Special
Awards

This award is presented to an individual for an exceptional, outstanding, or ongoing contribution or service to the Canadian television industry.

Linda Schuyler is best known for co-creating and executive producing the multi-award winning Degrassi franchise, comprised of The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, School's Out, Degrassi Talks and Degrassi: The Next Generation, now known simply as Degrassi. This franchise, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2010, has won 20 Gemini Awards, two International Emmys, two Prix Jeunesses, two Teen Choice Awards, the Critics' Choice Award and countless other international honours. In addition to Degrassi, Epitome Pictures, founded by Schuyler and her husband and producing partner Stephen Stohn, has produced Instant Star, the MOW X-Rated, and Canada's first prime time soap opera, Riverdale. Schuyler is a founding member of the Association for Media Literacy, and past Chair and long-standing member of the CMPA. Through Degrassi, Schuyler supports the children's advocacy organization Free The Children and their worldwide initiatives. In 2008, she joined the cast and travelled to Kenya to participate in a school-building project. In 1994, in recognition of her contribution to Canadian television programming, Schuyler was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.

Previous Academy Achievement Award recipients include:

The Canada Award honours excellence in mainstream television programming which best reflects the racial and cultural diversity of Canada by fostering greater awareness among the Canadian public of the multicultural and multiracial nature of the country as well as promoting opportunities for ethnic and visible minority professionals within the broadcasting industry.

Produced by Rezolution Pictures, co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and in association with CBC News Network, Reel Injun is an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema. Travelling through the heartland of America and into the Canadian North, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond looks at how the myth of "the Injun" has influenced the world's understanding – and misunderstanding – of Natives. With clips from hundreds of classic and recent films, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native directors, writers, actors, and activists including Clint Eastwood, Robbie Robertson, Graham Greene, Adam Beach, and Zacharias Kunuk, Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema's depiction of Native people from the silent film era to present day. The Canada Award is supported by CBC.

Previous Canada Award recipients include:

• 2009 Club Native - Adam Symansky, Catherine Bainbridge, Christina Fon, Ernest Webb, Linda Ludwick
  
• 2008 Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny - Zebedee Nungak, Mark Sandiford, Kent Martin
  
• 2007 Little Mosque on the Prairie - Susan Flanders-Alexander, Mary Darling, Clark Donnelly, Zarqa Nawaz, Michael Snook
  
• 2006 Wapos Bay - There's No "I" In Hockey - Dennis Jackson, Melanie Jackson, Anand Ramayya, Michael Scott
  
• 2005 Two Worlds Colliding - Tasha Hubbard, Bonnie Thompson
  
• 2004 Cosmic Current - Anand Ramayya, Joe MacDonald

This award is presented to an individual for exceptional contributions and commitments to community and public service outside the Canadian television industry.

Joy Coghill is co-founder and Honorary President of the Performing Arts Lodge Vancouver (PAL). Founded in 2001, PAL Vancouver provides affordable housing to performers and other industry participants while encouraging creative growth and development through strong intergenerational relationships. A performer, director, playwright, and teacher, Coghill was the driving force, with co-founder Jane Heyman, behind PAL Vancouver and the spokesperson for the organization’s fundraising initiatives. Coghill is the recipient of numerous awards for her contribution to the performing arts, including the Order of Canada, the 2002 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the 2005 Union of B.C. Performers John Juliani Award of Excellence, and the 2005 Vancouver Arts Award (Performing Arts). She is the recipient of four Jessie Awards and holds Honorary Doctorates from both Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. The Gemini Humanitarian Award is supported by Global.

Previous Gemini Humanitarian Award recipients include:

This award is presented to a writer for a body of work in Canadian television and/or significant contribution to the international profile of Canadian television.

Donald Martin began his writing career in 1988 with the groundbreaking TV movie No Blame, starring Helen Shaver. Martin’s credits include The Christmas Choir (Hallmark), the Gemini Award-wining Céline (CBC), Ann Rule’s Too Late To Say Goodbye (Lifetime), Wild Hearts (Hallmark), The Hunt for the BTK Killer (CBS), Family Sins (CBS), Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution (CBS), The Three Gifts (Hallmark), Ebenezer (CTV), Spenser: A Savage Place (ABC), the Gemini Award-winning Coming Of Age, Shadow Lake, and the upcoming An Old Fashioned Christmas (for Hallmark, starring Jacqueline Bisset). Martin’s feature film credits include the award-winning Dim Sum Funeral (HBO), for which he is also Executive Producer, Shackles (Sony), and Never Too Late, starring Olympia Dukakis, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of Canada Award and a Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay (1996). Martin was the recipient of the inaugural Gemini Humanitarian Award in 2001, as well as the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, presented by the Governor-General of Canada in 2002.

Previous Margaret Collier Award recipients include:

This award honours a technical achievement in the Canadian digital media industry.

Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium faced the challenge of presenting the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games to the Canadian public like never before. Its Digital Media team was tasked with producing a news and information portal which, for the first time in Olympic history, broadcast every second of the Winter Games. To do so, the team created an immersive, HD-quality live streaming player which enabled Canadians to pause, replay and rewind the live broadcast while being guided to key moments in time through an interactive and data-embedded video player. This live video player was key to the website’s overwhelming success. In the period from February 12th to 28th, the website delivered record results for interactive and online viewing in Canada: 215 million page views to 12.3 million unique visitors, with 28.5 million videos viewed. For its innovation in the realm of live online sports consumption in Canada, the CTVOlympics.ca/RDSolympiques.ca live event video player represents a huge leap in user experience and technical innovation in the Canadian marketplace. The Outstanding Technical Achievement Award in Digital Media is supported by Switch United.

This is the first year this award has been presented.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents this year’s MasterWorks honour to Polka Dot Door, which aired on TVO from 1971 to 1993.

Polka Dot Door was a children’s series what brought to life a world of exploration, music, learning and play. An adaptation of the long-running BBC children’s show Play School, the series was set in a large playhouse that had a polka-dotted front door where hosts would lead children in songs and stories and interact with characters Humpty, Dumpty, Marigold and Bear.

From Monday to Friday, each episode had a specific theme, in which the stuffed toy inhabitants were made part of the action. The hosts, always one man and one woman, would often peer through the Polka Dot Door to watch a video and visit Storytime Mouse who would emerge from a tall clock to help the hosts tell the time. During the week the Polkaroo, a mischievous polka-dotted kangaroo, visited the two hosts, while other guests dropped by on occasion.

Some of the many talented hosts who frequented the playhouse included Alex Laurier, the late Denis Simpson, Gloria Reuben, Tonya Lee Williams, Taborah Johnson, Cindy Cook, Catherine Bruhier, Rex Hagon, Sherry Miller, Johnie Chase, Nerene Virgin and Nina Keogh. The series’ unmistakable music was played, written and directed by virtuoso Canadian pianists Herbie Helbig and John Arpin.

Produced by Ted Coneybeare and Jed MacKay, Polka Dot Door’s initial executive producer was Vera Good. Following the end of the series, Jed MacKay went on to create and produce the multi-award winning series Polka Dot Shorts which ran from 1995-2007. Polka Dot Door has impacted generations of Canadians and has raised the international profile of the Canadian television industry.

The MasterWorks program was created in 2000 by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust (AV Trust) to recognize culturally significant works drawn from the archives of the Canadian film, radio, television and music industries.

Founded in 1996, the AV Trust carried out its mandate of protecting and promoting Canada’s audio-visual heritage until 2009. In the spring of 2010, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced that it would continue the AV Trusts’ film and television-related activities.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents this year’s MasterWorks honour to The New Music, which aired on Citytv and MuchMusic from 1979 to 2008.

Created by the late John Martin, The New Music was a bridge between the spirits of Rolling Stone magazine and New Musical Express. It took the form of a weekly music and culture television news magazine and presented current popular music in a broad social, political and economic context. It received an Iris Award in 1984 and a Gemini Award in 1992.

The New Music vision was to document youth culture and its music heroes. It went beyond the popular style of entertainment journalism based around scandalous sound bites and instead explored real issues in the music world. It owed much of its style and appeal to Citytv’s trademark unorthodoxy in shooting from unconventional camera angles and favouring a free-flowing approach to each program. All of these elements were part of co-founder Moses Znaimer’s vision for the new station.

Debuting on Citytv in 1979, The New Music began life as a staple element of the independent station and in the mid-80’s, the series moved to the newly launched MuchMusic station. A number of talented hosts fronted the show over the years, including Jeannie Beker, J.D. Roberts, Denise Donlon, Laurie Brown, Daniel Richler, Avi Lewis and George Stromboulopoulos.

Exploring the face of contemporary music, The New Music was still going strong when the program celebrated its 25th Anniversary in August 2004. Following the series cancellation in 2008, the brand has been resurrected online and features news items, concert reviews and exclusive pictures.

Produced by John Martin and executive produced by Gemini Award-winner Moses Znaimer, The New Music was a unique and exceptional series that changed the landscape of television programming. It has influenced generations of Canadians and has raised the international profiles of the Canadian television and music industries.

The MasterWorks program was created in 2000 by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust (AV Trust) to recognize culturally significant works drawn from the archives of the Canadian film, radio, television and music industries.

Founded in 1996, the AV Trust carried out its mandate of protecting and promoting Canada’s audio-visual heritage until 2009. In the spring of 2010, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced that it would continue the AV Trusts’ film and television-related activities.