And the winner – for the fastest, least grueling awards show – is the Writers Guild of Canada and its 7th annual Top Ten Awards. The speeches were short, the presenters were actually funny and, most important of all, the speeches were short.

On April 14, the WGC and host Sean Cullen made good on a promise to entertain when some 400 writers squeezed into a natty Toronto nightclub for the yearly huzzahs, which managed to honor 2002’s 10 best screenplays in just under an hour.

‘It’s amazing when you look around this room, it’s a regular ‘Who’s that?’ of Canadian television,’ quipped Cullen, shortly before belting out the first of two songs. He also took a dig at that day’s disastrous CTF returns, remarking, ‘Next year this show will be renamed the Top Three Awards.’

Ten brass trophies were then presented to: Mark Farrell for the ‘Just Another Week’ ep of Made in Canada; Elizabeth Stewart for Guinevere Jones’ Hard Rain; Chris Haddock, Alan Di Fiore and Frank Borg for ‘Ass Covering Day’ on Da Vinci’s Inquest; H. Jefferson Lewis for the National Film Board doc Claude Jutra: An Unfinished Story; Atom Egoyan for Ararat; Ed Riche for ‘The War of 1812’ on Made in Canada; Suzanne Bolch and John May for ‘The Karma Issue’ on Our House; Dennis Foon and his script for Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story; Bruce Smith for University’s ‘Welcome to Dorchester’ and Dennis Heaton’s ‘The Trouble with Mammoths’ ep of Yvon of the Yukon.

‘This is the most meaningful award a Canadian writer can receive because it’s from your peers,’ said Stewart, cornered near the bar after the show. ‘We’re an odd group because we work in isolation… the times we come together are so rare it really makes them more special.’

Egoyan said he was ‘genuinely nervous and surprised’ by the Ararat win. ‘This is really gratifying, because it’s a difficult script and it has really divided people,’ he said. He quickly added that, on stage, he forgot to thank his story editor David Fraser. ‘He was instrumental in developing the script. He’s a great writer.’ *