With 2024 nearly at an end, Playback is pleased to present its annual Best of the Year selections.

Each year, Playback‘s editorial team selects the people, companies and projects that inspired, impressed and surprised us, and features them in a series of articles in our Winter issue.

While much of the year was marked by ongoing regulatory changes, legal challenges and a historic strike authorization vote, there were several bright spots out of the film and TV landscape to celebrate — from ratings and box office hits to companies reinventing themselves amid ongoing market disruption. The full list of Best of the Year selections are below.

We’ll be rolling out individual Best of the Year profiles over the next two weeks, so keep tuned to Playback Daily to hear from the producers, creators and innovators behind the success stories.

Without further ado, we present our picks Best of the Year:

Production Company of the Year: Blink49 Studios

Toronto and L.A.-based Blink49 Studios, led by CEO John Morayniss (pictured right), had a banner year in 2024. The company secured renewals for its first two scripted originals, CBC’s Wild Cards and CTV’s Sight Unseen and expanded its slate with multiple greenlights for unscripted projects. Blink49 is also expanding its Canadian footprint and MOW offerings following its acquisition of Vancouver’s Front Street Pictures late last year.

Changemaker of the Year: Kerry Swanson

While Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) CEO Kerry Swanson (pictured left) has been an influential and important voice in the industry for years, 2024 was a paramount year for the organization. At the beginning of this year, the ISO was in a precarious situation with its temporary funding soon to expire. By the end of the year, the ISO had effectively tripled its annual budget and secured permanent funding from Heritage Canada, ensuring that the ISO will be able to push and advocate for transformative change in the Canadian screen industry for years to come.

Doc of the Year: The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal

Director and producer Mike Downie cemented The Tragically Hip’s status as Canadian music royalty with the Prime Video documentary No Dress Rehearsal. The four-part doc used never-before-seen archival footage and interviews to follow the band’s journey from Kingston, Ont. upstarts to rock legends. Not only did the documentary become a hit on Prime Video, it led to a rise of consumer interest in the band from an increase in streaming to book and album sales.

Dealmaker of the Year: Vince Commisso

Toronto’s 9 Story Group Media Group secured a $250 million deal with Scholastic in June, with the latter company acquiring 100% economic interest and minority voting rights. The agreement is already seeing its synergies pay off, with properties in development in both book and series format, which they debuted at MIPCOM this fall.

Deal of the Year: Lionsgate and Entertainment One

While the transaction itself might have closed at the tail end of 2023, Lionsgate’s acquisition of Entertainment One’s assets – including a stake in its Canadian business, rebranded to Lionsgate Canada – showed its value in 2024 as the studio says it will lean on its supersized library to boost its revenue. The deal has paid off through key assets like ABC’s The Rookie and new synergies between the U.S. and Canadian teams for distribution and production. (Jocelyn Hamilton, Lionsgate Canada’s president, television, pictured right.)

Showrunner of the Year: Tassie Cameron

Tassie Cameron (Rookie Blue, Pretty Hard Cases; pictured left) demonstrated why she’s the queen of the crime procedural with the success of Citytv’s Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. The series attracted more than a million viewers when it debuted on Feb. 22 and became Citytv’s No. 1 original series. Following the ratings success, Citytv handed out a two-season renewal in June.

Film Director of the Year: Ricardo Trogi

Only a select number of Canadian directors have had their films surpass the $1 million mark in the Quebec box office. Only one has done that seven times. Since the release of his 2002 comedy Québec-Montréal, Quebec City-born filmmaker Ricardo Trogi’s (pictured right) films have been incredibly popular throughout francophone regions in Canada. Now, with the 2024 release of 1995, the fourth film in his semi-autobiographical series, Trogi has firmly demonstrated that remaining loyal to Quebec audiences and Québécois is repaid in kind.

TV Directors of the Year: Tanya Talaga and Courtney Montour

Tanya Talaga (pictured far left) released a Globe and Mail bestseller and CBC’s top documentary series of the fall with The Knowing – a feat she achieved with the staunch support of her co-director Courtney Montour (pictured right). The two worked together to craft a four-part series that peels back Canada’s history of residential schools through Talaga’s search for what happened to her maternal great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter.

French-Language Series of the Year: Survivor Québec

Survivor Québec has become a bonafide hit for Bell Media’s French-language network Noovo after the broadcaster acquired the format rights from Banijay. The series has attracted an average of more than a million viewers in its second season and a massive following on social media, with a third on the way next year.

Scripted Series of the Year: Geek Girl

The Canada-U.K. series Geek Girl took the runway by storm this year with impressive debuts on Netflix internationally and on StackTV in Canada. Produced by Toronto’s Aircraft Pictures and London’s RubyRock Pictures, the fashion-focused dramedy opened as the No. 5 most popular English-language series on Netflix globally and the No. 1 first streamed kids program on Corus’ StackTV. Along with its expansive popularity, the show, based on Holly Smale’s book series, gave the often uncredited city of Ottawa a chance to showcase itself on the small screen.

Film of the Year: The Apprentice

While many read the headlines about the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice – thanks to legal threats from the former and incoming U.S. president that temporarily disrupted U.S. distribution plans – chances are, few were aware the film was actually a Canadian coproduction with Ireland and Denmark. The film earned more than US$12 million in the global box office and is making waves in the awards circuit, picking up multiple nominations from the Golden Globes and the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Photo of John Morayniss courtesy of Blink49 Studios, photo of Kerry Swanson by Red Works, photo of Vince Commisso courtesy of 9 Story Media Group, photo of The Tragically Hip courtesy of Prime Video, photo of Jocelyn Hamilton courtesy of Lionsgate, photo of Tassie Cameron by Christina Gapic, photo of Ricardo Trogi by Maxyme G. Delisle, photo of Tanya Talaga and Courtney Montour by Robbie J. Harper, image of Survivor Québec courtesy of Bell Media, image of Geek Girl courtesy of Aircraft Pictures, image of The Apprentice courtesy of Mongrel Media