MONTREAL – While honouring the best in Canadian children’s television on June 1st, the Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) will also present two special achievement awards.
The ACT will fete Canada’s top English-language children’s programs at the 2005 Awards of Excellence Gala on June 1 at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Producers and broadcasters of Canadian children’s programming will attend the Gala, to be hosted by Peter Keleghan (a.k.a. Red Green’s Ranger Gord, and The Newsroom’s Jim Walcott).
In addition to granting awards for the best nominated programs, the ACT will present two special awards celebrating the remarkable work of three homegrown creators.
Sponsored by Decode Entertainment, the Outstanding Achievement Award goes to a person who has had a distinguished career in youth programming. The Emerging Talent Award, sponsored by Teletoon, is presented to a person 30 or younger who demonstrates exceptional talent and promise in the children’s programming industry.
This year the Outstanding Achievement Award will be presented to Astral Media’s J. Kevin Wright:
Wright is senior vice-president of Astral Television Networks, a division of Astral Media. In this role he oversees the acquisition, commissioning and scheduling of programming for Family Channel, Mpix and The Movie Network. Wright joined the Astral team in December 1995 as vice-president of programming for Family Channel. In this capacity he oversaw the programming of the service and participated in a re-branding initiative to evolve the channel from a low-penetration, premium service to a high-penetration, discretionary service that is now available in almost five million Canadian homes.
Simultaneous to this responsibility, Mr. Wright was also vice-president, programming for the animation specialty channel Teletoon (which Astral co-owns with several partners). His involvement with Teletoon began in November 1996 with his participation in the licensing and launch of the channel, and extended to October 2001. Prior to Astral Television Networks, he worked for more than six years at YTV, a Canadian specialty channel for kids.
In presenting the Outstanding Achievement Award to Mr. Wright, the Alliance for Children and Television honours his exceptional contribution to the Canadian youth television industry in general. “His boldness, creativity and perseverance have helped raise quality standards for our children’s programming and demonstrate Canadian leadership in the industry year after year,” says Caroline Fortier, executive director for the ACT. Kevin Wright has been a member of several associations devoted to youth programming, and sat on the board of directors of the Alliance for Children and Television for 10 years. “Through his unwavering commitment and unflagging support for Canadian youth production, Kevin Wright has expressed and maintained the excellence that has made our children’s programs among the best in the world. The Alliance is therefore very pleased to present him with the Outstanding Achievement Award, of which he is a very worthy recipient,” adds Fortier.
The Emerging Talent Award will be presented to Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg of marblemedia.
Nominated for Company of the Year at the 2005 Canadian New Media Awards, marblemedia is renowned as a company that develops and produces innovative projects for multiple platforms, including broadcast television, Web, wireless, DVD and interactive kiosks. marblemedia’s productions include Burnt Toast, deafplanet.com and This is Daniel Cook.
“Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg draw on their inspiration, vitality and energy to breathe life into marblemedia. That’s why, as part of its 2005 Awards of Excellence, the Alliance for Children and Television is proud to honour them with the Emerging Talent Award,” says Fortier. “In his own way, each of these two recipients demonstrates that young Canadian talent is a force to be reckoned with and inspires young people of all ages to continuously better themselves. Since its inception over 30 years ago, the Alliance for Children and Television has seized every opportunity to encourage young talent and promote exploration of new avenues. That’s why, over and above receiving their award at the Gala in June, Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg will be invited to share their vision at the first-ever Youth & Media Conference, to be held in Toronto in November 2005.”
Mark Bishop – Partner/Producer, marblemedia
As president and co-founder of marblemedia, Mark plays a key role in developing both television and interactive projects, and is responsible for building strong relationships with broadcasters, content developers, technology partners and investors. He is also an important catalyst for the weekly office “happy hours.”
While contract negotiations and bureaucracy are his first love, he also enjoys leading the creation of compelling media projects. To that effect, Mark heads up production, along with business partner Matt Hornburg, on all marblemedia projects, including the cross-platform initiatives deafplanet.com, This is Daniel Cook and Burnt Toast. In addition to his work on marblemedia projects, Mark teaches alongside Hornburg and leads research and development initiatives with leading Canadian universities and government.
Most recently, Mark was nominated for a Gemini for Best Interactive in 2004 as producer of deafplanet.com, as well as for both Producer of the Year and Educator of the Year at the 2003 Canadian New Media Awards.
Matt Hornburg – Partner/Producer, marblemedia
A partner and producer at marblemedia, Matt is responsible for leading creative teams to execute both television and digital media projects, including deafplanet.com, thisisdanielcook.com, Burnt Toast Interactive and the a pairing of SwanS DVD-ROM. This is a shocking development considering as a child he grew up in the countryside without cable television and the Internet.
Every once in a while, Matt also likes to get out of the office. When he’s not around marblemedia HQ, Matt is an active member of the industry, guest-lecturing alongside business partner Mark Bishop at the Canadian Film Centre, WIFT-T and Seneca College, and he also acts as a curriculum advisor of new media at Centennial College. For two years he co-taught the third-year new media class for Ryerson’s School of Radio and Television Arts. He recently served as a jury member of the OMDC/nmba-administered Pl@tform fund. He is a member of the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA), the Alliance for Children and Television, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. He is also a Sagittarius and an only child, for which no membership dues are required.
Matt has been nominated for three Gemini Awards—for both Best Interactive and Most Popular Website in 2004 as producer of deafplanet.com, and for Best Picture Editing in 2001 on the Rhombus Media project Crossing Bridges, which he also co-produced. While none (to date) have been wins, his parents have assured him that to them, he’ll always be a winner.
The Alliance for Children and Television is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to promote youth television production of the highest calibre. In addition to granting Awards of Excellence, the ACT has for over three decades been offering its members professional development activities such as seminars, conferences, workshops and screenings, helping producers and other creators keep up with today’s ever-changing youth culture. The ACT’s Awards of Excellence are presented with financial support from the CBC, the Independent Production Fund, Decode Entertainment, Teletoon, TVOntario, Corus Entertainment, Studio B Productions, the Family Channel, Mercury Filmworks, Hit Entertainment, Collideascope Digital Productions and Zone3.
