Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy picked up three awards at the 10th edition of the New York Independent Cinema Awards.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker won best international narrative feature, best script and best director for the drama, which was initially selected as Canada’s entry into the Best International Feature Film category for last year’s Academy Awards. It was later disqualified because the story’s amount of non-English dialogue failed eligibility requirements.

The coming-of-age story, set amid the deadly Tamil-Sinhalese conflict in the 1970s and ’80s, is based on the award-winning Canadian novel by Shyam Selvadurai. The film is now on the CBC Gem streamer.

New Delhi-raised, Toronto-based Mehta’s other projects have included Water, which competed for best international feature film at the 2007 Oscars.

FAST channel launches for Midsomer Murders

A free, ad-supported streaming channel FAST channel has launched for the venerable Bentley Productions British detective drama Midsomer Murders in the U.S. and Canada.

U.K. distributor All3Media International says the single-brand, streamed linear channel for the series is available as part of the Roku Channel’s Live TV Guide.

All3Media International is operating the channel and plans to launch it on additional digital platforms across North America in the first quarter of 2022. Delivery of the digital linear feed will be supported by streaming TV tech provider Wurl.

Midsomer Murders began in 1997 and is billed as one of the biggest U.K. exports, seen in over 200 territories globally.

Jennifer McGuire goes from CBC to PTP 

Pink Triangle Press has appointed former CBC News editor-in-chief Jennifer McGuire as its chief content officer, effective Tuesday (Jan. 4).

The media executive, who’s worked in audio, video and digital production, joins the Canadian LGBTQ2S+ media organization after being a Visiting Fellow with the Reuters’ Institute of Journalism at Oxford University.

At CBC, McGuire led the digital transformation of CBC News, the relaunch of Newsworld as CBC News Network, and the launch of an inclusive music strategy for CBC Radio 2 and audio, now CBC Music.

PTP offers journalism, online dating services and TV and video productions, including the documentary web series Unnatural Disasters and the half-hour show The Gayest Show Ever, which premiered on NPO, the Dutch national broadcaster, before being broadcast in Canada (on OUTtv), Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, U.S. and U.K.

“Pink Triangle Press is a mission-driven organization that has been serving LGBTQ2S+ Canadians for decades,” McGuire said in a statement. “The content offer is wide, and PTP has even bigger ambitions for growth and impact. I believe in representation. I believe in equity. I am very excited to join this team and I am confident that we will do some amazing things together.”

– With files from Liza Sardi.