ACTRA members honoured in 2021!

Photo courtesy of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television

Winners of the 2021 ACTRA Awards in Toronto

The 19th annual ACTRA Awards in Toronto were presented virtually on February 21 on ACTRA Toronto’s YouTube channel. Bahia Watson won Outstanding Performance – Female Voice for Total Dramarama and Cory Doran won Outstanding Performance – Male Voice for Doomsday Brothers. Tamara Podemski won Outstanding Performance – Female for Coroner and Jesse LaVercombe won Outstanding Performance – Male for Violation. For the third consecutive year, the Members’ Choice Series Ensemble Award went to the Schitt’s Creek cast. Tara Sky presented ACTRA Toronto’s 2021 Award of Excellence to her mother, multi-disciplinary artist Jani Lauzon. Said ACTRA Toronto President David Gale, “Building a star system in Canada has been a little bit of a thing of mine for a while. We will build our strength as a union by raising the profile of our award-winning and rising stars.” actratoronto.com

Winners of the 2021 ACTRA Awards in Manitoba

ACTRA Manitoba’s 5^th awards ceremony was streamed live on May 15 on ACTRA Manitoba’s YouTube channel. Seven performance awards and two special industry recognition awards were presented. Lisa Ball and Paul Essiembre each picked up an award for Outstanding Performance in a Feature Film for their work in Fractured. Stephanie Sy and Dave Brown each picked up an award for Outstanding Performance in a Series Episode. Stephanie for her work in Nikola Tesla and the End of the World and Dave for his work in season one of Burden of Truth. In the Outstanding Performance in a Short category, Nancy Sorel picked up an award for her work in Platypus while Aaron Merke won an award for his work in Lughead. Kristen Sawatzky picked up the Outstanding Stunt Performance Award for her work in We Summon the Darkness.

ACTRA Manitoba honoured On Screen Manitoba with the Wayne Nicklas Award for its outstanding achievement and commitment in support of the film and television industry. Eagle Vision was honoured with an ACTRA Award for exceptional commitment to Manitoba performers for its series Burden of Truth.

Schitt’s Creek wins SAG Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, GLAAD Media Award & more!

Canadian comedy series Schitt’s Creek has continued its hot streak this awards season starting in February with two Golden Globe Award wins: Best Television TV Musical or Comedy and the Best Actress in a TV Musical or Comedy award for Catherine O’Hara. Catherine earned more accolades for her role as Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award in April for Best Female Actor in a Comedy as well as the SAG Award for Best Comedy Ensemble for the entire cast. The show also picked up its second consecutive win for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 32nd annual GLAAD Media Awards in April. The GLAAD Awards recognize what the media advocacy organization calls “fair, accurate, and inclusive” depictions of LGBTQ people and issues. Also in April, the Writers Guild of Canada’s annual Canadian Screenwriting Awards honoured Schitt’s Creek with Dan Levy taking home the Comedy Series award for the series finale episode, “Happy Ending.” Most recently Schitt’s Creek won eight Canadian Screen Awards including Best Comedy Series, Best Lead Actress, Comedy for Catherine O’Hara, Best Writing, Comedy for Dan Levy and Best Supporting Actress, Comedy for Emily Hampshire. Dan Levy was also recognized for winning the Radius Award, recognizing his special contributions to Canadian culture.

Congratulations to our 2021 Canadian Screen Award winners

Schitt’s Creek picked up eight Canadian Screen Awards this year, including Best Comedy Series; Best Lead Actress, Comedy for Catherine O’Hara; Best Supporting Actress, Comedy for Emily Hampshire; Best Writing for Dan Levy; and Best Direction, Comedy for Dan Levy and Andrew Cividino. Actor Hamza Haq won Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Transplant (the show also won for Best Drama Series) and the Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series CSA was won by Crystle Lightning for Trickster. The Indigenous zombie thriller Blood Quantum won seven awards, including Michael Greyeyes for Best Performance for an Actor in a Leading Role and both Jean Frenette and Jean-François Lachapelle for Best Stunt Coordination. Colm Feore took home the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for Sugar Daddy and Mary Walsh the Best Actress in a Supporting Role award for Happy Place. The late Christopher Plummer was named Best Supporting Actor for his role in Departure, a suspense drama about a flight that disappears over the Atlantic Ocean, and the Best Supporting Actress award went to Tamara Podemski for Coroner. For their work in Kim’s Convenience, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee won Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Andrew Phung Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The Baroness Von Sketch Show picked up four awards, including Best Performance Ensemble and Best Sketch Comedy. Jayne Eastwood won the Best Lead Performance in a Web Series award for HEY LADY! and Tricia Black won Best Supporting Performance in a Web Series for Band Ladies. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to David Suzuki, the Earle Grey Award to Tina Keeper, the Radius Award to Dan Levy and the Academy Icon Award to the late Alex Trebek. ACTRA is a proud sponsor of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Canadian Screen Awards. Link here to watch the virtual presentations. academy.ca

Sandi Ross Awards in Toronto

Tokens creator-director Winnifred Jong and Working the Scene in Colour co-creators Jessica Meya and Louis Taylor were honoured at the Sandi Ross Awards on March 21, 2021. The Sandi Ross Awards, traditionally presented annually in September, were postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic. The recipients were celebrated during a one-hour roundtable discussion about diversity and inclusion in the film and television industry, hosted by ACTRA Toronto’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee co-chairs Lisa Michelle Cornelius and Samora Smallwood. The Sandi Ross Awards celebrate one individual and one company/organization each year whose work demonstrates a commitment to inclusion on screen. The awards were conceived by the ACTRA Toronto Diversity Committee under past co-chairs Sedina Fiati and Farah Merani as the #SharetheScreen Awards and were renamed in honour of ACTRA Toronto past president Sandi Ross, who passed away just before the inaugural presentation in 2016. Sandi Ross was the first woman and Person of Colour to be president of ACTRA Toronto.