Shut the front door! Many things happened while I was off for two weeks. And in the midst of murky Murdochian scandals it would be easy to neglect an announcement from the outfit called the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. But in the wacky Canadian TV racket, the announcement was huge: The academy has replaced its entire board of directors. New broom and all that.
This matters because, for years, the academy has undermined Canadian film and television, not acted in the best interests of either discipline. Specifically and most horrifically, it turned the Gemini Awards – honouring the best in Canadian TV – into a crock, an awards shows distinguished mostly by ineptitude.
Some of those names on the new board are familiar to me. Some are not. Some are known to me as people described as “industry veterans” in press releases but in reality “veteran schmoozer” might be more apt. At the top, though, is producer Martin Katz as the new ACCT Chair, and he’s far from the schmoozer who tends to go far in the Canadian TV world. A lawyer, he’s a successful producer, best known for working closely with filmmaker David Cronenberg.
It would be hard to underestimate the task facing the new board. The Gemini Awards have existed for 25 years and spent a decade declining in relevance. The press, for the most part, stopped caring, and sometimes it seemed we weren’t welcome.
For me, an early sign of the madness that had engulfed the Gemini Awards came in 2004. You see, for some years the Geminis had been a multi-night event. There are so many awards to be handed out – now more than 100 – that there would be several small events (sometimes airing on community cable TV, sometimes not) and then a final televised gala to cap it off.
In 2004 I was interested in attending the night when TV documentary and news awards were given. To meet some players in that field, and so forth. Standard thing. But, like every journalist who writes about Canadian television, I was taken aback by a notice from the academy which read, “Media admittance to the documentary, news & sports gala and Gemini Industry Gala are by special request only. Request for either or both evenings must be submitted by November 17th. Requests after November 17th will not be entertained.” Nice attitude. No invitation to cover the honouring of the best in Canadian TV news and docs. Instead, a stay-away notice unless special permission has been given.
The Geminis must be the only television-awards event in the world that actually discouraged press coverage. The word “peculiar” doesn’t do it justice, given that TV programs are meant to be seen by the public and reviewed by the press. The attitude would have been laughably petty-minded if it weren't so blatantly self-defeating for an industry that constantly complained about media coverage.
In 2009, I looked through the entire list of shows in all categories (then a total of 99) for the Gemini Awards and failed to find a single nomination for Corner Gas. Not a sausage. The show had just finished its triumphant multi-season run and, although a popular and critical success, it was entirely missing. Go figure. Another indication that the Gemini Awards was operating from some alternate universe.
Others gave up on the Geminis before I did. CTV News simply declined to take part in the Gemini Awards process and has held to that position for years. Last year, it emerged that the Discovery Channel's Canadian production unit did not submit anything and neither did the daily science information program Daily Planet. Trailer Park Boys stopped submitting material for Gemini nomination years before the show ended its successful run on Showcase.
As for the televised gala for the Gemini Awards, aired on Global for the last few years, the production was often an embarrassment. What mattered to the academy was the party taking place in the theatre, not the TV show. It was an in-house, insiders-only industry shindig. Sometimes the televised show was as inept as the nomination process. During last year’s show on Global, the sound disappeared for a long stretch. A TV show honouring TV that can’t even deliver a competent TV production? You betcha.
How crazy is this ridiculous situation? The boycotting of the Gemini Awards by a broadcaster and by key Canadian productions pointed to the utter absurdity of the Gemini process, but nothing was ever done. Until now, it seems.
There’s an interesting thing about the timing of the announcement that the academy has been shaken up. The CBC will air this year’s Geminis. I’d bet money that the CBC had a hand in ensuring the usual embarrassment wasn’t going to unfold. But that’s just me.
The announcement was shut-the-front-door shocking. It was overdue. And now, maybe, I won’t have to write my annual “The Gemini Awards are a crock” column. Good.
