Archipelago is proud to announce that our CBC miniseries ‘Devout + Out’ has been nominated in the Documentary & Factual: Web Non-Fiction category for the Banff World Media Festival’s 41st annual Rockie Awards International Program Competition. We are extremely proud to be nominated alongside thirty-seven other Canadian titles! BANFF Media’s prestigious Program Competition recognizes excellence in global television and digital content and we are honoured to be included. And this is incredible news to receive on the 1-year anniversary of the series! Thanks to everyone for the unwavering support.
We received a mention in Playback as well, alongside our incredible fellow Canadian nominees! The virtual awards show will stream live on June 15th - we hope to “see” you there!
Playback: CBC leads Canadian nods for virtual Rockie Awards
Thirty-seven Canadian titles have picked up a nomination for the Banff World Media Festival’s 41st annual Rockie Awards International Program Competition, with CBC leading the pack at 12 nods.
This year’s Rockie Awards will stream live on June 15 due to the cancellation of the in-person Banff World Media Festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was set to run from June 14 to 17.
“Although we are not able to gather in-person, this year’s virtual Rockie Awards will, as ever, be a place to honour outstanding creative work,” said Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of the Banff World Media Festival, in a statement. “We will also take this opportunity to recognize the challenges that are being experienced within our sector and the role that our industry continues to play by uniting global audiences, informing, entertaining and giving comfort during extraordinarily difficult times.”
One of the largest awards programs of its kind, the Rockies jury of 150 international industry professionals covering all major genres selected 128 nominees from 35 countries across 26 categories.
Among CBC’s nominated series are Baroness Von Sketch Show (Frantic Films) and Still Standing (Frantic Films), which each picked up a nod for Comedy & Variety. Also nominated in the category is Bell Media-owned The Comedy Network’s Trevor Noah @ JLF: Volume II (Juste Pour Rire TV Inc.) and CTV’s The Beaverton (Pier 21 Films).
CBC Gem titles Bit Playas (LaRue Entertainment), Save Me (iThentic, Smiley Guy Studios) and Warigami (First Love Films, New Form) earned nominations in the Web Fiction category.
Two Canadian series picked up a nomination in the English-language drama series category: Corus Entertainment-owned Global’s Departure (Greenpoint Productions Ltd., Shaftesbury) and Super Channel’s Pure (Cineflix Studios, Two East Productions). Additional nominees include BBC’s The Capture, BBC and HBO’s Gentleman Jack and Australian pubcaster ABC’s Total Control.
Canadian Netflix titles The Order (Nomadic Pictures) and Wu Assassins (Nomadic Pictures, Flame Ventures, Wirthwhile) earned a nod in the Sci-Fi & Genre-based category, alongside Hulu’s Future Man, HBO’s His Dark Materials and BBC’s War of the Worlds.
Two French-language Canadian series, TVA’s Boomerang and Radio-Canada’s Freefall – both produced by Encore Télévision – picked up a nomination in the Comedy Series: Non-English language category. Other nominees were Finland series Almost True, ARTE France’s Mytho and Germany’s Other Parents.
In the Children & Youth category, Nelvana’s The Most Magnificent Thing picked up a nod for animation and Trio Orange’s Young Nomads was nominated in fiction. Sinking Ship picked up two nominations in interactive for Dino Dana and Odd Squad, while CBC was also nominated for CBC Kids News.
On the unscripted front, several Canadian documentaries earned nominations, including documentary channel’s The Accountant of Auschwitz (Good Soup Productions, TLNT Productions), History’s Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust (Saloon Media) and Super Channel’s Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo (Abrupt Films, BKS Creative, Eldon Road Productions, Score G Productions, Sophia Entertainment) for History & Biography. Investigation Discovery’s Children of the Snow (Cineflix) was nominated for Crime & Investigation, while CBC Gem’s Devout & Out (Archipelago Productions) and True Dating Stories (LaRue Entertainment) earned nods for Web Non-Fiction.
Additional Canadian nominees include Makeful and Netflix series Blown Away (marblemedia) in the Competition Series & Game Shows category, APTN’s Skindigenous (7th Screen, Nish Media) in Arts & Music, AMI’s Employable Me (all3media, Thomas Howe Associates) in Lifestyle and East of the Rockies (Jam 3, National Film Board of Canada) for Interactive Content.
The U.K’s BBC led the total nominations with 27, followed by Canada’s CBC with 13, the U.K.’s Sky with eight, U.S. networks National Geographic with six and HBO with five, and ARTE France and Yle with four each. The U.K. earned the most nominations overall with 44, followed by the U.S. with 43 and Canada with 37.
The winner of the $25,000 Rogers Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content will be announced during the livestream ceremony, as well as the Grand Jury prize, given to a top-scoring program among the nominees.
This year’s Grand Jury includes Lisa Godfrey, VP, original content, Corus Entertainment; Kathleen Finch, chief lifestyle brands officer, Discovery; Devin Griffin, GM BET+, BET Networks; Paul Mortimer, head of digital channels and acquisitions, ITV; Jill Offman, managing director, Viacom International Studios UK and EVP Comedy Central & Paramount Network International; and Linda Simensky, head of PBS KIDS content, PBS KIDS.