The best and most kid-friendly of French-language programming was feted in Montreal on June 1 at the Alliance for Children and Television awards – with the highest praise of the night going to local toon house Zone3 for its preschool-aimed Cotoons.

The 26 x 7 took the grand prize for best program, in recognition of its ‘bold concept… excellent blending of live-action and animation’ and its ‘knack for speaking to kids,’ according to the ACT jury.

The 3D toon airs on Radio-Canada, TVO and France 5, and follows a foursome of brightly colored creatures as they explore the world and its everyday mysteries.

‘It’s the first season, so I’m really very happy that we won,’ says producer Patricia Lavoie. ‘The first season is the most difficult to make.’

The show is copro’ed with Filmenstock in France, where it has also caught on with viewers – a rare accomplishment for a Quebecois show. Lavoie gives particular credit to her team’s voice talent.

‘Oftentimes people think Quebeckers speak a funny kind of French, but anyone who does voices as an actor can do voices in many ways,’ she says. ‘The French people had to approve the voices and… they couldn’t believe it. They said ‘This is great.”

Awards of excellence went to six other programs:

* Je vis ta vie, by Instinct Films for TFO, for its episode ‘Voir la vie différemment’

* Pram Quebec’s A+, seen on VRAK.TV

* Ramdam, by Vivaclic for Télé-Québec

* VRAK.TV‘s R-Force, by R-Force Productions

* Kid Paddle, a copro by Spectra Animation and Dupuis Audiovisuel, seen on Teletoon

* Banzai, by Productions Pixcom for Télé-Québec

ACT also gave a nod for best website to the teens-speak-out title AND-X and its producers at Fairplay and Inpix Media – noting its user-friendliness, ‘richness and variety of its content’ and originality.

Actor-turned-writer Vincent Bolduc took the emerging talent award, while Spectra Animation president André Bélanger went home with the lifetime achievement award.

Bolduc, known to viewers from an early age for performing stints on Sur la piste and Les débrouillards, has more recently turned to writing on series such as Ayoye! and Kif kif. He also cohosted and wrote the SRC series Sofa.

Bélanger has been in animation for some 40 years – starting at École des beaux-arts in the late ’60s. His recent credits include La famille Pirates, Fly Tales and Kid Paddle.

www.act-aet.tv