Canadian animated documentary Eternal Spring won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Rockies Gala at the Banff World Media Festival.

The award was handed out on Tuesday evening (June 13) at a ceremony hosted by comedian Craig Robinson, who was also the recipient of the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award.

The Grand Jury Prize is given annually to the highest-scoring project in the Rockie Awards International Program Competition. The grand jury evaluates the top projects from the juried international competition to determine the prize winner. The prize has been previously awarded to series such as I May Destroy You, Fleabag and Big Little Lies.

This year’s grand jury included EbonyLife Media’s Mo Abudu, Starz’s Alice Dickens-Koblin, DreamWorks Animation’s Peter Gal, Incendo and Quebecor Content’s Cynthia Kennedy, BBC’s Mark Linsey, Entertainment One Television’s Jacqueline Sacerio, and Universal Studio Group’s Beatrice Springborn.

Eternal Spring (pictured; Lofty Sky Entertainment) is written, directed and produced by Jason Loftus, who accepted the award at the in-person ceremony in Banff, Alta. The Mandarin-language film tells the story of how practitioners of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong hijacked a broadcast signal in Changchun, China.

Alberta-shot HBO drama The Last of Us won Program of the Year, which is awarded annually to a critically acclaimed and/or highly rated program from the last calendar year, with Talha Asad, HBO’s VP, drama programming, on hand to accept the award. Previous winners include Sort Of, Surviving R. Kelly and This Is Us.

Meanwhile, the Star Trek franchise won the inaugural Buffalo Rock Award, which was created to recognize a program that has had significant longevity and cultural influence, and is named after the “sacred Sleeping Buffalo Mountain in Banff,” according to a news release. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast members Ethan Peck and Celia Rose Gooding accepted the honour on behalf of the franchise.

Previously announced winners accepting honours at the evening’s ceremony included Abenaki documentarian Alanis Obomsawin for the Career Achievement award, Haitian-American actress Garcelle Beauvais for the Inclusion Award, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of RuPaul’s Drag Race prodco World of Wonder for the Impact Award, Canadian prodco Sphere Media for the Innovative Producer Award, and Irish actor and filmmaker Sharon Horgan for the Award of Excellence.

Photo credit: Copyright Lofty Sky Pictures