CBC leads the pack with 64 nods as the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television unveiled nominations for Canadian documentary, news and sports programming for the 18th Gemini Awards.

In the best news information program or series heat, CBC has a good chance of taking some more gold back to headquarters.

CBC has four out of six noms in the category, for Marketplace, Venture, Disclosure and Untold Stories: Canada on September 11th. Victory is not a lock though. The programs will go up against stiff competition in the form of CTV’s W5 and Citytv’s MediaTelevision.

CTV News, CBC’s The National and Global’s Global National with Kevin Newman will duke it out for best newscast honors, while CBC anchors Ian Hanomansing (Canada Now) and Peter Mansbridge (The National) and Global National’s Kevin Newman vie for the best news anchor nod.

CBC’s Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts are nominated with TVOntario’s The View from Here, Stornoway Productions’ A Question of Honour and White Pine Pictures’ The Undefended Border in the best documentary series category.

Nominated for best performing arts/arts doc program or series are Bollywood Bound (National Film Board), Joseph Giunta: A Silent Triumph (Films Piche Ferrari), Le Mozart Noir: Reviving A Legend (Media Headquarters), The True Meaning of Pictures (Mercury Films) and Tucked into Bedlam (Magic Cat Films/New Media).

The Donald Brittain Award will be decided among nominees Chinese Daughters (OneStone Entertainment), Return to Kandahar (Icebreaker Films/j films), Seeing is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (Necessary Illusions Productions) and Salvation and The Tree that Remembers, both produced by the NFB.

CBC’s The Nature of Things is nominated twice in the best science, technology, nature, environment or adventure doc program category for episodes ‘The Investigation of Swiss Air 111’ and ‘Up Close and Toxic.’Other nominees are Symmetree Media/TVO’s Life’s a Twitch, Ellis Vision’s Oh Baby! To Walk and Red Apple Entertainment’s The Surgeons ‘Dr. Rao.’

Mercury Films’ The Hockey Nomad will face off against CBC’s From Highway to Hard Court: Carl English’s Quest for the NBA in the best sports program or series category. Also nominated are Hockey Day in Canada, and TSN’s NHL on TSN: Pregame and CFL: Wendy’s Friday Night Football on TSN: Pregame.

CBC will also have a good shot at best live sporting event, where its coverage of the 90th Grey Cup Championship, the 2002 Spruce Meadows Equestrian: CN International, and Hockey Night in Canada Hall of Fame Game between the Leafs and Habs will meet worthy competition in the form of TSN’s coverage of the World Junior Hockey Championship gold medal match.

The awards will be presented Oct. 18 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

A full list of nominees is available at the Academy’s website.

-www.academy.ca