Earlier this month, Canadian producers brought home honors from two American awards shows.

At the CableACE Awards, held in Los Angeles Jan. 14, the American National Academy of Cable Programming honored the best original programming on American cable tv. Among the winners were three Canadian productions.

The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter: America Undercover, a cbc documentary broadcast on Home Box Office, won three Cableaces for best writing, best documentary special and best host (Dr. Peter Jepson-Young). The program is made up of weekly diaries that the doctor, who was suffering from aids, broadcast on the local Vancouver cbc station. Jepson-Young died shortly after the program was first broadcast in Canada in 1992 on cbc’s Witness series.

Atlantis Films’ The Sound and the Silence, a two-part miniseries based on the life of Alexander Graham Bell, won in the international movie or miniseries/comedy or dramatic special or series category. The program was produced with Screen Star Entertainment and South Pacific Pictures with Kelcom International.

Avonlea

Sullivan Entertainment’s Road to Avonlea (broadcast on the u.s. Disney Channel as Avonlea) won a Cableace in the dramatic series category.

Canadians also came up winners in New York City.

This year’s New York Festivals attracted 1,856 entries from 34 countries. At the awards ceremony, also held on Jan. 14, Canadian producers and broadcasters, in particular the cbc, did well.

Seven golds

cbc picked up seven gold medals in total for The Kids in the Hall (variety), Man Alive ‘Lost Boys’ (tv documentary and information, human relations), cbc Regina’s News Hour ‘Mission Impossible’ (tv news: inserts, human interest), cbc Montreal’s Newswatch – ‘Citybeat’ (opening and titles), CBC Prime Time News (promotion announcements) and The Boys of St. Vincent (drama special and direction – John N. Smith).

Gold medals also went to Sullivan Entertainment for Road to Avonlea, (family program) and Cite Amerique for Blanche (drama).

Silver medals went to Rhombus Media for The Sorceress: Kiri Te Kanawa (performing arts), the cbc for the 5th estate (newsmagazine) and the 5th estate’s ‘Odd Man Out’ (news reporter correspondent), cbc Winnipeg for 24 Hours (sports coverage), Alliance International for the Water Street Pictures production The Odyssey (family program), City-tv for CityPulse at 6 (newscast), Insight Productions for Ready or Not (youth special, ages seven-12), KEG Productions for The Magic of Flight (tv documentary and information, nature and wildlife) and tvontario for Prisoners of Gravity, ‘Ecology/zpg’ (tv documentary and information, environment and ecology).

cbc’s The Boys of St. Vincent also picked up two bronze medals (best writing – Des Walsh, John N. Smith, Sam Grana – and best performance – Henry Czerny). cbc Montreal’s Newswatch picked up three: for ‘Men Who Kill Their Wives’ (news documentary special), ‘Citybeat, The Art of Selling’ (tv news: inserts, human interest) and ‘Bad Chemistry: Why Men and Women Can’t Get it Together’ (tv documentary and information, human relations).

‘Drug Wars’

Two bronzes went to CBC Prime Time News for ‘Drug Wars’ (tv documentary and information, health and medical) and ‘The Secret Life of Cold Fusion’ (tv documentary and information, science and technology), and one each went to cbc Winnipeg for Christmas at Old St. Peter’s (religious program), the ACCESS Network for Career & Technology Studies (children’s programming, educational instructional) and the Variety Club of British Columbia Tent 47 for In Memory of Heidi (best editing).

In addition, Canadian productions scored numerous finalist certificates in a variety of categories.

Canada received the third most awards of any country, behind the u.s. and the u.k. The cbc received the most gold medals of any individual broadcaster entering the festival.