Adam Hurtig wins two performance ACTRAs

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This article was published 25/11/2024 (359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Though he was out of town for the gala, Winnipeg actor Adam Hurtig had a solid night at Saturday night’s ACTRA Manitoba Awards, taking home wins for his on-screen work in a pair of performance categories.

For his work in director Jeremy Guenette’s Melaleuca, the 39-year-old Hurtig was named one of three winners in the outstanding feature performance category, joining Alicia Johnston (Francesca Quinn, PI) and Stephanie Sy (The Santa Summit).

Those actors have all shared sets before as part of the province’s burgeoning film industry, with Hurtig and Sy appearing in the holiday feature The Best Christmas Pageant Ever; Johnston and Hurtig appearing in the locally shot Sean Penn vehicle Flag Day; and Sy and Johnston finding a place in the credits of Woody Harrelson hoops film Champions and creepy horror flick Orphan: First Kill.

Also nominated in the feature performance category were Gino Anania (Elevator Game); Erik Athavale (The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story); Lauren Cochrane (The Hillsdale Adoption Scandal); Summer Howell (Abducted by my Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story); Tom Keenan (Melaleuca); and Solange Sookram (Wintertide).

For his work in Meegwun Fairbrother’s Playing Life, Hurtig also won the award for outstanding performance in a short film, taking the honours in a field that included Megan Best, Nazariy Demkowicz, Patricia Hunter and Cory Wojcik.

The ACTRA Awards are handed out by the actors’ union every two years, with the nominees selected by multiple industry juries out of a field of around 200 submissions of work in television and film. Unlike international awards programs such as the Academy Awards, the winners and nominees are not divided by gender. The awards gala was hosted by actors Amy Groening and Aaron Merke at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

On the small-screen side, a trio of tentpole productions collected hardware.

For her leading role in the landmark APTN-Crave limited series Little Bird, an exploration of the impact of the Sixties Scoop on her character’s identity, Cree-Saulteaux actor Darla Contois won for outstanding performance in a series. Winning in the same category as Contois was the New Brunswick-born Paul Essiembre, who starred as wealthy Cross Continental Railway president William Edwards in the CBC historical drama The Porter, shot in Winnipeg in 2021.

The series performance category featured three nominees from the same sitcom, with Gabriel Daniels nominated for his work in each of the first two seasons of the Kistikan Pictures produced Acting Good. In that show, Daniels plays Dean, the affable sidekick to comedian Paul Rabliauskas, the show’s co-creator, who was also beat out by Essiembre in the category.

Daina Leitold, a theatre and film pro who also appears in Acting Good, was nominated for her work in the first season of the high-flying CBC drama SkyMed.

Athavale, who was nominated for feature acting, also received a nod for outstanding stunt performance in Sniper: Rogue Mission, one of three stunt stars to be nominated from that film alongside BJ Verot and Finn McCager. Also nominated was Sean Skene for his work in the David Harbour-starring Violent Night, but earning the rah-rah-rah for her work in Bring it On: Cheer or Die was stuntperson Krystle Snow.

The Wayne Nicklas Award — named for the late Winnipeg actor who appeared in locally made films such as the Oscar-winning Capote and Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World — was given to Kenny Boyce, the City of Winnipeg’s manager of film and special events. The award is given to an organization or individual for their achievement and commitment in support of the local film and television industry.

While Acting Good, now three seasons into its run on CTV Comedy and Crave, didn’t earn any individual on-screen honours, series producers Kistikan Pictures was the recipient of the Manitoba Award, given to a production company for “exceptional engagement and dedication to Manitoba talent in a feature film or series.”

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com

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