Carl Bessai's small-budget film Sisters&Brothers and the APTN series Blackstone dominated the feature film and dramatic series categories at the Leo Awards on Saturday night. British Columbia's film and television awards were co-hosted by Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne, co-stars of the just-cancelled series Sanctuary (which had been up for 18 Leos and won four).
Sisters&Brothers, the third in Bessai's trilogy about familial relationships, was named best feature film, while Bessai won best director, Amanda Crew was named best lead actress and Tom Scholte won best supporting actor. At an earlier ceremony on Friday night, the film won best picture editing.
Rounding out the feature-film acting wins were Ryan Robbins, named best lead actor for the Marilyn Monroe biopic Marilyn, and Johannah Newmarch, who won best supporting actress for Sunflower Hour.
Blackstone, set on the fictional Blackstone First Nation reserve, was named best dramatic series and won three of the four acting awards: Steven Cree Molison won best lead actor, Tantoo Cardinal won best supporting actress and Frank Cassini won best supporting actor.
Meg Tilly was named best lead actress for Bomb Girls and David J. Frazee was named best director for Endgame.
Ben Ratner and Pascale Hutton won best guest performance awards for Flashpoint and Sanctuary, respectively.
People of a Feather was named best documentary and also won the best documentary screenwriting award (Joel Heath, Johnny Kudluarok, Dinah Kavik), and I Am Bruce Lee's Pete McCormack was named best documentary director.
Ice Pilots NWT was named best documentary series, the cancelled series Hiccups won best comedy or variety program or series, and The Sustainable Region won best information or lifestyle program. Property Brothers co-hosts Jonathan Scott and Drew Scott won for best host(s) in an information or lifestyle series.
Other screenwriting awards went to Arctic Air (Susin Nielsen) for dramatic TV series, and Doppelganger Paul (Kris Elgstrand) for feature-length drama.
Dan Mangan's Rows of Houses won best music video.
Marsha Lederman