TheACTRA Awards are Canadian accolades presented since 1972 to celebrate excellence in cinema, television and radio industries.[1] Initially it was organized and presented by theAlliance of Canadian Television and Radio Artists,[1] which represented performers, writers and broadcast journalists, and were responsible for awarding theNellie statuettes until 1986.[2] That year, they were taken over by theAcademy of Canadian Cinema and Television to create the newGemini Awards,[3] although ACTRA continued to present Nellies in radio categories.[4]
The organization relaunched the awards in 2003, this time as a more local-focused film industry award, separately presented by each of ACTRA's regional chapters to honour performances in local film and television production, since expanded to incorporate web series and video games.[1]
ACTRA began presenting theJohn Drainie Award for distinguished lifetime contribution in broadcasting in 1968,[5] before launching a comprehensive program for television and radio awards in 1972. The1st ACTRA Awards that year only presented the Drainie Award alongside the newEarle Grey Award for actors andGordon Sinclair Award for broadcast journalism,[6] with its roster of categories beginning to expand the following year.[7]
By 1978, there began to be talk in the industry of a "Nellie curse", as several broadcast personalities in the past couple of years had been fired or had their shows cancelled very soon after winning an ACTRA award.[8] The same year also saw the first widespread complaints about ACTRA's nomination criteria, which limited honours in most categories to ACTRA members; even if ACTRA members had collaborated with non-ACTRA members, then only the ACTRA member could be considered for nomination.[9]
That year further saw the public revelation of an unconfirmed but longstanding industry rumour that ifLloyd Robertson had won the award for Best News Broadcaster at the4th ACTRA Awards in 1975, elements in the audience were planning topie him in the face just to see if they could cause the normally unflappable Robertson to lose his composure.[8]
By 1980, theCTV network decided to boycott the awards, on the grounds that the members-only rule biased the awards in favour ofCBC Television productions;[10] the issue arose because the CBC produced most of its programming directly, and thus nearly all CBC programming involved ACTRA members, while CTV broadcast far more programming from independent non-ACTRA producers. The boycott, which continued for several years thereafter, sparked discussions through the early 1980s about how to improve the management and delivery of Canadian television awards.
In this era, there was also significant concern about the fact that ACTRA only presented awards in categories such as acting, writing and journalism, but had no categories for television crafts such as cinematography or editing,[11] as well as a controversy when ACTRA rejected the CBC's proposal ofDan Aykroyd as host,[12] on the grounds that he was working in the United States and not an active ACTRA member.[13]
By 1983, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's experimentalBijou Awards, which had been presented for the first time in 1981, were being proposed to replace the ACTRA Awards,[14] but this did not proceed at this time; ultimately, responsibility for presenting the Canadian television awards was transferred to the Academy's new Gemini Awards in 1986.[15]
Awards transferred to the Academy included theJohn Drainie Award, a lifetime achievement award for distinguished contributions to Canadian broadcasting, and theEarle Grey Award, which transitioned from ACTRA's award for best performance in a television film into the Academy's lifetime achievement award for acting.
Following the launch of the Geminis, the ACTRA Awards continued to honour radio programming.
Beginning in 2002, ACTRA took management of the John Drainie Award back from the Academy, presenting it thereafter at theBanff Television Festival.[16]
On the 60th anniversary of the national union in 2003, now renamed the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists and representing only performers, the ACTRA Awards were resurrected in several of its branches across Canada as a local film and television award, presented by the organization's local chapters in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Maritimes to honour achievements in film and television within their own regions.[17] Depending on the level of production activity in their respective regions, some chapters of ACTRA present their awards annually, while others present their awards every two years.
However, the revived ACTRA Awards program also includes a national Award of Excellence, presented to an actor to honour their lifetime achievements;[18] the national award of excellence is most commonly presented to an actor who is working inHollywood, and would thus not be eligible for a regional chapter's local award of excellence. However, the national award of excellence is not necessarily always presented annually.
Some awards are handed out for performances, while others are given for union activism and contributions to the industry.[19]
^"Diane D'Aquila, Brent Carver and Sonja Smits take home ACTRA awards: The TV adaptation of Timothy Findley's play Elizabeth Rex reigned at the ACTRA awards in Toronto Friday night"].Toronto Star, February 22, 2004.
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