Montreal: An immigrant’s voyage of courage in the face of hostility and the story of one man’s fight for honor among ruthless mobsters top all program nominees for the 14th edition of the Prix Gemeaux. The annual Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television awards showcase honoring excellence in French-language television in Canada will unveil the winners over the course of a two-part, two-network event to be held Sept. 26.

The Polock (Productions Videofilms) chronicles the struggles of a pre-WWII Polish immigrant and his Quebecois wife and the terrible rejection they face, especially the family. It garnered a leading 11 nominations as did Omerta: Le dernier des hommes d’honneur (Motion International), a dramatic plunge into the double-dealing and murderous world of a Montreal crime family. Both series were broadcast on Radio-Canada.

Juliette Pomerleau (Cine Juliette/Rose Films), another drama series contender broadcast on Reseau tva, and La Petite Vie, the country’s top-rated sitcom, have eight nominations, while the current-affairs spoof La Fin du monde est a 7 heures (Motion Intl.) and a La Fin du monde special, two high-profile Television Quatre Saisons entries, also picked up eight nominations. Three programs have seven nominations, the Victor-Levy Beaulieu scripted teleroman Bouscotte (Radio-Canada), the tva historical drama Ces Enfants d’ailleurs (MatchTV/Neofilms) and the educational Tele-Quebec pre-school series, Cornemuse (Telefiction). The fifth contender in the Gemeaux best drama series category is Un peu, beaucoup, a la folie (Productions Point de Mire), a Janette Bertrand-scripted series of psychologically-based tv dramas.

Best director

Both Le Polock director Robert Menard and Omerta II director George Mihalka are up for best direction in a drama series, along with Andre Melancon for Ces Enfants d’ailleurs, Jean-Claude Lord for the fashion-world drama Diva (Productions Sovimage) and Claude Fournier for Juliette Pomerleau, the story of an unusually headstrong and prescient heroine adapted from the best-selling Yves Beauchemin novel.

The Gala des Prix Gemeaux takes place Sept. 26. Pierre Nadeau is the host of the trade (or industry) portion of the program broadcast live from Centre Pierre Peladeau on Reseau de l’Information at 2:30 p.m., with Normand Brathwaite hosting the big show live from Theatre Saint-Denis on Radio-Canada at 7:30. tv5 will broadcast internationally. Suzanne Hetu is the show’s supervising producer. Patrice Lachance and Andreanne Bournival, acct Quebec director and president, respectively, are the Prix Gemeaux gala executive producers.

Top teleroman nominees

Shows produced in-house by Quebec’s two leading broadcasters dominate the important teleroman category. Nominees are 4 et demi, Bouscotte and Virginie, produced by Radio-Canada, Le Retour, produced by tva-affiliate JPL Production, and La Part des Anges, from Lise Payette’s Point de Mire.

The best animation program or series category is a perennial tight race and this year is no exception.

Nominees include the thoughtful aardvark Arthur (Cinar Corp/WGBH Boston) up against the redesigned Euro-gumshoe classic Bob Morane (Motion/Ellipse), the world-travelling Princess Sissi (a Cine-Groupe/France coproduction), the delightful tale of a little carrot-topped French boy, Poil de Carotte (HB Animation/ Carrere tv) and Le JourNul de Francois Perusse (Productions Zero).

In the prestigious arts documentary and/or performing arts category the nominees are: Biographies quebecoises: Ludmilla Chiriaeff (Prods. Carrefour), an account of the life of the late and much admired Ballets Canadiennes founder and teacher; Impressions (Cine Qua Non Films), Joyeux anniversaire Sol (Poly-Productions), a profile of the wordy Quebec punster; Le Mystere des voix quebecoises (Radio-Canada), a history of popular song; and Violin Magiques (Cine Qua Non), a stylized performance piece on the life of Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi with music from I Musici de Montreal.

Doc series

and kiddies

Best documentary series and best children’s show or series for kids aged 3 to 5 are two other highly competitive categories this year.

In doc series, the bug world chronicles of Insectia (Pixcom/ Cineteve) competes with La Culture dans tous ses etats (Syercom Teleproductions), La Guerre de 1812 (Galafilm/PTV Productions), the largely untold story of one of the country’s bloodiest battles, Le Saint-Laurent (Productions Impex) and Vivre en Ville (Macumba Intl.), a series of profiles of fascinating everyday working people who live in some of the world’s largest cities.

In the pre-school series category, the little animal friends of Cornemuse take on the sassy, international-award-winning La Boite a Lunch (Radio-Canada), the universal storytelling charm of the tfo-tvontario series Papi Bonheur (Prods. Petit Bonhomme) and the top-rated Canal Famille series Pin-Pon (Telefiction), a singalong adventure set in a fire-station.

This year’s nominees in the best cinematography (film) category are: Thomas Vamos for Ces Enfants d’ailleurs, Serge Desrosiers for Diva, Philippe Lavalette for Impressions, Daniel Jobin for Le Polock and Bruce Chun for Violin Magiques.

The Academy will soon announce the winners of its three special awards – Le Grand Prix de l’Academie, won by Lise Payette last year, le Prix du Multiculturalisme, awarded in association with Canadian Heritage, and the Prix Special, for industry contribution, awarded last year to Jacques Bouchard of The Multimedia Group of Canada.

This year the acct juries have voted 578 Gemeaux finalists in 67 program, craft and performance categories selected from among 1,732 submissions, a record. More than 71% of the submissions originate with independent producers, 28.5% from broadcasters or their affiliates. Indie producers picked up 72% of all nominations.

Telefilm Canada, sodec, the Canadian Television Fund and Ford du Canada are among the Prix Gemeaux’s principal funders and sponsors.