The Alliance for Children and Television honored Canada’s top English-language children’s programs at a gala Awards of Excellence ceremony held June 2 at the CBC Broadcast Centre’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

The CBC Grand Prize for best program (all categories) went to Tales from the Neverending Story, a coproduction between Montreal’s Muse Entertainment and Germany’s The Movie Factory Film GmbH. The series’ primary broadcaster is CBC.

Individual ACT achievement awards went to Dave Thomas, who won the Special Jury Award for his direction on the stop-motion series Henry’s World; Peter Moss, executive VP, programming and development, Corus Television Group, winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award; and to Clint Eland, president and executive producer at Mercury Filmworks and chairman and founder of Sentient Research.

Other ACT program winners are:

* All genres, ages 3-5: The Hoobs – The Jim Henson Company, Decode Entertainment (TVOntario)

* Animation, ages 3-5: Henry’s World – AAC Kids, Cuppa Coffee Animation, TV Toonland (Family Channel)

* All genres, ages 6-8: Incredible Story Studio – Verite Films, Minds Eye Pictures (YTV)

* Animation, ages 6-8: Angela Anaconda – Decode (Teletoon)

* All genres, ages 9-12: Tales from the Neverending Story – Muse, The Movie Factory (CBC)

* Animation, ages 9-14 – tie: What about Mimi? – Studio B Productions (Teletoon); Roboroach – Portfolio Entertainment (Teletoon)

* All genres, teens – tie: Degrassi: The Next Generation – Epitome Pictures (CTV); Our Hero – Heroic Film Company (CBC)

This year’s Special Jury Prize winners are Swap-TV, produced by Breakthrough Films & Television for TVO ‘for excellence in the execution of the concept,’ and From Far Away, produced by the National Film Board for CBC ‘for excellence in direction and writing.’

ACT’s executive director Caroline Fortier reports a record number of program entries this year, up 54% from the last edition.

The ACT 2003 Awards of Excellence were presented with financial support from the CBC, the IPF, the Universal Studios Canada, Cuppa Coffee, TVO, Teletoon, Breakthrough, Corus, Family and the NFB.