In a year when some insisted that Canadian drama is dead, Shaftesbury Films’ Christina Jennings proved otherwise and has been named Playback‘s Person of the Year.

In 2007, the founder, chair and co-CEO of Toronto prodco and distributor Shaftesbury saw her company bring eyeballs to projects including the MOW In God’s Country, which brought in 1.6 million viewers for CTV, hot on the heels of last year’s Eight Days to Live, which enjoyed ratings of two million, said by CTV to be its highest numbers on record for an original TV movie. Both projects star Kelly Rowan, formerly of The O.C.

In its 20th year, Shaftesbury’s mandate is to produce a diverse array of shows for the international marketplace, and on that it has delivered. The science drama ReGenesis, created by Jennings for The Movie Network and Movie Central, has sold to more than 100 countries, while kids series Life with Derek also airs in more than 100 markets in 10 languages, and has been a top 10 cable series for tween girls in the U.S. for Disney.

In Playback‘s most recent Annual Report on Independent Production, Shaftesbury placed fifth among Canadian companies in production and development spending ($54 million in 2006), and, with new projects such as the drama series The Murdoch Mysteries, set to air on the Citytvs, all signs point to further growth. Jennings shares her co-CEO title with company president Jonathan Barker.

Shaftesbury has also shown itself to be at the cutting edge of digital innovation, with the ReGenesis Extended Reality Game, a collaboration with Xenophile Media, collecting a recent International Emmy Award. This feat was followed by eight wins at the Gemini Awards for various Shaftesbury projects and copros.

Six of those trophies came in acting categories, and each winner who took to the stage thanked Jennings and Shaftesbury for their part in developing talent and keeping cameras rolling on Canadian drama.

Playback‘s Person of the Year is selected by the Playback editorial board. A full feature on Jennings, as well as Playback‘s Year in Review retrospective, will appear in a glossy magazine insert to be included with the Dec. 17 issue.