TVO Documentaries Take Top Honours at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards

News provided by

Mar 06, 2014, 14:05 ET

TORONTO, March 6, 2014 /CNW/ - TVO documentaries and filmmakers received six awards at the second annual Canadian Screen Awards Galas recognizing excellence in film, television and digital media production.

The TVO-commissioned documentary The Defector: Escape from North Korea, which chronicles the perilous journey to freedom of two North Korean women, received three awards including Best Documentary Program, Best Direction in a Documentary Program for filmmaker Ann Shin, and the Diversity Award.

The Defector was up against the TVO co-produced documentary, West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson which won for Best Original Music for a Non-Fiction Program or Series. West Wind was also nominated for Best Documentary Program, as well as for the Barbara Sears Award for Best Editorial Research, and Best Photography in a Documentary Program or Series. Jeff Dorn's TVO-commissioned Smoke Traders was nominated for Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series.

The People of the Kattawapiskak River, which made its Canadian broadcast premiere on TVO, won the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program. The film explores health and safety concerns over a lack of housing and infrastructure inside the Attawapiskat First Nation. Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin received the Humanitarian Award and was also nominated for Best Direction in a Documentary Program.

TVO is committed to nurturing, supporting and showcasing the work of emerging and established Canadian filmmakers, commissioning more original point-of-view documentaries than any Canadian broadcaster.

TVOKids was also nominated in the Best Cross-Platform Project – Children's and Youth category for Tumbletown Tales - Yard Sale, an on-air interstitial, and Tumbleweed's Yard Sale, an e-comic book app available for free at tvokids.com. The program and the app help build math skills and teach children financial literacy by showing them how to make and count change in a shopping scenario.

TVOKids programming was nominated for the TVO-commissioned series Rob the Robot in the Best Pre-School Program or Series and Best Original Music Score for a Series, and for the second season of the TVO co-produced science program Finding Stuff Out for Best Children's or Your Non-Fiction Program or Series and Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Series.

"I am extremely proud of TVO's staff and production partners who were honoured with a Canadian Screen Award and of those who were nominated," says Lisa de Wilde, TVO's Chief Executive Officer. "This recognition is a testament to the quality of TVO's thought-provoking documentaries and to the excellence of TVO's digital content that helps children learn inside and outside the classroom."

About TVO
TVO is Ontario's public educational media organization and a trusted source of interactive educational content that informs, inspires and stimulates curiosity and thought. TVO's vision is to empower people to be engaged citizens of Ontario through educational media. TVO is funded primarily by the Province of Ontario and supported by sponsors and thousands of donors. For more information, visit tvo.org.

Where to Find TVO

On air:

Over-the-air (may vary in some areas)

Cable channel 2 (may vary in some areas)

Bell Fibe TV HD channel 1209

Bell Fibe TV SD channel 209

TVO HD on Bell Fibe TV channel 1209

Rogers TVO HD channel 580

Shaw Direct HD channel 39

Shaw Direct SD channel 353

Websites:

tvo.org