Change has become the norm for the Gemini Awards, and that’s a good thing, according to Sara Morton, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, which organizes the annual celebration of Canadian TV.

Our perception of movies about indigenous peoples is often one of troubled worlds not our own, and rarely of generational tensions typical of our own lives – between parent and child or elders and grandchildren.

OTTAWA: Election politics dominated opening night at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (Sept. 17-21) when, speaking before a packed house at Ottawa’s legendary ByTowne Cinema, the fest’s artistic director Chris Robinson metaphorically criticized federal cultural funding cuts in a lengthy diatribe about ‘monkeys damaging the banana crop.’

Following is the complete list of prize winners at the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival:

MONTREAL: Unseasonable humidity and nasty storm clouds couldn’t keep the biggest stars of the French-Canadian television industry away from the Place des Arts complex Sept. 14, as Montreal played host to the 23rd annual Gémeaux Awards.

Canwest is back on board as the Gemini Awards’ broadcast partner, taking over from CBC with a two-year commitment and a plan to showcase the annual Canuck TV awards extravaganza on both conventional channel E! and specialty Showcase.

Hugh Dillon is nominated for a best actor Gemini for his leading role as the tormented detective Mike Sweeney in Durham County. Season one of the dark series from Montreal’s Muse Entertainment and Toronto-based Back Alley Films shot in Montreal in late 2006.

Natalie Brown is nominated for a best actress Gemini for her role as Sophie Parker in the first season of CBC’s successful comedy Sophie, produced by Jocelyn Deschênes, president of Montreal-based Sphère Média Plus.

The Showcase rock mockumentary Cock’d Gunns has two elements uniquely suited to specialty TV: a shoestring budget and sure losers as characters.