Canadian drama, comedy honoured at 2nd night of Screen Awards

Canadian drama, comedy and childrens programming were honoured in TorontoWednesday night at the second of three ceremonies for the annual Canadian ScreenAwards.

The award for best direction in a dramatic program or mini-series went to CBCs ThePhantoms, a miniseries based on the Bathurst, N.B., high school basketball team that lostseven of its members in a bus crash in 2008.

CBCs comedy program The Rick Mercer Report received three awards in the variety or sketch comedy program or series category, including best program, direction and performance. This Hour Has 22 Minutes, won the award forbest writing in a variety or sketch comedy program or series, while Gavin Crawford's Wild West won best writing in a comedy program or series.

Bell Media walked away with 27 awards, followed by CBC with eight, Shaw with threeand Corus Entertainment with eight (including co-productions with Bell Media), althoughnumerous smaller production companies that worked on the winning programs sharedsome of those honours.

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The Space television science fiction seriesOrphan Blackwon a total of eight awards,including best direction in a dramatic series for an episode entitled Endless Forms MostBeautiful, while best direction in a youth or childrens program or series went to theDegrassiepisode "Time of My Life.

Degrassi, which airs on Bells MuchMusic channel, also got the award for best childrensor youth fiction program or series. One of the long-running shows stars, Dylan Everett,who played the character of Campbell Saunders up until last year, won the award for bestperformance in that category while Ramona Barckert won for best writing for the episode Bittersweet Symphony, Part 2.

There was one award given out Wednesday for digital content, and it went to young actorand writer Katie Boland for her performance in the web series Long Story Short. Boland, who divides her time between Toronto and Los Angelesand also stars in the CW series Reign, created the series with her mother, director GailHarvey.

Although most of the evening was devoted to Canadian programming, one internationalseries was also honoured. The Borgias, the historical fiction series based on the notoriousItalian family dynasty of the 15th and 16th centuries that produced two popes and had areputation for debauchery and ruthlessness, won the award for best international drama.

Wednesdays gala was the second of three nights of award ceremonies that began Tuesdaynight with honours for news, sports, documentary and other non-fiction programming. The final gala takes place Sunday night at the Sony Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto.

For a full list of winners, see www.academy.ca.