2010 Leo Awards This Weekend

The 12th annual Leo Awards celebrating achievements in BC film and television will take place tonight and tomorrow at the Westin Bayshore.

I interviewed the President of the Awards, Walter Daroshin for my new weekly events column for TV Week online.

“We suggest that [the industry] just take one little pause for a weekend, once a year, and recognize that we’re actually pretty good at what we do,” said Daroshin. “I think it’s vital to a healthy and artistic community, to recognize and celebrate its own.”

With BC talent receiving recognition internationally, it makes sense to have a celebration of homegrown achievements.

“You see people more and more within this jurisdiction being recognized outside of this jurisdiction,” added Daroshin. “We really feel we represent the community.”

Daroshin made specific note of Monique Prudhomme who was nominated in the Costume Design category at the Academy Awards for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as well as the folks at Image Engine and District 9 who were up for Best Picture at the Oscars this year.

Ever-evolving with the times, the Leo Awards are sensitive to the hard work of all communities within the industry. As such, they added the Web Series category over the last few years as well as the inaugural award for Stunt Coordination that we’ll see in 2010.

The red carpet event on Saturday will feature some of this year’s presenters and nominees including (but not limited to) Steve Bacic, Michael Eklund, Matt Frewer, Colby Johannson, Erin Karpluk, Kristen Kreuk, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ryan Robbins, and Amanda Tapping.

You can read the rest of the post at TV Week online.

John and I will be covering the red carpet tomorrow night when they do the program and performance awards. Tonight, awards for craft and technical elements will be handed out.

Update Unfortunately John couldn’t make it down to join me on the red carpet so I snapped these myself.

Lou Diamond Phillips, Jodelle Ferland, Steph Song, Ryan Robbins, Warren Christie, Jonathan Silver Scott, Drew Scott, Andrew Jenkins, Calum Worthy, and Agam Darshi.

Recipients of the Leo Award include:

FEATURE LENGTH DRAMA
Best Feature Length Drama
Excited

Best Direction in a Feature Length Drama
Bruce Sweeney (Excited)

Best Costume Design in a Feature Length Drama
Monique Prudhomme (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus)

Best Stunt Coordination in a Feature Length Drama
Marshall Virtue (Alice)

Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama
Chad Willett (Cole)

Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama
Gabrielle Rose (Excited)

Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama
Jared Keeso (Keep Your Head Up Kid – The Don Cherry Story)

Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama
Laara Sadiq (Excited)

DRAMATIC SERIES
Best Dramatic Series
Stargate Universe

Best Direction in a Dramatic Series
Brenton Spencer (Sanctuary – Pavor Nocturnus)

Best Stunt Coordination in a Dramatic Series
Jacob Rupp (Smallville – Rapid)

Best Guest Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Christopher Gauthier (Sanctuary – Hero)

Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Christopher Heyerdahl (Sanctuary – Haunted)

Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series
Julia Benson (Stargate Universe – Pain)

Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Robin Dunne (Sanctuary – Pavor Nocturnus)

Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series
Erin Karpluk (Being Erica – Being Dr. Tom)

SHORT DRAMA
Best Short Drama
The Gray Matter
The Gray Matter

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM OR SERIES
Best Feature Length Documentary Program
Facing Ali

Best Short Documentary Program
This Land

Best Documentary Series
Ice Pilots NWT

Best Direction in a Documentary Program or Series
Pete McCormack (Facing Ali)

INFORMATION OR LIFESTYLE SERIES
Best Information or Lifestyle Series
The Nature Of Things

Best Host(s) in an Information or Lifestyle Series
Anna Wallner, Kristina Matisic
Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bag – Cowboy In The Kitchen

MUSIC, COMEDY, OR VARIETY PROGRAM OR SERIES
Best Music, Comedy, or Variety Program or Series
Wolf Canyon

ANIMATION PROGRAM OR SERIES
Best Animation Program or Series
League Of Super Evil

STUDENT PRODUCTION
Best Student Production
Trolls

Best Youth or Children’s Program or Series
Stormworld

Best Music Video
Road Regrets – Dan Mangan

Best Web Series
The Vetala

In total, Sanctuary had 7 Leo Awards while The Gray Matter also walked away with 7 Leos in the Short Drama category. Alice had 8 awards for everything from Cinematography to Visual Effects, Stargate Universe had 6 Leos, and Wolf Canyon brought home 5. You can view a full list of winners by name or program on the Leo Awards website.