WebSeries Canada is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s awards, following the festival’s Spark Equity and Inclusion Gala on July 16th. The winners of the T.O. Webfest awards were announced live covering 35 categories and featured the best web series in categories including comedy, drama, family, musical, horror & thriller, sci fi & fantasy, documentary, and lifestyle. The gala took place virtually this weekend and featured filmmakers from around the world, industry leaders, sponsors, the festival’s programmers, the public and members of the media as guests. 

This year’s turnout was exceptional, with almost half of the 169 entries coming from Canada and with almost half of those coming from Quebec, the festival added a Best French-Canadian web series award. With so many great web series from around the world being represented in the festival they expanded the awards to also include Best Foreign Language Film and Best International Film. Official selections that took home multiple awards at the 2021 T.O. Webfest Gala included Love, Guns & Level Ups, INSiDE, Detention Adventures, What We Leave Behind, NarcoLeap and more.

“As an organization we committed to funding the Spark Equity Program; an equity and inclusion program that included access for underrepresented talent in the industry very early on in planning this year’s festival. We thank all the volunteers and the Canadian Media Fund for coming on board as a sponsor. When you look at the results, and Indigenous production What We Leave Behind receiving three awards, it makes me feel proud. We look forward to continuing to do more next year,” says Michael Evask, Vice President and Festival Director. 

New to this year’s festival, the Spark Equity Program presented by the CMF, helped to ensure that cost was not a barrier for any under-represented industry professional to participate in this year’s T.O. WebFest.

The full list of the 2021 T.O. WebFest Spark Equity and Inclusion Gala winners is included below:

BEST DRAMA: INSiDE – Peter Salmon

BEST COMEDY: Love, Guns & Level Ups – Andrew Shanks

BEST DOCUMENTARY & LIFESTYLE: Tiny Garden – Kenneth Cheong

BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY: Felix, Maude and the End of the World – Albertine RivièreBEST HORROR & THRILLER: The Reminder – Shahriar Adham El Kosht

BEST FAMILY CONTENT & MUSICAL: Everything is Going To Be Alright – Amanda O’Reilly

BEST LOW BUDGET: Shakespeare Republic: Lockdown Chronicles – Sally McLean

BEST OVERALL WINNER: Disappearing Stories – Oleg Ageychev and Alexander Gornovsky

BEST CANADIAN: Detention Adventures – Lauren Corber and Joe Kicak

BEST TORONTO: Short Term Sentence – Phil Moniz

BEST FRENCH CANADIAN: Piege/Trapped – Pierre B. Hamelin

BEST INTERNATIONAL (FR or EN): Fritures/Fry Up – Marie-Jo Pareja BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Miracle Barbershop – Kenny Tan

WEBSERIES CANADA SPOTLIGHT WINNER: Cam_Girlfriend – Daniel AM Rosenberg

LGBTQ2+ SPOTLIGHT: Kuntergrau – Falk Steinborn

WOMENS SPOTLIGHT: Planetelle – Felicia Johansson Carneiro

BIPOC SPOTLIGHT: What We Leave Behind – Jonathan Elliott

TRIPLE THREAT AUTEUR: Detention Adventures – Joe Kicak

BEST SCREENPLAY: INSiDE – Peter Salmon, Shoshana McCallum, and Dan Musgrove

BEST DIRECTING: Love, Guns & Level Ups – Andrew Shanks and Nicholas Cleary

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: INSiDE – David Cameron

BEST LEAD ACTOR: Short Term Sentence – Phil Moniz 

BEST LEAD ACTRESS: Claire and the Elderly – Irlande Côté

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: For The Record – Maurice Dean Wint

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: For The Record – Karen LeBlanc

BEST ENSEMBLE: Narcoleap – Season 2 – Kate Green

BEST SOUND DESIGN: Love, Guns & Level Ups – Leah McKeown, Duncan Campbell

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Love, Guns & Level Ups – Daniel Vink

BEST ANIMATED CONTENT: Everything is Going To Be Alright – Marcus Nicholson

BEST EDITING: INSiDE – Jochen Fitzherbert

BEST MUSIC: What We Leave Behind – Sutra

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Narcoleap – Season 2 – Scott Phelan

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Gliwensbourg Chronicles – Nathalie Nen

BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP: QUEENS – Ashley Stewart and Jorrie Cull

BOARD OF GOVERNORS HONOURABLE MENTION: For The Record – Christopher Heron   

BOARD OF GOVERNORS HONOURABLE MENTION: What We Leave Behind – Jonathan Elliott   

BOARD OF GOVERNORS HONOURABLE MENTION: 300 Year-Old Class of 2020 – Sungwon Jo   

BOARD OF GOVERNORS HONOURABLE MENTION: Siti Vampire – Kenny Tan   

BOARD OF GOVERNORS HONOURABLE MENTION: Lauren Corber, LoCo Motion Pictures 

PITCH PIT – Best overall: Kate Green, Dr. F   PITCH PIT – Best pitch: Herman Wang, illuminagents

PITCH PIT – Best pilot: Sunny Chen, Open Ethnicity

For more information on this year’s festival including where to purchase screening passes visit: https://www.towebfest.com/

TICKETS / OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

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To view a list of last year’s award winners visit: 

https://www.towebfest.com/2020-nominations

About WebSeries Canada: WebSeries Canada (formerly the Independent Web Creators of Canada) was founded by a group of Canadian digital creators who believe that working together, sharing information and supporting each others’ work is the only way to succeed in the evolving entertainment industry and to build an industry around it.  www.towebfest.com

About Canada Media Fund: The Canada Media Fund is a public-private partnership founded on April 1, 2010 by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian cable industry. It is used to fund the creation of original Canadian content and support the Canadian media industry.