Stargate, Stone of Destiny lead B.C.'s Leo Award nominations

by Craig Takeuchi on April 6th, 2009 at 2:16 PM

It's Stargate's year.

This year's nominations for the Leo Awards, B.C.'s film and TV awards, are being led by Stargate franchises.

The DVD movie Stargate Continuum boasted 11 nominations while the series Stargate Atlantis, which wrapped up in January, led with a whopping 16 nominations.

In addition to those nominations, the creators of Stargate, Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright, will receive outstanding achievement awards.

Charles Martin Smith's Stone of Destiny led the feature films with six nominations.

The Dolphin Dealer, which explores issues about the use of dolphins in marine parks, led the documentary nominations with seven, followed closely by Murray Siple's Carts of Darkness, about homeless bottle collectors who ride shopping carts down the hills of North Vancouver, with six.

Corner Gas, which is ending its six-year run on April 13, dominated the comedy, music, or variety program or series categories with six nominations.

Among the five nominees for best feature length drama are Stone of Destiny and the CBC miniseries Iron Road, about Chinese workers who helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The same two films are also nominated for best director. David Wu (Iron Road) will compete against Anne Wheeler (Living Out Loud), Martin Wood (Stargate Continuum), Gary Harvey (Playing For Keeps), and Smith.

Nominated male lead performers in a feature length drama include Roger Cross (Stargate Continuum), Tygh Runyan (Thirst), and Dan Payne (Mulligans, which played at last year's Vancouver Queer Film Festival).

Female lead performers in a feature length drama nominees include Babz Chula and Tantoo Cardinal (both for Carl Bessai's Mothers & Daughters), Amanda Tapping (Stargate Continuum), Steph Song (Dim Sum Funeral), and Katie Boland (Dancing Trees).

In the supporting performance categories, Rajinder Singh Cheema and Balinder Johal are nominated for Deepa Mehta's Heaven on Earth, and Camille Sullivan is another nominee from Mothers & Daughters.

A full list of nominees is available at the Leos Web site.

The awards ceremonies will take place May 8 and 9.