OTTAWA — Producer Ernest Webb on Wednesday night grabbed the best comedy Indie Award for Showcase Television’s Moose TV, before he paid an emotional tribute to his father.

‘My biggest thanks is for my father. This one is for him,’ Webb told the inaugural Indie Award audience at the CFTPA Prime Time in Ottawa conference as he and fellow producers at Rezolution Pictures cheered and hugged on stage after they beat out Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie in the best comedy competition.

Webb, who was raised in the Cree community of Chisasibi in Quebec, recalled in 1986 going to Montreal to work as an announcer and producer for CBC North, which beams programming to the Arctic, and having a proud viewer back home in his father.

‘He would never say it out loud to me, but my mother said my father would watch all three broadcasts that we did each day,’ Webb, clutching his trophy, explained backstage after receiving his tribute.

The other big winner on the night was Sarah Polley’s debut feature Away from Her, which won for best film.

Daniel Iron, the film’s coproducer with Pulling Focus Pictures/Foundry Films, said every producer in the juried competition deserved recognition for waging a struggle against insurmountable odds to finance and make movies in Canada.

‘I assumed the award, from producers, was for best financing plan,’ Iron said when accepting his award.

Also earning hardware at the CFTPA’s Prime Time conference was Shaftesbury Films’ In God’s Country, taking top prize for best TV movie, while Durham County from Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Films won for best primetime drama series.

In the best kids and youth series competition, ZIJI Film & Television’s Generation XXL prevailed, and the best documentary program or series award went to Mountainside Films’ Saving Luna.

‘It sounds funny to thank a whale,’ the documentary’s producer Suzanne Chisholm said when accepting her award.

Other winners included WestWind Pictures’ Designer Guys, going home with the best lifestyle or reality series trophy, and Smiley Guy Studios, coming out tops in the best convergent new media category for the Odd Job Jack website. Rounding out the winners was Barna-Alper Productions’ October 1970, earning the trophy for best miniseries.

___________________________

This story has been amended to acknowledge Muse Entertainment’s participation on Durham County.