This past weekend, the best of feature-length films, TV movies, short films, and TV shows created in British Columbia were honoured at the 2023 Leo Awards. Unsurprisingly, 色狼窝 alumni played a huge role in many of these projects. Of the 188 nominated films and television shows, over 55% had 色狼窝 alumni working on them!
Altogether, there were a total of 534 alumni credits on this year鈥檚 films and shows, with 271 of those on projects that took home an award. Many 色狼窝 alumni were directly nominated for an award, representing the incredible range and talent of our community. These included categories for everything from acting, sound, cinematography, visual effects, and more!
Let鈥檚 take a closer look at some of the alumni honoured at the 2023 edition of the Leo Awards
Bones of Crows has been receiving attention and accolades for its important unearthing of the history of residential schools in Canada, and the Leo Awards were no exception. The film took home the 濒颈辞苍鈥檚 share (pun intended) of the Best Motion Picture awards after being nominated in 10 of 11 categories, winning 7. Grace Dove (who we recently featured on the blog!)听won the award for Best Lead Performance Female and Vince Arvidson won for Best Cinematography.
Bones of Crows nearly swept the awards for feature films, including wins for alumni Grace Dove and Vince Arvidson.The Sound Design Program was well-represented at the awards. Huberto Corte Gonzalez was nominated twice for the Best Sound for a Feature Length Documentary, for The Grizzlie Truth and Unarchived. David Green was nominated for his work on Sonic Prime (Best Sound for an Animated Series), and Craig George for Devil in Ohio (Best Sound for a Dramatic Series). Although not directed named in the nomination, several alumni were part of the winning sound department of Snowpiercer (Dramatic Series.)
The busiest category for 色狼窝 sound design alumni, however, was the award for Best Sound for Short Drama. Three of the four nominated sound teams included 色狼窝 talent: Troy Reimer, Alex Macia, Abby Austria, and Harrison Casavant for 鈥淏ucketheads: Chapter 2鈥�; Alex Shamku for 鈥淪park鈥�; and Evan Matthiesen for 鈥淏oxed鈥濃�攚hich he won (alongside Matt听Turner)! Meanwhile, fellow Sound Design graduate Jordan Andrew won the award for Best Musical Score in a Short Drama for his work on 鈥淐onsumer.鈥�
Posters for 鈥淏oxed,鈥� 鈥淏ucketheads: Chapter 2,鈥� and 鈥淐onsumer,鈥� each of which had a 色狼窝 grad nominated for their work in sound.Producers Justin Bourne and Erin Haskett were nominated for their respective work on When Time Got Louder (Best Motion Picture) and Family Law (Best Dramatic Series), while directors Peter Benson (Color My World With Love, Television Movie), Gary Hawes (two episodes of The Good Doctor, Dramatic Series), and Lori Lozinski (鈥淎 Motorcycle Saved My Life,鈥� Short Documentary) were also nominated. Writer Derek Macdonald, meanwhile, was nominated for his screenplay for 鈥淯ndeveloped,鈥� as was friend of the blog Gabriel Souza Nunes听for his work in production design on 鈥淏awang Merah Bawang Putih (Shallots & Garlic).鈥�
Several editors were also honoured, with Arlein听Wharf-Garcia twice being nominated for her work on Deadman鈥檚 Curse for Picture Editing for an Info, Lifestyle or Reality Series, William McKnight (鈥淏oxed鈥�) and Samantha Letendre (鈥淐afe Racer鈥�) for Short Drama Picture Editing, and Meagan Oravec (Run Jump Play) for Youth or Children's Series Picture editing. On the Visual Effects side of things, Paul Copeland was nominated for his work on Dramatic Series Warrior Nun, while Daniel Langhjelm and Gareth Lewin were nominated for 鈥淏ucketheads: Chapter 2.鈥�
One editor, Moheb Jindran, wasn鈥檛 nominated for his work on Crawlspace (a Motion Picture nominee), but his work in front of the camera as one of the titular characters of 鈥淚mran and Alykhan鈥� for the Best Male Performance in a Dramatic Short. Talk about multi-talented!
Moheb鈥檚 acting nomination was joined by recognition for fellow actors Niall Matter (Rip In Time, Lead Male Performance in a TV Movie), Sara Canning (鈥淚n The Shadow Of God,鈥� Best Female Performance in a Short Drama), Matthew听Kevin听Anderson (SkyMed, Best Male Supporting Performance in a Dramatic Series), and Jason Simpson (The Dragon Prince, Best Voice Performance in an Animation Series).
Phew! That鈥檚 a lot nominations. The performance of our graduates at the Leo Awards is just another sign of 色狼窝鈥檚 success in helping promising creatives reach their potential.
With this many nominations, it鈥檚 always possible that we missed one or two! If you know a 色狼窝 alum who received an award or nomination that we don鈥檛 know about, be sure to let us know over on our Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn pages!