All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Awards

Toronto Screenwriting Conference announces winners of Telefilm New Voices Award

From a media release:

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) is excited to announce this year’s recipients of the Telefilm Canada New Voices Award. The emerging screenwriters were selected from a pool of over 120 applicants Canada-wide. Those receiving the 2018 honours are Davida Aronovitch, Michael Hanley, Erin Hug, Kim Morrison, and Lisa Rose Snow. (See below for bios.) Each winner receives a pass to the TSC and a meeting with representatives from Telefilm Canada.

The Ninth Annual Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) is a two-day weekend event that brings together screen-based industry professionals and offers them advanced level of education and skills development unparalleled by any other screenwriting event on the continent. The conference takes place on June 23 and 24, 2018 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (Conference) and Artscape Sandbox.

This year’s speakers Chip Johannessen (Homeland), Stacy Rukeyser (Unreal), and Ben Watkins (Hand of God) will present Masterclass Lectures at the conference. Returning (by popular demand) are story gurus Carole Kirshner & Corey Mandell, with more programming and speaker announcements to come. Previous conference speakers have included Andrew Stanton (Finding Dory), Moira Walley Beckett (Breaking Bad), Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3), David Webb Peoples (Blade Runner), Tim Long (The Simpsons), Leonard Dick (The Good Wife), Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead), and Beau Willimon (House of Cards).

Davida Aronovitch is a Toronto-based screenwriter and producer. Since 2012, she has overseen the reboot of the Heritage Minutes series, leading the production of 12 new one-minute vignettes. Davida has collaborated with award-winning filmmakers and writers from across Canada and has helped broaden the Minutes collection with new and diverse stories such as Viola Desmond, Residential Schools, and Lucy Maud Montgomery. Davida’s film and tv projects focus on female-driven stories and explore themes such as culture, technology, motherhood and mental health. Her animated children’s series, Who What Clara Goes to the Internet, follows the adventures of an inquisitive yet anxious young girl who finds a portal into the web and must learn to navigate its potential – and its pitfalls – safely and sanely. Davida holds an M.A. in modern and contemporary art history from the University of Toronto and a B.A. from McGill.

Michael Hanley is an award-winning screenwriter based in Toronto. He is an alumnus of the New York Film Academy and the Writers’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. His work has received acclaim at multiple international film festivals, and includes the short films, Tempted by the Fruit of Another (10), Offload (16), Lucas (17) and the feature Learning to Ride (14). He is currently in development on several projects, including his second feature Saltbox, which was listed on the Canadian Film Festival’s It List as well as Leaked, a one-hour dramatic television series.

Erin Hug is a Toronto-based scriptwriter originally from Vermont. She has written several award-winning one-act plays that were produced in the U.S. and Ireland, and was commissioned to write a full-length play for young actors that was produced in Florida and Pennsylvania. Her full-length play, The Big Top, is currently in development with Accidental Theatre in Northern Ireland. In 2009 and 2010, she directed and produced a tour of an all-female storytelling show featuring immigrant women in Sweden. She completed the Fishamble Playwright Mentorship Programme in Ireland in 2013, and the Second City Conservatory Program in 2014. She holds a BS in Scriptwriting from Ithaca College and a MS in International Relations from Linkoping University in Sweden.

Kim Morrison is a writer and story editor living in Toronto. She started her origin story as an Intern, both at a broadcast network (BellMedia), and literary agency (The Characters Talent Agency), before being promoted to Executive Assistant at an independent production company (Prodigy Pictures - Dark Matter, Lost Girl). The variety of these early experiences provided her with an incredibly valuable and holistic understanding of the industry. Determined to get closer to the writers’ room, she took a job as a Showrunner’s Assistant (Rogue) that culminated in performing double duty as their Script Coordinator as well. Since then, she has been a Story/Script Coordinator on 34 episodes of television (Private Eyes, Mary Kills People) and has co-written an episode of season 2B of Private Eyes (217). She is currently in a half-hour comedy development room working as a story editor, and continuing to develop her own projects. Kim is a graduate from the TV Writing & Producing post-grad program at Humber College where she received the Brian Linehan Television Writing & Producing Award for Outstanding Artistic Promise. Previously, she graduated from the University of Waterloo with a BA in Sociology, and too many add-on specializations to count.

Lisa Rose Snow is an award-winning writer/director and performer raised by the ocean and now residing in Toronto. Recent directing credits include Rogue Bridal– a new half hour pilot from Blue Ant Media, Dino Dana (2xMore Sinking Ship Director’s Lab recipient), and the bravoFACTUAL doc Meet Maurice Crosby. LRS can also be found working in writing rooms on shows like Little Dog (CBC) where she co-wrote episode 104, Ten Days in the Valley (ABC), and Frontier (Netflix). She is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Cineplex Screenwriters Program and Dalhousie University’s Acting Program, and participated in the Reykjavik Film Festival’s Talent Lab, the National Screen Institute’s Drama Prize Program, and AFCOOP’s Film5 Program. In 2013 she received a Women Making Waves Award from WIFT-Atlantic. She’s passionate about stories from underrepresented voices, food, anything woo woo, and kindness.

Get more information on the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, including registration information.

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Awards

Banff World Media Festival announces Rockie Awards gala host and awards recipients

From a media release:

The 39th annual Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) is proud to announce Emmy and Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth* (Trial & Error, Hairspray Live!) will host this year’s Rockie Awards Gala Ceremony featuring a star-studded line-up of award recipients. The night of celebration will take place on Tuesday June 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada.Awards to be bestowed include:

Awards to be bestowed include:

2018 COMPANY OF DISTINCTION AWARD: NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.

The Company of Distinction Award recognizes a company demonstrating significant leadership in the world of screen-based entertainment. Past Honorees include: Disney | ABC, HBO, A&E, Lionsgate and CBS.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE: Jeremy Podeswa (Here and Now, Game of Thrones, Six Feet Under)
A three-time Primetime Emmy nominee for Best Direction (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, The Pacific) and with over 40 award nominations and wins since 1985, Jeremy Podeswa is one of the hottest directors in the golden age of TV. His body of episodic TV work includes directing ground-breaking cable television series and mini-series for HBO, Showtime, STARZ, AMC, F/X, and TNT and award-winning films including Fugitive Pieces (opening night, TIFF), The Five Senses (Directors Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival) and Eclipse (Berlin and Sundance Festivals).  

The Award of Excellence acknowledges exceptional achievement through a body of work over an extended period of time.  Past Honorees include:  Kenny Ortega, Diane English, Norman Jewison, David E. Kelly.

A+E INCLUSION AWARD:  Elizabeth Vargas (ABC News, A&E Investigates)
Elizabeth Vargas is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, and the first U.S. network evening news anchor of Puerto Rican and Irish-American Heritage. She is a brave storyteller and a trusted expert at bringing audiences closer to the heart of stories that have never been told in order to reveal genuine moments of truth. Vargas recently inked an overall production and first-look development deal with A+E Networks; she will also be the face of A&E Network’s new nonfiction journalistic banner, A&E Investigates. The initial project under the A&E Investigates banner is the limited series “Cults and Extreme Belief.”

The A+E Inclusion Award recognizes an individual whose efforts and vision in media champion and reflect the diversity of the world in which we live. Past Honorees include: LeVar Burton, Jonathan Murray.

CANADIAN AWARD OF DISTINCTION: Sheila Hockin (The Handmaid’s Tale, Vikings)
Primetime Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Drama Series (The Handmaid’s Tale), Sheila Hockin is one of Canada’s foremost executive producers, helping bring to life global hits like  The Tudors, The Borgias, Vikings, Penny Dreadful and most recently, the global phenomenon that is The Handmaid’s Tale. Before striking out on her own, Hockin co-founded one of Canada’s highest-profile independent production companies, Temple Street Productions, where she spent a decade producing such hits as Queer as Folk, Canada’s Next Top Model, and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? This award is presented to a Canadian whose body of work exemplifies outstanding achievement in the entertainment industry. Past Honorees include:  Just For Laughs, Eric McCormack, Kim Cattrall.

INNOVATIVE PRODUCER AWARD: New Metric Media (Letterkenny, Bad Blood)
New Metric Media is a film, television, and new-media production company that works with top creative talent to produce outstanding content for domestic and international markets. Past and present projects include the CraveTV hit original comedy Letterkenny as well as the half-hour CraveTV comedy What Would Sal Do? and the six-episode, one-hour CityTV/FX Canada limited series Bad Blood. Not content to rest on traditional marketing alone, New Metric has successfully transformed its hit property Letterkenny into a robust consumer brand, complete with its own craft brew and touring live show. The innovative approach has made a discernible impact on Canadian culture, with Letterkenny phrases a part of regular lexicon and ironic “Hard No” tees a regular sight on the street.

The Innovative Producer Award recognizes the entrepreneurial excellence and achievements of an independent producer in TV/digital media. Past Honorees include:  Wolf + Rabbit, Don Carmody, marblemedia.

Additional awards to be presented at the 2018 Rockies Gala include: The Hollywood Reporter Impact Award, The Grand Jury Prize, and Program of the Year.

Host Kristin Chenoweth can next be seen in the upcoming second season of NBC’s “Trial & Error,” which premieres on July 19.

The Rockies are BANFF’s flagship awards program, taking place over two days and two events. Celebrated annually on the second day of the festival is the Rockie Awards Program Competition followed by the hors-concours (out-of competition) Rockie Awards Gala Ceremony which takes place on the third night of the festival honouring outstanding talent and executives from the industry. Over the years, the prestigious gala event has attracted some of the industry’s biggest names including Sir Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Dinah Shore, Ricky Gervais, Chuck Lorre, Martin Short, James Burrows, John Cleese, David E. Kelly, Dick Wolf, Will Arnett, Christine Baranski, David Attenborough, Larry King, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Ridley, Jill Soloway, and Anthony Anderson, to a name a few.

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Corner Gas, Corner Gas Animated, Featured, Podcast

TV Eh B Cs podcast 81 — Wine and McDonald’s with Corner Gas Animated’s Tara Spencer-Nairn

Note: Unfortunately, something weird happened in the downloading of the files for Tara and my conversation. The result is some crosstalk that is, at times, super annoying. I sincerely apologize to my listeners and Tara for this. 

Tara Spencer-Nairn returns as the deadpan police officer Karen Pelly in Corner Gas: Animated—airing Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on The Comedy Network—a role she played in the Gemini-winning, No. 1 rated CTV sitcom Corner Gas, earning a Gemini Award for Best Ensemble Performance in 2007 and two Gemini nominations in 2004 and 2006.

A graduate of the Vancouver Film School, her big breakthrough came in 1999 when she was cast in the highly acclaimed New Waterford Girl. The film screened at the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival and received seven Genie Award nominations including Best Picture.

Spencer-Nairn appeared in the recurring role of Sandy in CTV’s hit drama The Listener. She has appeared in numerous other television productions including The Outer Limits, The Strain, Murdoch Mysteries, Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story, Flashpoint Saving Hope and Degrassi. Most recently she could seen in the third season of Syfy/Space hit series Killjoys as a recurring guest star.

Spencer-Nairn was born in Montreal, raised in Vancouver and now calls Toronto home. The youngest of three siblings, the actor spent 12 years as a competitive gymnast. She is married and the mother of two young sons.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

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Industry News

The WGC announces new president, council

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From a media release:

The Writers Guild of Canada is pleased to announce that showrunner Dennis Heaton is the WGC’s new president, elected by WGC council to serve the 2,200 members of the Guild from May 1, 2018 to April 30, 2020. Dennis is an award-winning screenwriter based in Vancouver; currently showrunner of the upcoming Netflix show, The Order.

“We’re very excited to work with Dennis,” says WGC Executive Director Maureen Parker. “His showrunning experience will hold us in good stead as we go into Independent Production Agreement bargaining within the next year.”

Dennis has been a member of the WGC since 2001 and has served on the Guild’s council since 2012. He was showrunner of the internationally renowned police procedural Motive (CTV/ABC seasons one and two), and has written for The Listener and Blood Ties, among other shows.

“It’s great to be the new WGC president,” says Heaton. “I’m looking forward to building on the Guild’s past successes, as well as facing the challenges ahead.”

In addition to electing a new president, the Guild also has a new council, responsible for setting policies and overseeing Guild activities. The 2018-20 WGC council is made up of experienced screenwriter members from across the country: Vice President Andrew Wreggitt (Mayerthorpe), Treasurer Mark Ellis (X Company), Marsha Greene (Mary Kills People), Alex Levine (Orphan Black), Anne-Marie Perrotta (Max & Ruby), and Michael Amo (Pure).

The WGC’s new council, along with Executive Director Maureen Parker, is ready to move ahead in a time of industry flux, and to continue the Guild’s ongoing work on behalf of Canadian screenwriters.

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