Sheridan graduates win top prizes at 2024 Canadian Screen Awards

Twenty-one Sheridan alumni have been honoured with Canadian Screen Awards this year, recognition for their work on some of the best known and innovative content in the Canadian media landscape. The awards were presented during celebrations held May 28-31 to mark Canadian Screen Week.

Alumni who received the awards are all graduates of the Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design. They have won the prestigious CSA for work on content that spans genres ranging from sports and documentaries to children’s programming.

“I am excited to see so many of our alumni recognized with CSAs. These awards demonstrate how our graduates continue to be among the top talent in the Canadian media scene. They are paving the way forward for screen-based industries through new approaches to storytelling that will resonate with audiences,” says Mark Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design.

Alumni received more than 75 nominations this year, the highest number of nominations they’ve earned since the CSAs were introduced in 2013. The winning alumni are:

• Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Illustration ’05) was part of a team that won the Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary for Twice Colonized.
• Curry Leamen (Media Arts ’08) and Matthew Dorman (Media Arts ’08) are nominated for Best Sports Feature Segment for Staring Back. Dorman is also nominated for Best Sports Opening for his work on the 2022 Grey Cup.
• Lucius Dechausay (Advanced Television and Film '03) won for Best Web Program or Series, Non-Fiction for Here & Queer.
• Ryan Ongaro (Media Arts '12), Kyle Peters (Media Arts '08), Katie Pagacz (Bachelor of Film and Television '22), Luke Dante (Media Arts '16), Timothy Muirhead (Media Arts '98), and Patton Rodrigues (Media Arts '12) all received wins for Best Sound, Animation for work on PAW Patrol - Aqua Pups Save a Floating Castle.
• Also recognized for work on Paw Patrol was Toni Stevens (Media Arts ’85), who won in the category of Best Pre-School Program or Series.
• Christopher Yip (Advanced Television and Film '19) won for Best Direction, Web Program or Series for Streams Flow From A River: Benny and the Jets.
• Chris Pozzebon (Advanced Television and Film '08) won for Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series, and in the category of Best Writing, Children’s or Youth, for The Hardy Boys.
• Juliette Hagopian (Crafts and Design - Metal and Jewelry '86) won for Best TV Movie for The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story.
• For Best Talk Series, John Simpson (Media Arts ’05) won for his work on The Marilyn Denis Show.
• In the category of Best Picture Editing, Reality/Competition, Kyle Power (Media Arts ’11) won for Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. The World - Comedy Queens.
• Rob McCallum’s (Advanced Television and Film ’06) documentary Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe won for Best Direction, Documentary Program and for Best Writing, Documentary.
• Keenan Lynch (Media Arts ’15) won for Best Photography, Documentary or Factual with Black Community Mixtapes.
• Priscilla Galvez (Advanced Television and Film ’14) won for Best Live Action Short Drama with Motherland.
• Steven Copley (Media Arts ’87), Steven Hammond (Media Arts ’87) and James Lazarenko (Media Arts ’08) won for Best Sound Design in a Feature Length Documentary for work on Swan Song.

In addition to the many alumni who won, a project associated with Sheridan’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT), an integral part of Generator at Sheridan, was also recognized. SIRT worked with Cream Productions on the Survivorman VR game, which won Best Immersive Experience – Fiction. Survivorman VR provides users with immersive experiences that simulate real-world survival scenarios guided by renowned survival expert Les Stroud.