Paul Sarossy, the dop on Alliance’s The Sweet Hereafter, picked up the best theatrical feature cinematography award at the Canadian Society of Cinematographers’ annual awards night celebration in Toronto on Saturday, March 28.

Sweet Hereafter director Atom Egoyan received a standing ovation from the csc membership and guests as he presented the award to Sarossy, his longtime cameraman.

Rene Ohashi won the best commercial cinematography award for Maxx Productions’ Sunlife spot ‘Shae-lynn & Victor,’ while Robert McLachlan took the best tv series prize for Fox’s Millennium ‘Wild and Innocent’ episode.

Nikos Evdemon won the best tv drama cinematography nod for his lensing of cbc’s Peacekeepers. Revolver Films’ Chris Soos took the best music video cinematography award for his work on the Tricky video She Makes Me Wanna Die. Mark Willis won the best documentary camera work nod for Rhombus Media’s The Music Garden, which is part of the Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach series for which Andre Pienaar was also feted in the dramatic short category for Six Gestures.

Among the special honorees were sound veterans Austin and Joe Grimaldi, who won the Bill Hilson Award for their service contributing to the motion picture industry in Canada. Lance Carlson was given the Fuji Award for his service to the csc and Ernest McNabb was presented with the Kodak Award for his outstanding contribution to the art of cinematography.

csc president Joan Hutton announced that a new award named for csc cofounder, the late Fritz Spiess, would be created and presented for the first time next year honoring excellence in cinematography.