Science fiction has garnered a lot of high-profile praise over the past while, most notably Avatar and District 9's Oscar nominations. Today's announcement of the nominees for the Leo Awards, B.C.'s film and TV industry awards, provided more critical reception for the genre.

Sci-fi series Sanctuary and Stargate Universe dominated the dramatic series categories with an amazing 17 nominations each and outpaced their contenders. Smallville followed with six, and Heartland and V each received two.

The trio of Sanctuary, Stargate Universe, and Smallville will compete for best dramatic series.

Last year, the Stargate franchise led the Leo Award nominees: Stargate Continuum had 11 nominations and Stargate Atlantis earned 16. 

Meanwhile, Alice and The Thaw (a sci-fi horror film) led the feature length drama categories with 13 nominations each. Carl Bessai's Cole garnered 10 nominations, followed closely by Bruce Sweeney's Excited with nine. Vic Sarin's A Shine of Rainbows earned six nominations.

All five features are up for best feature-length drama, and the directors of these films—with the exception of Alice—will vie for the best director award.

While six nominees are in the running for the best lead actor award, only two nominees will compete for the best female lead in a feature-length drama award: Kandyse McClure (Cole) and Laara Sadiq (Excited).

Gabrielle Rose (Excited), Steph Song (The Thaw), and Sonja Bennett (Cole, and who can also be seen in the current release Control Alt Delete) are among the nominees up for best supporting actress.

A full list of nominees is available at the Leo Awards Web site. Congrats to all!

The Leo Awards will be held on June 4 and 5 at the Westin Bayshore Vancouver.