TV & Film News – Canadian Screen Awards recognize Non-Fiction Programming

The Canadian Screen Awards recognizing Non-Fiction Programming were handed out Tuesday night in Toronto. Among the evening’s big winners was CBC‘s the fifth estate which earned four awards including Best News or Information Series. The Amazing Race Canada, which airs on CTV, also claimed four honours including the Golden Screen Award for TV Reality. CBC documentary Equus: Story of the Horse picked up three awards, while Gord Downie’s Secret Path in Concert (CBC), The Detectives (CBC), You Are Here (HBO Canada) and Still Standing (CBC) were also recognized in multiple categories. Global National anchor Dawna Friesen claimed the honour for Best News Anchor, National, while CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme won Best National Newscast. Find the complete list of winners here.

CBC has announced its first round of returning series for the 2019/20 season. The 17 titles include Anne With an E (Season 3), Baroness Von Sketch Show (S4), Burden of Truth (S3), CBC Arts: Exhibitionists (S5), CBC Docs POV (S5), Coroner (S2), The Detectives (S3), Dragons’ Den (S14), Frankie Drake Mysteries (S3), The Great Canadian Baking Show (S3), Heartland (S13), In The Making (S2), Kim’s Convenience (S4), Murdoch Mysteries (S13), The Nature Of Things (S59), Schitt’s Creek (S6), and Still Standing (S5).

CBC has greenlit new half-hour sketch comedy series TALLBOYZ (8×30) from Accent Entertainment and executive producers Bruce McCulloch (The Kids in the Hall, Young Drunk Punk) and Susan Cavan (The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town, Young Drunk Punk). Starring the four members of acclaimed Toronto-based sketch comedy troupe TallBoyz II Men – Vance Banzo, Guled Abdi, Franco Nguyen, and Tim Blair, the series will start production in Toronto in April for broadcast on CBC and CBC Gem in fall 2019. McCulloch and his fellow The Kids in the Hall troupe members will receive the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Academy Icon Award at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards this Sunday, Mar. 31, broadcast on CBC and CBC Gem at 8 p.m. (9 p.m. AT/ 9:30 p.m. NT).

Schitt’s Creek co-creators Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy have announced that the series will come to an end next year. The sixth and final 14-episode season will start airing in Jan. 2020 on CBC in Canada and Pop TV in the U.S.

Supernatural’s upcoming 15th season will be its last. Since 2005, the B.C.-based production has filmed in locations across Metro Vancouver, the Okanagan and Vancouver Island. According to the latest data available from the Motion Picture Association of Canada, the series’ first 10 seasons contributed more than $509 million to the B.C. economy and supported the equivalent of over 9,600 full-time jobs.

Front Street Pictures, the Vancouver-based prodco behind the Garage Sale Mystery franchise, has halted production on the latest TV movie following The Hallmark Channel’s decision to cut ties with actress Lori Loughlin. Loughlin, the star and an executive producer of the franchise, in addition to Hallmark’s When Calls The Heart, which both shoot in and around Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, was among those indicted in the U.S. college admissions scam. Garage Sale Mystery: Three Little Murders was due to wrap production this month. When Calls The Heart is on a “retooling” hiatus.

Cineflix Media prodco Connect3 Media Inc. and France’s Lincoln TV have started production on six-episode, one-hour scripted series Mirage, a spy thriller with an emotional love triangle at its heart. Mirage is the first project created by the European Alliance union of public broadcasters France Télévisions, RAI and ZDF, founded in May 2018. The series stars Marie-Josée Croze (Jack Ryan, The Barbarian Invasions), Clive Standen (Vikings, Taken), Hannes Jaenicke (Sardsch, Code Name: Eternity), Shawn Doyle (House of Cards, Frontier), and Grégory Fitoussi (Spiral, Spin). It begins shooting in Abu Dhabi and Morocco in early April and is slated to deliver in late 2019. A France/Canada production commissioned by France Télévisions, ZDF, Bell Media and Super Channel, Mirage is produced by Lincoln TV and Connect3 in partnership with Wild Bunch Germany. Cineflix Rights has secured worldwide distribution rights to the series, including the U.S. and UK.

Mae Martin, Canadian comedian and writer, will star in a semi-autobiographical comedy for Netflix and British broadcaster Channel 4. The tentatively titled Mae and George is a six-part series that follows the recovering addict and comedian as she navigates her relationship with new girlfriend George. Martin, who has previously written for Baroness Von Sketch Show, is co-writing with Joe Hampson (Skins, The News Quiz). The series will air on Netflix globally, excluding the UK where it will run on E4, Channel 4’s youth-driven network. The show will be produced by Kelly McGolpin for Objective Fiction and directed by Ally Pankiw (Schitt’s Creek).

TVA Sports has launched new streaming platform TVA Sports Direct. The French-language service is available for $14.99 for the first month using a promo code and thereafter will be priced at $19.99/mo or $199.99/year. Viewers can stream offerings like the NHL playoffs and Montreal Impact games in high definition and on up to two devices simultaneously via desktop; smartphone and tablet by downloading the TVA Sports app on iOS or Android platforms; or on TV with AirPlay, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

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