Banff Names Award Nominees for Rockies

TORONTO: The Banff World Media Festival will honor a host of fiction and nonfiction programs at this year’s Rockies, with Matte Babel and Mike Holmes hosting the respective award ceremonies.

Babel serves as a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight Canada. He will emcee the fiction awards. Comedy nominees for Rockies are CAUTION: May Contain Nuts‘ "Blowed Up Zombie Real Good," Come Fly with Me, Duts‘ "Bulgarian Wines," Facejacker, lol 🙂 (Season 1, Episode 2) and TV With TV’s Jonathan Torrens‘ "Freak Shows." Continuing series programs nominated are Accused‘s "Frankie’s Story," Boardwalk Empire‘s "Boardwalk Empire," Detroit 1-8-7‘s "Shelter," Grey’s Anatomy‘s "Sanctuary," Pretty Little Liars‘ "Pilot" and Sherlock‘s "A Study in Pink." TV movies up for awards are Civil Courage, Clandestin/Clandestine, I Am Slave, Schurkenstueck, Temple Grandin and You Don’t Know Jack. Mini-series contenders are Downton Abbey, Mar Libre (Talking To The Wind), Schicksalsjahre (Shades of Happiness), The Eighth Day of Cicada, The Pillars of the Earth and The Promise. Sitcom nominees are Call Me Fitz‘s "The Pilot," Community‘s "Modern Warfare," Hung‘s "Fat Off My Love" or "I’m the Allergen," Miranda (Episode 4), Rev‘s "Ever Been to Nando’s?" and The Big C‘s "Playing the Cancer Car."

Also in the fiction categories, animated programs up for Rockies are Dinosaur Train‘s "An Armored Tail Tale!/Pterosaur Flying Club," Neighbors, Sid the Science Kid‘s "Ignatz’s Inertia," The Little Prince‘s "Planet of Time," TUFF Puppy‘s "Puppy Love" and Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention‘s "Getting from A to B." Children’s programs for the 2+ audience feature the nominees Angelo Rules‘ “Who Killed the Rabbit?,” Hansel and Gretel, Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More To Life, Stella and Sam‘s "Night Fairies," The Olive Branch‘s "Sleep" and Wingin’ It‘s "Hold the Dressing." Fiction programs for kids 13+ include as nominees Anash and the Legacy of the Sun-Rock‘s "Death and Peace," Dance Academy‘s "Week Zero," KRIMI.DE‘s "Web Attack," Some Dogs Bite, The Moment‘s "Baby Mother" and Vacation with Derek.

In the category for music and variety programs, the Rockie contenders are 2010 MTV Music Video Awards, Battle of the Blades‘ "Finale Performance Show," Doctor Who at the Proms, Jimmy Kimmel Live‘s "After the Academy Awards," Season of Song: Canadian Tenors and Friends and X De Leeuw. Soap operas and telenovelas up to receive Banff awards are Bread, Love and Dreams, Coronation Street, Days of our Lives, Eva Luna, Mara Clara and The Queen of the South.

"It has been a strong year for scripted television, and this remarkable list of nominees is a great reflection of this momentum," said Georges Leclere, the director of awards and competitions for the Banff World Media Festival. "We are all looking forward to Matte Babel taking the podium for what will surely be an exciting awards ceremony."

Holmes, who hosts HGTV Canada’s Holmes Inspection, will emcee the special nonfiction awards ceremony honoring the winners of the Banff International Program Competition in the reality, documentary and lifestyle categories. Rockie contenders for reality program are Don’t Tell the Bride‘s "Simon and Kayleigh," Dragons’ Den (Season 5, Episode 8), Take Me Out (Series 2, Episode 7), The Cube (Series 2, Episode 1), The Money Drop (The Million Pound Drop) and Undercover Boss‘s "Best Western." Lifestyle programs up for Rockies are Embarrassing Bodies (Series 4, Episode 1), Heston’s Feast‘s "Heston’s Chocolate Factory Feast," Income Property‘s "Mike & Antoinette," Storage Wars‘ "Melee in the Maze," X-Weighted: Families‘ "Adrienne" and Young Talent‘s "Young Beautician of the Year." Non-fiction children’s programs, for kids 2+, include the nominees A Family Is A Family Is A Family: A Rosie O’Donnell Celebration, A Hero on Tuesdays‘ "Luca, Lara, Anton," Deadly 60‘s "Baja California, Mexico," Die Sesamstrasse praesentiert: Eine Moehre fuer Zwei (Sesame Street presents: A Carrot for Two), Horrible Histories and Remote Control Star. Youth programs up for 13+ are Battlefront‘s "Bella’s Cafe," Made‘s "Tommy Finton – Filmmaker," Mind Samples, TeenNick HALO Awards 2010, Teensville‘s "My Mum’s Gay Wedding" and World’s Strictest Parents‘ "New Jersey".

The nominees in the category for arts & performing arts programs are Afghan Star, Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers, Hip Hop: The Furious Force of Rhymes, Music by Prudence, Opera Italia: Viva Verdi and Vincent Van Gogh Painted with Word. Documentary-style reality programs up for Rockies are 6 Rides to Sunday, Air Hospital, Camino, One Born Every Minute, The World’s Tallest Man: Still Growing and World of Jenks. In the category for best environmental program are An Píopa, Architects of Change: To Innovate is to Imitate, I Have Seen the Earth Change: Mongolia, Swept Away with the Wind, Les insurgés de la terre (Eco Warriors), Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands and True Stories: The Cove. History and biography nominees are America: The Story of Us for "Division," Blitz Street, Eichmanns’ End: Love, Treachery, Death, Farewell, Sergio and The Third Reich: The Rise and the Fall. The contenders for investigative and current affairs programs are Backlight—"Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street," Burma VJ, Dispatches—"Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines," If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, This World—"Closing Guantanamo" and Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children. Political docs up for Rockies include Dispatches‘ "Politicians for Hire" and "Tabloids, Tories and Telephone Hacking," For Neda, Remote Control War, The Fence and The Taking of Prince Harry. Rockie nominees in the category of popular science and technology programs are Immortal, Inside Incredible Athletes, Miracle Body‘s "Downhill Skiing: Race Against Fear," The Real Face of Jesus?, The World After Dinosaurs and Wonders of the Solar System‘s "Empire of the Sun." Social and humanitarian doc nominees are A Small Act, Between Life and Death, Dispatches‘ "Africa’s Last Taboo," Everlasting Sorrow: Life after the Death Penalty, Life with Murder and Living the End. Wildlife and natural history programs nominated are Amazon Alive‘s "Jungle of the Mind," Beasts of the Bible, Human Planet‘s "Deserts: Life in the Furnace," Natural World‘s "Echo: An Unforgettable Elephant," Poppy’s Promise and Sky Hunters: The World of the Dragonfly.

"This year’s Non-Fiction Rockies are shaping up to be one of our best yet," commented Leclere. "We received an unprecedented number of fantastic entrants this year, and Mike Holmes’ experience and star power make him an ideal host."