Vancouver — The TV mini-series Alice picked up a leading eight prizes at the Leo Awards, B.C.’s annual celebration of excellence in film and TV, which took place over the weekend at the Westin Bayshore Hotel.

Alice, which was shot in Vancouver for Syfy and is based on the Lewis Carroll book Alice in Wonderland, took home craft awards for best feature length editing, sound, production design, and music, while also winning visual effects (Anthem Visual Effects) and cinematography for Jon Joffin for a feature length drama.

Bruce Sweeney’s Exited, a romantic comedy about sexual dysfunction, nabbed the major honors in the feature length categories, winning Leos for best direction and drama. Actress Laara Sadiq was named best lead female performer for her role in the movie, while Gabrielle Rose won a supporting performance award for her work in the film.

The feature screenwriting award went to Vic Sarin, Catherine Spear and Dennis Foon for the Canada-Irish copro A Shine of Rainbows, a family movie about an Irish orphan.

‘I want to thank the gods who allow a feature film like this to be made,’ said Foon in accepting the award.

The sci fi series Sanctuary emerged the big winner in the dramatic TV series categories with seven wins, including best direction for Brenton Spencer and lead performance for actor Robin Dunne.

Stargate Universe followed closely with six awards, including best dramatic series, a screenwriting award for co-creator Brad Wright and supporting performance for Julia Benson.

Pete McCormack won the direction Leo for Facing Ali, a documentary about the three-time World Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, which also picked up awards for best feature length doc, editing (Jesse James Miller) and cinematography (Ian Kerr).

The APTN comedy Wolf Canyon starring Kevin Sorbo nabbed five awards, including music, comedy or variety program and direction for Allan Harmon.

Omni Films real life docu series Ice Pilots NWT, about an unorthodox Northern airline that flies WWII-era planes, snagged best documentary series while animated program went to YTV’s League of Super Evil, produced by Asaph Fipke, Ken Faier and Chuck Johnson.

Vancouver native Erin Karpluk nabbed best female performance in a dramatic series for CBC’s Being Erica, while Jared Keeso won male performance in a feature length drama for CBC’s Keep Your Head Up Kid: The Don Cherry Story.