It’s a rare, crazy night that spans heady tributes, show tunes, and a grinning Robert Lantos likened to ‘the Easter Bunny with a mustache,’ but the Toronto chapter of Women in Film and Television pulled it off in its sparkling annual gala awards evening celebrating the careers of five of the industry’s finest.

Air Farce celeb Luba Goy opened with her signature Sheila Copps impression, and wift-t president Daniele Suissa coined it a night ‘to celebrate still being here despite Sheila Copps and all the others,’ as hundreds of industry execs turned out April 11 for an endless cocktail hour, noshing, and salutes to the lifetime achievements of six women covering every sector of the film and television production business: writer/producer Barbara Samuels; Discovery Channel president Trina McQueen; Micheline Charest, chairman and ceo of Cinar Films; Goy; and writers Bonnie Buxton and Kathleen Timms, a diverse mix sharing a ‘You don’t follow the rules – you make the rules,’ attitude, as per McQueen’s acceptance speech.

Lantos took the stage first, presenting the award for outstanding achievement to Samuels, cocreator and executive producer of North of 60, who he calls ‘one of the best tv writer/producers anywhere.’

‘She has a profound understanding of humanity. She writes about people and her characters ring true. Once there were u.s. executives that didn’t want to meet her. They know better now.’

Samuels, tossing off the Easter Bunny metaphor, thanked Lantos, partner Wayne Grigsby, Telefilm, and particularly the cbc, ‘the network still willing to broadcast the kind of shows I like to write.’

‘Heap awards on you’

Former cbc exec McQueen too paid tribute to the network’s ‘wealth of talent and skills,’ but confessed to being a little irritated at losing her status as one of the few in the business for a couple of decades without receiving an award, adding tongue-in-cheek, ‘If you quit cbc management, they just heap awards on you.’

The cbc also provided ample fodder for Baton Broadcasting coo Ivan Fecan who, go figure, presented the outstanding achievement award to Goy (‘First time in a while I’ve been in a room with them without anyone asking for a five-figure salary’)

For her part, Goy, an accomplished actress recently inducted into the International Hall of Humor Fame along with the rest of the Air Farce troop, quipped she’s praying er isn’t suddenly moved to Friday nights, 7:30.

Bantering aside, all manning the podium at the some six-hour event took time to talk proud about the growth of the industry and the role of women in its evolution.

P.S. Production Services’ Doug Dales, honored with the friend of wift-t award, thanked his mom for telling him to do something constructive with his life and then pointed to the heads of the cftpa and the nfb as examples that the ‘underrepresented people have become superachievers.’

Cinar’s Charest, while ‘proud to show the shareholders that women can do the job,’ was a little more subdued in her evaluation of the status of women in the industry, saying they are making progress on the whole, ‘but maybe not enough,’ and impelled them to keep striving ‘to take our place in our industry and our society.’

Dales made the call a little broader, summing things up by reminding the masses to keep pushing. ‘It’s all too easy to lose something we’ve worked so hard to achieve. We must be excellent, innovative, with a clear picture of making the best programming.’