Baroness von Sketch Show came out on top at the 2019 Rockie Awards International Program Competition – walking away with the award for best comedy and variety program, in addition to winning the show’s coveted $25,000 Rogers Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content.

Introduced in 2017, the award is presented to the highest-scoring Canadian project in the Rockies International Program Competition. The Frantic Films-produced comedy joins past winner Travelers from Peacock Alley Entertainment.

Hosted by Canadian actor/writer Juno Rinaldi (Workin’ Moms, pictured) at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, AB, the event also saw U.S. projects take home nine awards, while the U.K. won eight and Canada earned seven prizes.

Two more Canadian-made projects took home big prizes, with the MDF Pictures and HBO Canada documentary You Are Here earning the Jury prize. Meanwhile the Rockies Francophone Prize was awarded to Encore Télévision for the series Boomerang.

Canadian series like Can You Hear Me? from Quebec’s Trio Orange and coventure Sharp Objects (HBO/eOne/Tiny Pyro/Blumhouse/Fourth Born/crazyrose) also snagged nods, winning best non-English language drama series and best limited series, respectively. Most recently, Can You Hear Me? won Series Mania’s Best Comedy award. The show, which follows three best friends, is set to go into production on its second season this summer.

Rounding out the Canadian winners is Yellow Bear Studios and Insight Productions’ Damaged, which earned the award for interactive content, and Thomas Howe Associates’ Employable Me, which won the prize for best lifestyle content.

Additionally, the evening saw Bodyguard (World Productions/BBC, U.S.) win the prize for best English-language drama series, while Barry (HBO/Alec Berg/Hanarply, U.S.) starring creator, writer, director and exec producer Bill Hader – who is set to receive the Banff World Media Festival’s Sir Peter Ustnov Comedy Award at the Rockie Awards Gala – beat out The Goldbergs, There She Goes and Canadians Mr. D and Workin’ Moms for best English-language comedy series.

On the U.K. front, BBC’s Katy (U.K.) won top honours in the Children & Youth Fiction Series category, docuseries One Strange Rock (Nutopia/ National Geographic, U.S./U.K) picked up best Science & Technology Program and Doctor Who (BBC Cymru/ BBC One) nabbed the prize for best Sci-Fi & Genre-based series.

Other big winners on this night were: Arthur’s Law (good friends Filmproduktions/ TNT Comedy, Germany) for best non-English comedy title; RuPaul’s Drag Race (U.S.) from World of Wonder, which picked up Best Reality Program; Tangled Lives (SP Televisão/SIC, Portugal) for best Serials, Soaps & Telenovela; and finally, The Clinton Affair (U.S.) from Jigsaw Productions, Instinct Productions and A&E for top History & Biography Program.

Today (June 11), the Grand Jury Prize will be revealed at the Rockie Awards Gala, which is hosted by Canadian singer-songwriter and JANN star Jann Arden. This year’s finalists are: Barry, Bodyguard, Dynasties, One Strange Rock and Sharp Objects.

With files from Kelly Townsend

Image courtesy of by Kristian Bogner