The Gemini Awards were awards given by the
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian cinema of Canada, film industry and television in Canada, television industry professionals ...
between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
's English-language
television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the
Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
given in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and the
BAFTA Television Awards in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. First held in 1986 to replace the
ACTRA Award, the ceremony celebrated Canadian television productions with awards in 87 categories, along with other special awards such as lifetime achievement awards. The Academy had previously presented the one-off
Bijou Awards in 1981, inclusive of some television productions.
The awards' name was an allusion to
Castor and Pollux, a mythological pair of
twins; this was in reference to Canada's linguistic duality of English and French, with the Academy's separate awards presentation for French-language television production named the
Gémeaux Awards. The statuette, designed by Toronto artist Scott Thornley, evoked twins through a design that essentially created two faces at the front and back of the statuette.
[Sid Adilman, "Canada's new TV award makes debut". '']Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'', April 22, 1986.
In April 2012, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced that the Gemini Awards and the
Genie Awards would be discontinued and replaced by a new award ceremony dedicated to all forms of Canadian media, including television, film, and
digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...
, dubbed the "
Canadian Screen Awards".
The first annual Canadian Screen Awards were held on 4 March 2013.
Award categories
Special awards
*
Academy Achievement Award - general lifetime honour, inaugurated in 1996
*
Donald Brittain Award - for the best political or social documentary
*
Canada Award - began in 1988 as the Multiculturalism Award, this is award "honours excellence in mainstream television programming that reflects the racial and cultural diversity of Canada."
*
Margaret Collier Award - lifetime writing honour
*
John Drainie Award - broadcasting, not necessarily awarded every year
* Humanitarian Award - inaugurated in 2001, recipients to date:
** (2001)
Donald Martin
** (2002)
Wendy Crewson
** (2003)
Max Keeping
** (2004)
George R. Robertson
** (2005)
Royal Canadian Air Farce
*
Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism - for television journalists who make outstanding contributions
Dates and locations
See also
*
Canadian television awards
References
External links
* Official website (archived):
*
{{Canadian Screen Awards
1986 establishments in Canada
2011 disestablishments in Canada
Canadian television awards
Awards established in 1986
Awards disestablished in 2011