Canada goes Hollywood- the Canadian Screen Awards

The first ever Canadian Screen awards were this past Sunday March 3rd evening. Canadian? TV? Screen awards? All those words in the same sentence? Trust me, I was just as surprised. In all honesty, after watching the catastrophe of this year's Oscars I didn't have much hope for the Canadian version of such an awards show and only really on put it on as background noise while I was studying. I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by the show. Not only was it entertaining but the jokes were actually funny (a rare occurrence for an awards show, not to mention a Canadian one).  Before I knew it I was paying more attention to the TV then my study notes! I actually was lol-ing (can that even be a verb? Anyway I literally laughed out loud) at most of Martin Short's jokes and realized how many decent Canadian shows there are out there and that I actually watch! I graduate school this summer and am planning on spending at least a few months outside of the country and have started to think about all the little things I am going to miss about this cold country that I have a deep love/hate relationship with, and a number of shows is among that list of what I will miss most. The shows I will proudly admit to watching include Dragon's Den (the entrepreneur in me LOVES this one) and George Stroumboulopoulos, and also the ones that we will just call guilty pleasures (Real Housewives of Vancouver and The Bachelor Canada), I will miss them all. Dragon's Den won best reality show (was there really any competition?) and Kevin O'Leary gave an awesome shout out to all of Canada's talented entrepreneurs that they have seen over the 8 years.

With awards shows come fashion, right? Let's discuss who, in my personal opinion,  rocked it and who royally failed.

Best dressed goes without a doubt to Laura Vandervoort. She looked amazing in this gorgeous red number that was the perfect mixture of sophisticated and sexy.

 

The Real Housewives of Vancouver's Mary Zilba rocked an elegant number. It was classic with some sparkle detail around the neck in a classic neutral dusty rose color. I loved this number.

Kristin Kreuk's outfit was cute and fun, but not at all appropriate for an awards show. Even if its a first of its kind, we need to up the ante for Canadians, and this jumpsuit was way too casual for such a formal affair. 

Arlene Dickinson of Dragon's Den (and overall awesome entrepreneur, communications professional and just great human being) shone in an Elie Saab dress. The dress was lovely, sparkled and was age appropriate, but the rest of her look fell flat. Her hair was poufed to the extreme and was completely outdated. Her dress said "star" while her hair said "grandma". 

Also, Kim Catrall won a secret award! I found this on the Facebook page of the Canadian Screen Awards but did not see it mentioned at all on the actual show! Nor was Kim herself anywhere to be seen. The award was for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to Film & Television. The color of this dress worked on her but I'm not sure how I feel about the asymmetrical straps.  As a Sex and the City star, she could have done better.

The show was only an hour long, not near enough time to honor all of our Canadian talent, and there were a few technical difficulties in the beginning. All in all, a great start and I'm sure that the first time kinks will be worked out by next year.  I am so, so proud to be Canadian (eh). Congrats to all the winners and everyone nominated. I hope this wonderful initiative continues and maybe even one day, comes to our nation's capital!

Did you watch the awards? What did you think?