Canada Losing National Film and TV Award Shows

TORONTO – Canada is scrapping its national film and TV awards.

our editor recommends

Canada's Academy Scrambles to Get Genies Back in the Battle For TV Viewers

'ReGenesis' generates most Geminis

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television on Tuesday said the annual Genies, which celebrate homegrown film, and the Geminis, Canada’s TV awards, will be replaced by a single annual broadcast that honors all screen-based Canadian content.

The first combined kudosfest will take place on March 3, 2013, on the CBC network.

The move follows years of dwindling interest by ordinary Canadians in the Genies and the Geminis as industry award shows, before they recently found a new home on the CBC as music-driven variety shows.

That disinterest was due in part to European costume dramas with little Canadian creative input like Showtime’s The Borgias and The Tudors dominating the Geminis, while French-language films from Quebec claimed top honors at the Genies.

The Canadian film and TV industries have also taken recent hits due to deep subsidy cuts for the CBC, Telefilm Canda and the National Film Board of Canada.

For its part, Quebec will retain its film competition, the Jutra Awards, and the Gémeaux Awards, which celebrate French-language TV and digital media on Radio Canada.