The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) has unveiled the nominations for its 2025 Rockie Awards International Program Competition with 35 Canadian projects recognized.

The Rockie Awards, whose 152 nominees this year are spread across 22 countries and 30 categories, recognize excellence in global television and digital content. Canada has the third-most nominations of any country, behind only the U.S. and U.K. with 54 and 52 nominations, respectively.

Two new awards are being introduced this year as well. They are the Best Performance in a Comedy and the Best Performance in a Drama awards.

Canadian nominees in the new categories include English actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth who is nominated for the former for his performance in CBC’s Son of a Critch, produced by Project 10 Productions and Hawco Productions, and Canadian actor Supinder Wraich who is nominated for the latter for her performance in CBC’s Allegiance, produced by Lark Productions.

Other Canadian nominees include the National Geographic documentary Sugarcane (Kassie Films, Hedgehog Films), in the Crime & Investigate category, from directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat. It was nominated alongside Paramount+’s reality series PD True, produced by Bright North Studios.

Bell Media’s docuseries Mark McKinney Needs a Hobby, produced by Sphere Media, is nominated in the Lifestyle category along with TV5’s Serge à Paris, produced by +1 Maison de production.

Family Jr.’s The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy, produced by Lopii Productions, is nominated in the Live Action: Children category with Sinking Ship Entertainment’s Jane. Sinking Ship received another nomination in the Live Action: Youth category for its Canada-Belgium coproduction Beyond Black Beauty, produced alongside Leif Productions.

The full list of nominees for this year’s Rockie Awards can be found here. The award show will be held on June 9, and for the first time, is being combined with BANFF’s Gala Honours.

“We’re bringing together the prestigious Gala Awards and the Rockies into one incredible event,” said Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of BANFF and Playback publisher, in a statement. “This will be a spectacular night celebrating the industry’s most influential leaders alongside the world’s top creative talent — all in one room, under one roof.”

The nominations for the Gala Honours will be announced at a later date.

Additionally, the Grand Jury for the festival’s Grand Jury Prize, which is granted to the jury’s highest-scoring winner, has been revealed. The Grand Jury selects from the 10 highest-scored winners of the program competition.

This year’s Grand Jury includes Hojin Kwon, senior executive director, Seoul Broadcasting System; Adam Lewinson, chief content officer, Tubi; Meghan Lyvers, executive director, original scripted, U.K. and Ireland, Sky; Sitarah Pendelton-Eaglin, EVP, head of scripted series, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Christian Vesper, CEO, global drama, Fremantle.

In addition to the Grand Jury Prize, the Rockie Awards include the $25,000 Rogers Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content, granted to the top Canadian production, and the Prix Francophone, awarded to the top French-language production.

This year’s edition of BANFF runs from June 8 to 11.

Photo by Kristian Bogner