The Creative School celebrates 13 wins at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards

Faculty and alumni from The Creative School took home an impressive 13 Canadian Screen Awards. The Canadian Academy, which produces the notorious Canadian Screen Awards (external link, opens in new window) , brings together the screen-based industry annually to celebrate the country’s top talent in the film, television and digital sectors. At this year's film awards event which premiered in mid-April, alumni and faculty from RTA School of Media and the School of Image Arts won awards from their respective categories. Alumni from other  programs across The Creative School also received numerous nominations recognizing their creativity in TV, film and digital media. 

Karen Sebesta, RTA Media Professor and Program Director of Media Production, along with RTA alumni Joel Darling and Glen MacDonald won a Canadian Screen Award in the category of ‘Best Sports Program or Series’ for their coverage of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games on CBC. 

Sebesta was the first female Executive Producer at CBC Sports and the first female Senior Producer of live domestic Olympic shows and the Paralympics. An alum of the RTA Media program herself, she has decades of experience in TV production and professional broadcast. Sebesta has covered and produced over a dozen Olympic Games programs, with the Beijing Games being the most recent.

The 17 day sports program was executed by four production teams that worked around the clock to cover the Beijing Olympic Games. Each team produced six hours of coverage daily to provide viewers with a variety of features, live events, stories, interviews and notable moments that were both Canadian and international in scope.

“Working with the CBC leadership team to bring the Beijing Winter Olympics to Canadians was a great experience. The goal was to bring the stories of the Games to Canadians and no one ever does that hard work and long hours with an award as the goal. But being recognized by your industry peers with a CSA sure is an added bonus!” Sebesta said. “Being able to share this award with the faculty and students of RTA as a point of inspiration has also been humbling. Whether it's through research, production, publishing or performance, I think it's great to keep demonstrating that learning never stops and as teachers we are still passionate about storytelling."

Sports coverage during COVID-19

Sebesta and her team, including host Scott Russell, produced the six hour Prime Time Show for the Beijing Olympics. Despite having to work around strict health and safety protocols, the team was able to create a full fledged production with well-rounded coverage in Toronto as well as Beijing. 

“We did some incredible things in spite of working under strict Covid protocols. Our host Scott was in the studio in Toronto and we had a duplicate set with virtual/green screen technology in Beijing. When Canadians saw those interviews at home, it looked like everyone was together on the set,” she explained. “They didn't realize it at all, until about Day 3 when we explained it to the audience and then did a few fancy video effects to make the athletes magically appear on set. We decided to show the audience how cool the technology was and that Covid wasn't going to stop broadcasters from bringing the great stories of the Games to Canadians.”

Full list of winners:

Best Direction of a Web Series: Token - Winnifred Jong (Image Arts Film ‘92)

Best Sports Program or Series: 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games - Karen Sebesta (RTA ‘87), Joel Darling (RTA ‘86), Glen MacDonald (RTA ‘92) 

Best Reality/Competition Program or Series: The Amazing Race Canada - Ann Camilleri (RTA ‘80) 

Best History Documentary: Underground Railroad: The Secret History - Margot Daley (RTA ‘90)

Best Children's or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series: All-Round Champion - Matthew Hornburg (RTA ‘98), Mark Bishop (RTA ‘98), Maney Malabar (RTA ‘81) 

Best Reality/Competition Program or Series: The Amazing Race Canada - Mark Lysakowski (RTA ‘98), Jesse Storey (RTA ‘11) 

Achievement in Sound Editing: Brother - Krystin Hunter (RTA ‘09), Kevin Jung (RTA ‘14) 

Best Writing, Animation: Pinecone & Pony - Stephanie Kaliner (RTA ‘08) 

Best Direction, Lifestyle or Information: Mary Makes it Easy - Jan McCharles (RTA ‘04) 

Best Sports Feature Segment: Left Behind - Josh Shiaman (RTA ‘01) 

Best Original Music, Documentary: Blk: An Origin Story - Tom Third (RTA Contract Lecturer)

Best Drama Series: The Porter - R.T. Thorne (RTA ‘00) 

Best Web Program or Series, Non-Fiction: ET Canada Pride - Mikael Melo (RTA ‘18) 

The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University

The Creative School is a dynamic faculty that is making a difference in new, unexplored ways. Made up of Canada’s top professional schools and transdisciplinary hubs in media, communication, design and cultural industries, The Creative School offers students an unparalleled global experience in the heart of downtown Toronto.