The Show Will Go On
by Staff
(March 4, 2020 – Toronto, ON) Each year around this time, we begin to gear up to cover Canada Screen Week, which includes several awards galas including the last night, the big Broadcast Gala carried by CBC. It is usually held in a huge theatre packed with stars, guests, industry movers and shakers and…wait a minute.
In Switzerland they cancelled two of that nation’s largest trade fairs, including the annual Geneva Car Show, due to fears of the spreading COVID-19, coronavirus. In Barcelona, the Mobile World Congress, an annual telecoms industry gathering that draws more than 100,000 visitors has been called off. Similar events in other countries have also been cancelled although in Japan, with more than 1,000 reported cases, there are no plans to cancel or postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
So far in Canada reported cases have remained low. However, since March 1, just a few days ago, there have been 9 new cases in Ontario, all of them linked to travel overseas. With all of this in mind, Northernstars contacted the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the organization behind Canadian Screen Week and the Canadian Screen Awards. We wanted to know if they had any plans in the event it becomes necessary to cancel or postpone this year’s award ceremonies and other activities. As the headline says…the show will go on. In response to a set of questions, we received the following statement:
“We are in close touch with municipal, provincial and federal authorities with regards to the possible effect that the novel coronavirus: COVID-19 may have on Canadian Screen Week events. At this time, there is no recommendation to postpone or cancel any of our activities and Canadian Screen Week is proceeding as planned. We appreciate this is a developing scenario and we will, of course, notify all of our stakeholders immediately in the event this changes.”
This year Canadian Screen Week runs from March 23 to the 28th including Family Fan Day on Saturday March 28th. The Broadcast Gala on Sunday March 29th goes live on CBC at 8:00 P.M. Eastern.
