Leo Awards honour BC`s finest in film and television

F4
ARTS & LIFE
THE VANCOUVER SUN, SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2008
Leo Awards honour B.C.’s
finest in film and television
This year’s nominees get poised and ready to
walk the red carpet to victory
Erin Karpluk
as Jill Mackay
in Luna: Spirit
of the Whale.
And the 2008 Leo
nominees are:
Best supporting performance
by a male in a feature-length
drama:
Best feature-length drama:
Battle in Seattle
Crossing
Elijah
Normal
They Wait
Fred Ewanuick – Crossing
Cameron Bright – Normal
Ryan Robbins – Taming Tammy
Michael Eklund – Walk All
Over Me
Michael Adamthwaite – Walk
All Over Me
Best lead performance by a
male in a feature-length
drama:
Callum Keith Rennie stars
in the film Normal.
Sebastian Spence – Crossing
Callum Keith Rennie – Normal
Tygh Runyan – Normal
Best supporting performance
by a female in a featurelength drama:
Best lead performance by a
female in a feature-length
drama:
Crystal Buble – Crossing
Alexz Johnson – Devil’s Diary
Camille Sullivan – Normal
Tricia Helfer – Walk All Over Me
Erin Karpluk – Luna: Spirit of
the Whale
Britt Irvin – Normal
Lauren Lee Smith – Normal
Jo Bates – Quest for Samurai
Jillian Fargey – The Green
Chain
Brent Butt of
Corner Gas at
the pump.
Best dramatic series:
jPod
Reaper
Smallville
Whistler
Best music, comedy,
or variety:
Corner Gas
Road Hockey Rumble
World Beats
Whether they’re well known or
not, everyone’s a star at the Leos
Didier Morissonneau presents
from New York
THE WORLD FAMOUS
Film and television
awards still going strong
after 10 whole years
BY YVONNE ZACHARIAS
VANCOUVER SUN
S SHOW !
THEIR TWO-HOUR GREATEST HIT
July 21 2008 at 8 P.M.
VANCOUVER CIVIC THEATRES - ORPHEUM
Tickets available at :
604-280-444
www.ticketmaster.ca
Ten years ago, filmmaker Walter
Daroshin and marketing man Sonny
Wong dreamed up the idea of throwing
a party every year where the local
showbiz crowd could get together to
congratulate itself.
At first, they thought of having just a
little gathering, but then they decided
no, the film industry was way too
important for that.
They would have a splashy bash with
more bling than a fashion runway.
There would be a red carpet, an orchestra, eye-popping cameras, popping
champagne corks, lots of sweet little
cocktail dresses with black-tied sartorially spiffed up suitors to match.
And, of course, a whole bunch of
awards would be given out to a whole
bunch of people. The winners would
get up and thank their mom, their dog,
their cat, their lawyer, their agent and
their Grade 3 drama teacher.
Plans jelled. So now, just as surely as
lilies bloom at Easter, B.C.’s very own
Leo Awards ceremony honouring B.C.made film and television springs up on
calendars everywhere. This year, the
two-night event began Friday, with the
main awards to be presented tonight at
the Westin Bayshore.
Daroshin can hardly believe it has
been been going for 10 years already. As
a testament to its success, the warm,
glittery event, full of little bits of temerity, has sold out every year.
The awards has had its share of mem-
Vancouver actress Camille Sullivan is
up for a Leo Award this weekend for
her role in the film Normal.
orable moments. The year she won,
actress Alisen Down, who appears in
the television series Robson Arms, gave
one of Daroshin’s favourite acceptance
speeches. “She was so happy, so joyful.
She told a story about going dress shopping with her mom and feeling like a
princess that day and tonight being
crowned as a queen,” recalled Daroshin
who is still the Leo Awards president.
Wong is still there, too.
Then there was the time actress Sonja
Bennett (Control Alt Delete) was wearing a dress with such a plunging neckline, she was nervous her bust would fall
out. So she announced “and the nominees for breast direction are …” It just
slipped out. The words, that is.
To be honest, if you look back over
the names of some of the actors and
actresses who have won, most folks
down on the farm in Sputsville would
be hard-pressed to put a face to them.
Ditto for the films that have won. Most
people have never heard of them, much
less seen them, which is a shame.
Although they can be uneven, which is
to expected in a nascent film industry
living in the shadow of Hollywood, they
deserve to be seen.
Television, happily, is another matter.
Shows like Corner Gas, which is up for
five awards, have been big hits. Also up
for several awards is The L Word, a Hollywood import that has made a name
for itself and featured many local actors.
Actress Camille Sullivan (Intelligence,
Mount Pleasant), who is up for an
award this year for her role in the film
Normal, praises the event to the skies
and wouldn’t miss it for all the glitz in
Hollywood.
“There is nothing else quite like it in
B.C.,” says the strikingly pretty actress.
“We need to recognize our own work,
our actors and directors and crews. We
need to give ourselves a pat on the back.”
Walking the red carpet this year will
be people like Tricia Helfer (Battlestar
Galactica), Gabrielle Miller (Robson
Arms, Corner Gas), Ryan Robbins (Battlestar Galactica, jPod, Painkiller Jane),
Michael Eckland (Intelligence, Flash
Gordon, Smallville), Babs Chula (jPod,
The L Word, Mount Pleasant), Jillian
Fargey (Mount Pleasant, Da Vinci’s
Inquest), Colin Cunningham (Stargate:
Continuum, jPod), Fred Ewanuick (Robson Arms, Corner Gas, Intelligence), Ben
Ratner (The L Word, Normal, Stargate
SG-1) and Sullivan, too.
They may not be as well known as the
big Hollywood stars, but they bring
charm to our lives and life to the screen.
They are all ours. And so are the 10year-old Leo Awards.
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