TORONTO — The Banff World Media Festival announced Tuesday the full list of nominees for the 2020 Rockie Awards International Program Competition, which recognizes excellence in television and digital media from around the world.
Although the Banff Festival has been cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 Rockie Awards are going ahead as a virtual program and the ceremony will stream live on Monday, June 15.
“Although we are not able to gather in-person, this year’s virtual Rockie Awards will, as ever, be a place to honour outstanding creative work,” said Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of the Banff World Media Festival, in the news release. “We will also take this opportunity to recognize the challenges that are being experienced within our sector and the role that our industry continues to play by uniting global audiences, informing, entertaining and giving comfort during extraordinarily difficult times.”
In total, 128 nominees have been selected from 35 countries across 26 categories. In addition to the $25,000 Rogers Price for Excellence in Canadian Content, awarded to the top Canadian production, 26 awards are bestowed in the category streams of Documentary and Factual, Arts and Entertainment, Children and Youth, Scripted and the new Podcast category.
Leading nominations by company are:
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) — 27 nominations
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) — 13 nominations
- Sky — 8 nominations
- National Geographic — 6 nominations
- HBO — 5 nominations
- ARTE France and Yle — 4 nominations each
Leading nominations by country are:
- UK — 44 nominations
- USA — 43 nominations
- Canada — 37 nominations
- Belgium — 7 nominations
- France — 6 nominations
- Germany — 6 nominations
- Japan — 5 nominations
For the full list of nominees, please visit here.
The Rockie Awards International Program Competition is juried by a panel of 150 international industry professionals. The Rockie Awards Grand Jury chooses the Grand Jury Prize, selected from the top-scoring programs across the entire field of nominees. This year’s Grand Jury includes: Kathleen Finch, chief lifestyle brands officer, Discovery Inc.; Lisa Godfrey, vice-president of original content, Corus Entertainment Inc.; Devin Griffin, general manager of BET+, BET Networks; Paul Mortimer, head of digital channels and acquisitions, ITV; Jill Offman, managing director, Viacom International Studios UK, and executive vice-president, Comedy Central and Paramount Network International; and Linda Simensky, head of PBS Kids Content, PBS Kids.
See the full 2020 Rockie Awards jury here.
