Meg Tilly’s screen acting comeback got another big nod of approval at the inaugural Canadian Screen Awards Sunday night when the Victoria-raised actress won the statuette for best actress in a dramatic role for her performance as Lorna Corbett, the stern Blue Shift floor matron in Bomb Girls.
Tilly, 53, thanked her agent Rich Caplan and the creative team behind the hit Global TV series about women working in a Second World War munitions factory before expressing special gratitude to her husband, author Don Calume.
The Oscar-nominated actress best known for her roles in Agnes of God and The Big Chill also thanked Academy of Canadian Film and Television members for being so supportive of her decision to return to acting after a 17-year absence.
“I’m so pleased that people like what I do and nominated me,” she told the Times Colonist before the awards show.
“But I’m not at the career-building stage where I’ve got to win this award. If someone else got the part that I wanted, I’d go ‘How lucky they are’ and ‘I’m happy for them.’ I’ve had so much good fortune I’m just happy I was nominated.”
Tilly, who with Rick Mercer co-presented the award for best film — the Oscar-nominated child soldier drama Rebelle, which dominated film categories with 10 wins, including best director, screenplay and actress for its teenage star, Rachel Mwanza — was one of four nominees with Victoria connections.
Adam Ravetch was nominated for best photography in a documentary program or series for Polar Bears: A Summer Odyssey, which earned creative collaborator Sarah Robertson a nomination for best science or nature documentary program or series. Victoria-raised Jeremy Ball was also nominated in the best live action short drama category for his film Frost.
The award show honouring the best in homegrown film and television was hosted by an off-the-wall Martin Short — who brought along his popular alter ego Ed Grimley.
“I’m very touched,” said Montreal director Kim Nguyen as he collected the best director prize for Rebelle.
“I’d like to dedicate this to the women in the Congo, their strength, their courage and their resilience.”
Meanwhile, perennial TV favourite Flashpoint took the top prizes in the TV race, including best drama and best dramatic actor for star Enrico Colantoni. That was in addition to four previous prizes it collected at a pre-gala bash.
“Of course, I didn’t have anything prepared because I don’t do that,” Colantoni said to chuckles from the audience.
“At the very least, I’d like to tell the Canadian Revenue Agency that I am going to write this suit off. So here’s the proof,” he smirked, gaining applause from the audience before going on to thank his director, writer and the show’s creators.
Short kicked off the new awards show — which combined the Geminis and the Genies — with a musical opening that saw him hoisted by wires to soar over the star-studded audience.
“They had me so high up there I could see both of Mike Duffy’s houses,” quipped Short, keeping things topical for his Canuck audience.
Rebelle — which lost the foreign-language Oscar last week to Austria’s Amour — also picked up trophies for best screenplay, editing, cinematography, sound editing, overall sound and art direction/production design.
Xavier Dolan’s gender-bending feature Laurence Anyways collected prizes for best make-up and costume design.
The best TV comedy trophy went to The Movie Network’s Less Than Kind.
Less Thank Kind co-star Wendel Meldrum won for best comic actress. The series also earned a best editing trophy.
CTV’s Flashpoint, meanwhile, claimed the top drama prize.
Sarah Polley won the best documentary prize for her acclaimed confessional Stories We Tell.
In a bizarre twist, reality star Jody Claman of The Real Housewives of Vancouver accepted the best news anchor trophy on behalf of winner Peter Mansbridge when he wasn’t there to accept in the show’s non-televised portion. Claman was there to present the award along with co-stars Ronnie Negus and Mary Zilba.
Bravo’s period saga The Borgias was named best international drama.
— with files from The Canadian Press
