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Abstract
The Geminis are actually a three-night affair. Saturday is the opening gala and Sunday the industry gala, both of which will be offered to cable systems across the country by Rogers Cable in Toronto. The final broadcast gala will be televised live in prime time by CBC and hosted by comic Mike Bullard.
Among the familiar faces competing in the acting categories: Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci's Inquest), Gabriel Hogan and Tamara Hickey (The Associates), Jeremy Ratchford and [Maria Topalovich] del Mar (Blue Murder), Julie Stewart (Cold Squad), Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox (Nuremberg), and Kate Nelligan and Hugh Thompson (Blessed Stranger).
The folks at CBC say there simply aren't enough documentary categories for which the history series could qualify, compared with opportunities for dramas or sitcoms. Topalovich disagrees, suggesting the CBC simply didn't enter its history project in enough of them.
Full text
It will be show business as usual next Monday night at the 16th annual Gemini Awards.
The event celebrating the best in Canadian television will proceed with all the black-tie, red-carpet glam that home-grown celebrities can muster -- and with none of the solemnity and uncertainty that the events of Sept. 11 have inflicted on recent awards shows south of the border. The U.S. counterpart, the Emmys, were twice postponed and air in a toned-down version from New York City on Nov. 4.
"We'll be going ahead as planned," says Maria Topalovich, president and CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, which is responsible for the Geminis.
"There'll be an appropriate recognition of current events," Topalovich adds, declining to provide any details, even on security. "We're going ahead in the same way we've done for the last 15 years."
The Geminis are actually a three-night affair. Saturday is the opening gala and Sunday the industry gala, both of which will be offered to cable systems across the country by Rogers Cable in Toronto. The final broadcast gala will be televised live in prime time by CBC and hosted by comic Mike Bullard.
Nuremberg, an Alliance Atlantis mini-series about the infamous war crimes trials, leads the pack with 12 nominations, followed by the weekly cop dramas Da Vinci's Inquest and Blue Murder, with 10 each.
The TV movies After the Harvest and Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111, pulled down eight each, as did the syndicated sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits.
Among the familiar faces competing in the acting categories: Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci's Inquest), Gabriel Hogan and Tamara Hickey (The Associates), Jeremy Ratchford and Maria del Mar (Blue Murder), Julie Stewart (Cold Squad), Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox (Nuremberg), and Kate Nelligan and Hugh Thompson (Blessed Stranger).
Ian McDougall, a Nuremberg producer and a senior vice-president at Alliance Atlantis, makes no apologies for the fact the wartime drama -- with no Canadian story content -- clobbered CBC's Canada: A People's History, in the nominations.
Some observers see a problem when in an awards event designed to celebrate Canadian TV, Nuremberg was able to nab 12 nominations to the widely acclaimed history project's five.
"For us as a company, we need stories which will play not only in Canada but around the world," McDougall says about the film that aired on CTV but which was originally commissioned by TNT, one of the cable channels founded by American media mogul Ted Turner.
"This kind of production is costly to produce (but) we end up owning the negative, owning the world rights."
Topalovich says international co-productions are the reality in television around the world these days and now have emerged as a standard cultural-industry strategy in Canada.
"The co-ordination and the sharing of resources -- money, marketing, all of that -- works together to produce projects that have wider audiences," she says. "It's certainly a trend that's been under way for a long, long time and it's growing as we speak."
The folks at CBC say there simply aren't enough documentary categories for which the history series could qualify, compared with opportunities for dramas or sitcoms. Topalovich disagrees, suggesting the CBC simply didn't enter its history project in enough of them.
"Documentary is one of our larger production areas, and we have lots and lots of categories," she says. "Some producers may choose not to enter for their own reasons. Who knows who made the judgment call?"
Still, the public broadcaster claims 156 nominations for shows produced or co-produced, or at least aired by CBC or Newsworld. CTV boasts 99 and Global 34.
Halifax's Salter Street Films, meanwhile, asked that two nominations for Rick Mercer's CBC comedy special, Talking to Americans, be withdrawn. The premise had Mercer doing on-the-street interviews south of the border that poked fun at Americans' naivete. It was agreed that in light of last month's terrorist events this was in obvious bad taste now.
And Daryn Jones, Mike MacKinnon and "Mista Mo" Smith, the writing team for the Comedy Network's Buzz, issued a statement declaring they were looking forward to the honour of being beaten in the comedy writing category by perennial winner, CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
"I am really looking forward to not rising when my name is not called," said MacKinnon.
Need to know
* Leading nominees: Nuremberg, 12; Blue Murder, 10; Da Vinci's Inquest, 10; Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111, eight; After the Harvest, eight; The Outer Limits, eight.
* Hosts: Kevin Newman (opening gala), Sean Cullen (industry gala), Mike Bullard (broadcast gala).
* Some of the presenters: Nicholas Campbell, Wendy Crewson, Maria del Mar, Ron Maclean, Rick Mercer, Wendy Mesley, Colin Mochrie, Leah Pinsent, Diana Swain.
* Finalists for the Royal Canadian Mint Viewers' Choice Award: The Associates, Blackfly, Comedy Now!, Da Vinci's Inquest, The Outer Limits, Royal Canadian Air Farce.
* Finalists for most popular Web site: Angela Anaconda (www.angelaa.com), Debbie Travis' Painted House (www.painted- house.com), Royal Canadian Air Farce (www.airfarce.com), TVOkids (www.tvokids.com), U8: The Lofters (www.u8tv.com).
* Special awards already announced: Earle Grey Award (Jackie Burroughs), Academy Achievement Award (Dorothy Gardner), Canada Award (Made in China, a Holiday Pictures production), Gordon Sinclair Award (Bill Cunningham), Margaret Collier Award (David Barlow), Outstanding Technical Achievement Award (CBC's National Satellite DVC Project), Gemini Humanitarian Award (Donald Martin).
* Eligibility: Qualifying period is from May 1, 2000, to April 30, 2001.
* On the Web: www.geminiawards.ca and www.academy.ca
Caption: Photo: The final broadcast gala will be televised live in prime time Monday by CBC and hosted by comic Mike Bullard.
Credit: The Canadian Press
2001 The Hamilton Spectator. All rights reserved.