A few hundred of Vancouver's finest TV people-which meant folks who are also involved in films-crammed into a small ballroom at the Sutton Place Hotel in downtown Vancouver on November 9. They gathered to eat canapés, drink free champagne, and pretty much ignore the $9 highballs while the nominations for this year's Gemini Awards-the 20th-anniversary edition-were celebrated by Left Coast recipients.

The talk of the evening was how local success story Corner Gas was shut out of the noms-an oversight made more palpable by the fact that Gasser Gabrielle Miller (aka Lacey Burrows, owner of the show's cafe) was cohosting the event with Robson Arms's super John Cassini. The pair introduced a clip reel highlighting efforts such as sound and other technical awards for The Life, writing and direction for Da Vinci's Inquest (both from veteran producer Chris Haddock), and a whole slew of effects prizes in the offing for the Stargate shows.

Gas did, in fact, get one major nomination, for best comic series, with Godiva's vying with Inquest for best drama. Local actors nominated for their series performances (but mostly AWOL for the evening) included Inquest's perennial favourite Nick Campbell, Cold Squad lead Julie Stewart and supporting player Sonja Bennett, Brendan Fletcher for The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton, and Alisen Down for The Life.

On hand were many movers from the nonfiction industry.

"I know it sounds sucky to say it," David Vaisbord told the Straight, "but I'm happy just to be nominated." He was given a certificate avowing his nom as best director for a documentary feature, for Drawing Out the Demons: A Film About the Artist Atilla Richard Lukacs, which also netted a best-doc nod for its Screen Siren producers, Trish Dolman and Stephanie Symns, also in attendance.

"We actually want the award," Dolman later added. (Presumably, they'll earn a separate prize for longest title.) Viewers desperate to know how all this pans out can actually turn on their whaddyacallems-oh yeah, televisions-at 5 p.m. this Saturday (November 19) on Global for a broadcast of the final-night gala in Toronto.