The second night of the Leo Awards were hosted at the Fairmont Hotel on June 13, and included awards for motion pictures, television movies, dramatic series, animation, documentaries, short dramas, and web series given out by British Columbia’s finest on-screen talent.
Hosts Kalyn Miles and Aubrey Arnason had a great camaraderie as they charmed the room with their comic bits. One particularly enjoyable part of the evening was the DIY Showbiz video prepared by Kalyn as she interviewed the nominees about various way of succeeding in the business. From great tips such as “create a show and pitch” to “build good rapport with the producers,” Kalyn made the room laugh with her deadpan humour and the reactions from the nominees who thought they were interviewed by a real journalist.
As the proceedings went on, Grant Baldwin, Jenny Rustemeyer, and Melanie Wood accepted the best feature length documentary award for Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story and the award for best short documentary went to Tricks On The Dead: The Story Of The Chinese Labour Corps In WWI. Both documentaries won two more awards with Best Direction and Best Musical Score for Just Eat It and best Cinematography and Best Picture Editing for Trick on the Dead.
In the animation category, Johnny Darrell, Daniel Deserranno, Johnny Ludgate, Jeff Davis, Fanny Riguidel, Ewan Deane, Dean Giammarco accepted two awards for Slugterra: Return Of The Elementals, which won Best Direction and Best Overall Sound.
The two hosts continued entertaining the guests with a variety of gimmicks. After playing a trivia game that rewarded winners with fruits such as a plum, a lemon, a cantaloupe, and a watermelon, the two hosts quasi-terrified the room with a dinosaur gig that came with a room-shaking Jurassic Park soundtrack. The two hosts hopped off the stage as they closed out the night with The Benny Hill Show theme song.
The Gala awards night on Sunday June 14 was graciously hosted by Twilight’s Christopher Heyerdahl, and featured the following awards:
- Best Supporting Performance Award – Christopher Heyerdahl in Eadweard
- Outstanding Achievement Award – Danny Virtue in Neon Rider
- Best Supporting Female Performer – Gabrielle Rose in Two 4 One
- Best Dramatic Series, Best Direction, Best Screenwriting, and Best Lead Performance by a Male (Louis Ferreira) – Motive
- Best Lead Performances in a Motion Picture (Male) – Matthew MacCaull in Black Fly
- Best Lead Performances in a Motion Picture (Female) – Julia Sarah Stone in Wet Bum
- Best Television Movie and Best Direction (Peter DeLuise) – Zapped
- Best Information, Lifestyle or Reality Series, Best Screenwriting, and Best Host – Warrior Games
Violent continued its winning streak in the Motion Picture category, bagging four more trophies for Best Motion Picture, Best Direction, Best Screenwriting, Best Musical Score and Best Casting. This brought its tally to 8 wins out of a total of 9 nominations. Quite impressive for a small independent film debut by We Are The City’s Andrew Huculiak.
The gala had a great concluding performance from Beverley Elliott, who stars in Once Upon A Time, when she sang her heart out to “We Survived,” a comic rendition of “I Will Survive” that salutes the BC show business industry.
For a complete list of winners, visit leoawards.com.
