Manitoba programs, personalities up for Geminis

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This article was published 26/08/2009 (6114 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’LL be the battle of beloved local-news personalities at this year’s Gemini Awards, as current CBC News at Six anchor Janet Stewart faces off against supper-hour predecessor (and current CBC Toronto star) Diana Swain for the title of Canada’s best news anchor.

Stewart and Swain are joined by CBC News: The National’s

Peter Mansbridge, Global National’s Kevin Newman and CBC News reader Heather Hiscox in the best-news-anchor category. Nomina­tions for the 24th Annual Gemini Awards, which honour the best in Canadian television, were unveiled Tuesday.

The Manitoba edition of CBC News at Six is also nominated for best newscast, alongside CBC News: The National and Global National.

News categories at the Gemini Awards have been the subject of controversy in recent years, with CTV’s ratings-topping news division having declined to sub­mit programs and people for nominations since 2006, citing dissatisfaction with the Canadian TV academy’s voting process.

The locally produced Citytv comedy Less Than Kind also made a big splash in this year’s Gemini Awards pool, grabbing nine nominations, including nods for best comedy program, best performance (Benjamin Arthur and local newcomer Brooke Palsson), best writing (Mark McKinney), best casting, and four separate nominations for best direction (James Dunnison, Kelly Makin, Henry Sarwer­Foner, Shawn Alex Thompson).

The CTV cop drama Flashpoint, which also airs in the U.S. on CBS, led all contenders in this year’s Gemini field with a record 19 nominations, including best drama and three best-performance mentions, for stars Hugh Dillon, Enrico Colantoni and Amy Jo Johnson.

The Brit-Canadian co-production The Tudors received 11 nominations; the CBC mini-series Diamonds, co-produced by Winnipeg-based Buffalo Gal Pic­tures and partially filmed in Manitoba, received nine nominations, as did two CBC series, Being Erica and The Border.

The 24th Annual Gemini Awards will be handed out over three nights — two ceremonies focused on news, information, documentary and technical awards held Oct. 19-20 in Toronto, and the annual televised Gemini Awards gala, which takes place Nov. 14 in Calgary.

Among the other local or locally-connected nominees in this year’s Gemini Awards field are the locally filmed CTV/Eagle Vision bio-pic Elijah, which received four nominations (including best TV movie), Elise Swerhone (best direction in a performing-arts program for Ballet High), Winnipeg-based Mid­Canada Productions (best sciene/nature/technology program, for Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy), and the locally produced 2009 National Aboriginal Achieve­ment Awards (two nominations, including best-host mentions for Adam Beach and Tina Keeper).

Manitoba-born performer Andrea Menard is nominated for best perform­ance by an actress in a continuing leading dramatic role, for Rabbit Falls, and two local products are nominated for best direction — Ryszard Hunka in the documentary-series category (for The Great Food Revolution), and Morris Karp in the news/information program bracket (for CBC News: the fifth estate).

–Staff

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