how Indigenous Peoples have changed the world, and are re-shaping their culture today. Each instalment represents at theme; Saturday’s “Going Horse” tracks the history of the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and equines, and includes interviews, stunning vistas and footage of Taylor scrambling to mount a horse.

“One of the problems I’ve personally had—as an Indigenous humorist—is a lot of the media coming both from the Indigenous community and about the Indigenous community, like novels, movies, etc., deal with a darker aspect of the First Nations communities dealing with the oppressed, depressed and suppressed nature of a lot of our stories and history,” Taylor says. “Having traveled to over 150 Indigenous communities across Canada and the United States, I’ve always been greeted with a laugh, a smile and a joke. It’s always been my firm belief that it’s been our sense of humour that has allowed us to survive some of those darker periods of our history.

“I know we have a sense of humour,” he continues. “We have a sense of whimsy, a sense of enjoyment of life that is not frequently witnessed by the dominant culture and that was one of the things I wanted incorporated into this series.”

That humour and enjoyment is shown in the sidelong glances between horse experts helping Taylor scramble onto a regal horse or the wonder in his face as he learns Indigenous Peoples were tracking their place in the galaxy for likely before Europeans were. Future episodes investigate architecture, music, food, fashion, business and pop culture, all delivered by Taylor, who has a twinkle in his eye and wonderment at the information he learns.

“The depth of knowledge that was available to our ancestors is truly stunning,” Taylor says. “I grew up in the Indigenous culture and I’m still learning so much about my own culture.”

Going Native airs Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on APTN.

Images courtesy of Ice River Films.

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Featured, Top Chef Canada

Top Chef Canada: Chris Nuttall-Smith teases Season 9

Chris Nuttall-Smith is still pinching himself that he’s a resident judge on Top Chef Canada.

“This is a competition that resonates with people not just in Canada but around the world,” the food journalist and critic says. “Working hard, on the fly, under so much pressure. It’s a competition and a format that’s so fun to do. I’m so happy to get the call saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing another season.'”

Returning Monday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network Canada, the newest season of Top Chef Canada features familiar faces in chef, cookbook author and host Eden Grinshpan; chef and owner of The McEwan Group, head judge Mark McEwan; and fellow resident judges in restaurateur Janet Zuccarini and food writer and personality Mijune Pak.

Not so familiar? The impact the pandemic had on production. Where past seasons saw the competitors scramble out of vans and into McEwan’s eponymous high-end grocery store to shop for products, Season 9 has the ingredients trucked into the studio for a timed shop by the professional chefs. And the classic Restaurant Wars challenge has been scuttled in favour of Takeout Wars.

As always, it’s the professional chefs—and the food they create—that are the stars of Top Chef Canada. In Monday’s debut, we’re introduced to the 11 facing off against one another. The cast includes Kym Nguyen, who identifies as non-binary and whips up killer British-Asian fare; Indigenous chefs Siobhan Detkavich and Stéphane Levac, who bring their roots to their recipes; and Erica and Josh Karbelnik, who are married.

“This season really reflects Canada, who we are as a nation and what our culinary culture is,” Nuttall-Smith says. “More people are finding opportunities, carving out niches, are having a chance to show what they can do. And, as a judge, it makes the food way more interesting.”

That’s evident in Monday’s opening minutes when the competitors are tasked with creating a plate that represents their brand. Everything put forward is unique, authentic and—as evidenced by Grinshpan and McEwan’s reactions—for the most part tasty. That’s not to say there aren’t duds, but this season’s chefs are really bringing it. That’s to be expected, especially with $100,000 and a Lexus RX Hybrid Electric SUV handed to the winner. And, despite the fact not every dish presented to him is a home run, Nuttall-Smith enters each Elimination Challenge meal feeling the same emotion: hope.

“My perspective, as a restaurant critic and a food writer is that every dish and every chef starts at 100 per cent,” he explains. “I look at it as ‘You’re the best chef in the world, and let’s see how it goes.’ A lot of times that really pays off, and other times it doesn’t. But my expectation is always, ‘This is gonna be great.'”

Top Chef Canada airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network Canada.

Images courtesy of Corus Entertainment.

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Featured, Web series

CBC Gem’s Something Undone a genuine scare-fest

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I like my horror/scary projects to be atmospheric. A jump scare is OK, but I prefer a general feeling of unease coupled with a tinge of a slow burn. It’s why I love Something Undone.

Debuting Friday on CBC Gem, Something Undone—created by and starring Madison Walsh and Michael Musi—manages what I thought was unthinkable: a genuinely spooky piece of work encapsulated in a six-episode web series.

And, it was written, produced and filmed during the pandemic. Created through funding from CBC’s Creative Relief Fund, which provided $2 million in development and production funding to a diverse range of original Canadian projects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CBC’s hook was projects had to be produced under strict COVID-19 guidelines.

“Mike and I started brainstorming,” says Walsh during a recent call. “We thought, ‘What can you maintain the quality and enjoyment of with restrictions on visuals? If we can’t have that many actors, what can we do? If we could only have one location, what could we do?’ That’s when we started to think about sound.” The result is Something Undone.

In the first episode we meet Jo (Walsh), a foley artist and her partner, Farid (Musi), who are the successful hosts of a Canadian true crime podcast. After her mother passes away Jo returns to her small Ontario town to sort through her mother’s things while continuing her foley work on the podcast. With Farid in Newfoundland and only available over the phone, a sense of desolation, loneliness, and unease begins to permeate Jo’s life. A disturbing sound Farid hears in one of Jo’s tracks leads her on a creepy, spooky path. Did the house, or something in it, cause her mother’s death?

“I was doing research about sound and learned that we, as human beings, perceive sound so realistically that we can make them up and hear them almost as if they were actually there,” Musi says. “I think that’s why watching a horror movie in our home is such an amazing experience. It doesn’t end when the movie ends. It stays with us.”

With strict safety guidelines in place early in 2020, Walsh and Musi headed off to write Something Undone in a spot many would consider a scary setting: a cottage in the middle of nowhere with no heat. There, they wrote for 10 days, fleshing out what they had established in the pilot into one big chunk and then found ways to break it up into six episodes with a cliffhanger for each.

And while you can certainly watch Something Undone on your TV via the CBC Gem app—the colour palette, visuals and set decoration are wonderful—watching it with headphones on my laptop revealed a whole other level to the horror. Every little creak and clatter can be heard.

“We spoke to our sound designer and he spent extra time really juicing the sound for direction and to make that audio experience with your headset,” Walsh says. “Because it is sound-based, yeah, go for your headphones.”

Something Undone debuts Friday on CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of 4AM Film Studios.

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Featured, Second Jen

Second Jen ends after three seasons on Omni

Jen and Mo have said goodbye. After three seasons on Omni, Second Jen will not be back for a fourth.

“It is bittersweet for us to announce that this has been the last season of Second Jen,” co-creators, co-executive producers and stars Amanda Joy and Samantha Wan, and showrunner Carly Heffernan posted on social media following the show’s Sunday season finale. “Thank you to everyone who has supported us. Thank you for the love and laughter over the years.”

“We leave Jen and Mo in a place that feels good; where they’ve grown, and learned, and come into their own,” the post continued. “We are so happy to have shared their journey with all of you. In many ways, their story has echoed our own.”

Read the rest of the post.

Over the course of three seasons, Second Jen centred on best friends Jen (Wan) and Mo (Joy) who banded together to tackle life’s ups-and-downs in Toronto.

Nominated for Best Comedy at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards, the Season 3 cast included Nile Séguin, Janet Lo, Timothy Lai, Richard Tse, Tina Jung, Isabel Kanaan and Andrew Bushell. Guest stars included Andrew Phung, Ken Hall, Deb McGrath, Kathryn Greenwood, Ann Pornel, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll and Kathleen Phillips.

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