Reminiscing with.

ANDRA SHEFFER, FIRST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

In 1979, Bill Marshall, who was then-chair and founder of the Toronto Film Festival, suggested that we investigate setting up an academy-style awards event for the Canadian film industry. I went out and got the first $5,000 grant from the Ontario Ministry of Culture to research how we would set this up. We began by consulting with the industry and ended up having kazilllions of meetings, many of which took place in the greenroom of the King of Kensington set. So there we were in these smoke-filled green-rooms trying to figure out how to do this. A lot of key players got involved, we set up committees, determined membership (very much modeled on other academies in the world) and continued full-steam ahead. In the early days, fundraising was the big challenge. Maria and I would take the bus and raise C$25,000 from corporate sponsors because we couldn't afford any other ways to go. We used to sleep overnight on the trains between Montreal and Toronto to save money--but that's all part of launching a new enterprise. We had a lot of support from some really key people in the industry.

Al Waxman was the chair for several years in the early '80s and that really helped raise the profile of the Academy because he was a recognizable face to the public. AI was a huge supporter of the Canadian industry and even though he went to do some work in the United States, his heart was definitely in Canada. He did everything to promote Canadians and he was sincerely behind the Academy and all the people here.

PAUL GRATTON, ACADEMY CHAIRMAN

About 19 years ago, I was a student journalist out of Ottawa when I came to Toronto under my own auspices and got a ticket to a Genie Awards show. It was a very glamorous affair and I remember showing up in a lime green suit that I borrowed from my dad, and was totally impressed with all the stars with black ties all around me. They found a table for me in the back with the crew. I didn't have a clue but I kinda fell in love with the Genies.

Four or five years later I moved to Toronto. I was a huge Canadian film buff ever since I was a kid and this was just perfect for me. After I'd been on the Board for a year and a half, I was one of their star performers but I didn't actually qualify for membership and I think that's why they invented the executive category! They loved my energy and enthusiasm for promoting Canadian films.

I remember when the Academy just had the dirtiest little office above a porn theater on Yonge Street. I used to feel concerned for the safety of the female employees given the sort of clientele that was attracted to the downstairs area.

The Academy's come a long way since then! And of course, I've attended every awards show since I first came to Toronto--it's just always a big deal for me.

With a 500-pound gorilla residing south of the border, it's absolutely essential that a struggling or emerging industry have a moment in the sun every year. Despite the incredible obstacles, despite the limited budgets, despite all the structural impediments that stop us from controlling our own marketplace, excellent work manages to get done every year.

If you go down the list, the winners are extremely credible and always well-chosen. I'm thinking of Atanarjuat. Here was an Academy that voted best picture of the year to a movie that's not even in one of the two official languages! It was in Inuktituk. I thought it was a very progressive decision. It was definitely the best picture of the year and an enormous accomplishment.

That's why I'm proud to head the Academy: decisions are smart, members are engaged and it's well-run. Hats off to Maria and her team, many of whom have been there for years.

RUDY BUTTIGNOL, PAST CHAIRMAN

I got involved with the Academy in 1984. Once I was a member, I realized that documentaries were not well-represented, so I wrote a letter to Andra Sheffer, stating that since we'd modeled ourselves against the American Academy and since documentaries were such a big part of the Canadian scene, I thought we should expand the Documentary Award.

So I wrote to the Rules and Regs Committee and got invited to present, and after that motion was passed, they asked me to join the Committee. I then proposed that theatrical shorts and documentaries also be represented on the Board of Directors, so, I helped found that branch of the Academy and used that as kind of a building block to expand.

When I started out, documentaries were not quite given their due. In the Academy I saw it as one of my missions to make sure that the place of documentary was recognized within the television landscape, within the whole industry landscape.

My two key challenges and accomplishments had to do with establishing the documentary branch and finding a way to build the awards in recognition of the ever-growing importance of documentary--first at the Genie Award level and then at the Gemini Award level. In the 1980s it would've been inconceivable for someone from documentary to become the chair of the Academy--I just completed a seven year stretch as chairman of the Academy. That was, in large measure, a reflection of the growing importance that docs and doc makers have within our industry.

My biggest problems were in the '80s and early '90s when, due to few entries, we struggled to keep the Theatrical Doc Award alive. It was just because theatrical documentaries are so erratic in their financing and their distribution that this was the case. My belief was that if you build it they will come. The Academy had to be proactive and keep its recognition alive, while waiting for the industry to catch up. Now, of course, theatrical docs are all the rage and television documentaries have gone from being a marginal genre to being a dominant genre.

In that sense, the Academy has been ahead of the curve. Our job is always to reflect on the industry or at least be as close to the reflection as possible. We've really been leaders, certainly in Canada, in recognizing the importance of documentary to the whole scene.

MARIA TOPALOVICH, ACADEMY PRESIDENT AND CEO 

In the '70s, the community was really starting to become galvanized. You had a group of people that were really passionate about the industry--actors, directors, producers, financiers and film union people--that said, "You know what? It's time for us to create an academy. We've had these Canadian film awards all these years but it's not an academy." It was created specifically with the mandate to celebrate, promote and develop a feature film industry in this country and start building that elusive star system we had been wishing for in Canada.

That's how it began. The group of people involved were the passionate optimists: people like Bill Marshall, Garth Drabinsky, Paul Hoffert, Robert Lantos, Al Waxman, Jack Grey, Don Shabib, John Hunter, Allan King, Richard Leiterman, and many others. These were the folks who sat down and said, "Let's do it. But, how do we create an academy?" And that's where I came in. Andra Sheffer and Paul Hoffert brought me onboard.

The whole principle of an academy is based on peer voting, so there's a knowledge and an understanding of what's being judged. Quite frankly, none of us really knew what we were doing, but we were enthusiastic, we all had our skills, we had examples of academy rules and regs from around the world and we re-vamped them and re-created them to reflect what was happening in Canada. Within six months, we had 400 members. Our goal was always to become national but it all started in Toronto. Within nine months (March 20, 1980), the first Genie Awards show was held.

Now, 25 years later, we have 4000 members of the Academy and I'm sure by the end of our 25th year, we'll have 5000. That's an extraordinary feat.

What's ahead for the Academy? There are two lines that we are working on--one is public and one is industrial, but they do meet in the middle. We're going to continue to unify the industry, build our membership, continue to create programming, promotional initiatives, professional development initiatives; all those types of ancillary programs and activities that define us as a professional academy. The other goal is to build awareness of film and television talent through our three awards, and this is really our key mission. We will try to build audiences for these awards, continue to build alliances and work more closely with all the players to promote our industry.

The Genie Awards are absolutely in the right place on the CHUM network. The promotional energy and expertise that they put toward the Genies and the whole attitude of that network are very much in line with Canadian film. They've got STAR! TV that is focused entirely on promoting Canadian talent. They've been doing extraordinary work there. The power of their promotion, multi-platform marketing with television and radio, leveraging of their stations and different programs are all really cutting-edge. They show incredible leadership and expertise, and that's what the Genies are interested in. During CHUM's first year of involvement with the Genie awards, they doubled the 18-24 audience for the show, which is fantastic. That's exactly the audience that the Genies and Canadian film are looking to build. They help prove that Canadian films are cool, hip and independent. We love working with CHUM and can't wait till the 25th anniversary show, I'm sure it will be fantastic!