Canadian Screen Awards early wins

The CBC-TV comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes and former Bell Media president Ivan Fecan are among the recipients of special Canadian Screen Awards.

Other early winners include digital media maven Ana Serrano, former CBC producer Mark Starowicz, screenwriter Karen Walton and the charity Performing Arts Lodges, also known as PAL Canada.

Fecan will be the focus of a tribute by the board of directors of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for a long and varied career that includes stints at CBC Radio, CBCTV, City, NBC and CTV. He is executive chair of Thunderbird Films, made up of multiple production and distribution companies.

This Hour Has 22 Minutes will receive an icon award while Serrano, chief digital officer of the Canadian Film Centre, will get a digital media trail-blazing award.

Starowicz, the visionary behind the documentary series Canada: A People’s History as well as As It Happens, Sunday Morning and The Journal, will get the Gordon Sinclair award for broadcast journalism.

Walton, whose credits include the film Ginger Snaps and TV series Orphan Black and Flashpoint, will get the Margaret Collier writing award, and the humanitarian award goes to PAL Canada, which provides services to senior and disadvantaged members of the professional artists’ community.

The awards will be presented as part of Canadian Screen Week, March 7 to 13, 2016.