Banff: While this year’s Banff Rockie Awards saw the U.S. and U.K. garner the majority of wins, with four each, the biggest winner was the French documentary La terre des ames errantes (The Land of Wondering Souls), which took home the $50,000 Global Television Grand Prize and the Banff Rockie for best social and political documentary. Produced by La Sept ARTE/INA, the film documents the laying of the first fibre-optic cable across Cambodia.

Despite playing host to the 22nd annual event, held June 10 during the Banff Television Festival, Canada came out short on recognition in the 14 primary categories. Although the National Film Board’s Cinema Verite – Defining the Moment was a strong contender in the arts documentary category, it was beat out by Kurt Gerron’s Karusell, produced by TV Ventures (in association with Netherlands’ Filmmuseum/Studio No. 1 Praha/ARTE/SFB Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic and France).

The seven-member international jury, however, did choose to recognize three additional programs for special prizes, in which Cinema Verite was awarded.

In an exclusively Canadian program, Telefilm Canada awarded prizes to The Four Seasons (Rhombus Media/Veronica Tennant Productions in association with CBC/BBC/Bravo!/NHK/DRS/RSR/TSI) for best independent Canadian production in English and to 2 Freres: Episode 9 (Cirrus Communications/ Sphere Media Plus), for best independent Canadian production in French.

The International Jury headed by writer/director Micheline Lanctot expressed its genuine delight with this year’s Rockie Awards program lineup, as did many others attending the festival. The only question that remains is how many of this year’s international program finalists will be licensed and distributed in Canada for the benefit of the industry and the Canadian TV audience at large?

The award ceremony was spiced up by the ever-straight-faced Ian Hanomansing and his quirky and leggy cohost Julie Snyder. Both Kelsey Grammer and Norman Jewison were presented awards of exellence at the Alliance Atlantis-sponsored show. *