Fresh off a win at the Banff World TV Festival for Best Canadian project (Passage), filmmaker John Walker says: ‘Life is good.’ The director and cinematographer has won one Genie and five Gemini Awards over 23 years in both documentary and fiction categories.

On the subject of docs, he says, ‘I always feel that the award is for the subjects of the film. With Men of the Deeps [a triple 2004 Gemini winner], that’s all I could think about – how proud these Cape Breton miners would be to have been honored this way.’

Walker also shot and co-directed the internationally hailed drama A Winter Tan, starring Jackie Burroughs, who won the 1989 best actress Genie for her portrayal of the doomed hedonist Maryse Hodder. ‘I was thrilled when Jackie won,’ says Walker, ‘for the best performance of her career – as far as I’m concerned.’