LEO AWARDS: Night One With Hosts Veena Sood and Paul McGillion

Leo Awards Ceremony One hosts Veena Sood and Paul McGillion gratefully thanked the off-screen nominees who provide the “smoke and mirrors” that make on-screen actors look good. “Thank God for makeup,” joked Sood about 5:30 a.m. call times. And “thank you for the cleavage,” she quipped to costume designers as McGillion concurred, to a packed room at the Westin Bayshore Hotel last night. Just imagine what visual effects can do.

Motion Pictures:

The first night of awards showed some love for Eadweard with four Leos going to the period drama led by director Kyle Rideout’s production design. Costume designer Florence Barrett, who won a Leo of her own, accepted all the Eadweard Leos. Rideout and producer Josh Epstein were in Maui screening their film.

“I’m proud to call myself a Canadian filmmaker,” said Violent’s Joseph Schweers on accepting the third of a trio of Leos for cinematography, picture editing and visual effects (along with Marc Whitelaw). He gratefully thanked the translator of Vancouver band We Are the City’s Norwegian film who helped them “understand the movie we were cutting”. The band members began editing on same computer, he said, but that didn’t work out.

Black Fly took home one Leo for sound editing and Grace: The Possession scored one for overall sound.

Dramatic Series:

No one TV series dominated the off-screen awards, with Strange Empire’s Bruce Worrall accepting the cinematography Leo for the women’s western, which was not renewed by CBC; Motive’s Lisa Binkley winning the picture editing Leo for Bad Blonde, one of her two nominations for the Vancouver whydunit; and The Flash VFX team led by Armen Kevorkian winning a well-deserved Leo for making the impossible seem real on Going Rogue

Screengrab from Going Rogue.

Witches of East End, which was not renewed for a third season, won two Leos — Rachel O’Toole for production design and Susan De Laval for costume design. Once Upon a Time won a makeup Leo for season four’s The Snow Queen. And iZombie scored a hairstyling Leo for its white-haired white-faced zombies.

Presenters:

Perennial Leo Awards nominee Richard Harmon accepts award for an absentee winner.