{{Short description|Retired annual Canadian media award}} The '''Bijou Awards''' were a Canadian award for non-feature films, launched in 1981 but presented only once before being discontinued.<ref>"Brides nominated for 7 awards". ''The Province'', October 7, 1981.</ref> Created as a joint project of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and the Canadian Film and Television Association (CFTA), the awards were essentially a new home for many of the categories, particularly but not exclusively the ones for television films, that had been dropped after the old Canadian Film Awards transitioned into the Genie Awards in 1980,<ref name=topalovich>Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. {{ISBN|0-7737-3238-1}}. pp. 135-139.</ref> as well as for the CFTA's trade and craft awards in areas such as television advertising and educational films.<ref>"Bijou Awards bow for shorts and TV prods". ''Cinema Canada'', November 1981.</ref>
The ceremony was held on October 28, 1981, at Casa Loma in Toronto, Ontario, and hosted by Nancy White.<ref>"War Brides top Bijou winner". ''Regina Leader-Post'', October 30, 1981.</ref>
The awards were not presented in 1982, as the Academy of Canadian Cinema undertook detailed planning toward introducing permanent television awards.<ref>Mark Dillon, [https://playbackonline.ca/2014/03/07/playback-tribute-a-reinvigorated-academy-celebrates-its-legacy/ "Playback tribute: a reinvigorated Academy celebrates its legacy"]. ''Playback'', March 7, 2014.</ref> In 1983, the Academy formally proposed that the Bijou Awards replace the ACTRA Awards as the primary national television award,<ref>Lorne Parton, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105780702/ "TV trade looking at alternatives to the ACTRA awards"]. ''The Province'', April 21, 1983.</ref> although this did not occur and the Bijous were ultimately never presented again; instead, the Gemini Awards, the Academy's permanent awards for television production, were launched in 1986,<ref>Matthew Fraser, "New awards for TV films announced". ''The Globe and Mail'', May 31, 1985.</ref> and in 2012 the Genies and the Geminis were merged into the contemporary Canadian Screen Awards.
Some later sources have occasionally misattributed the Bijou winners as Genie or Gemini winners.<ref>For example, the headline "Hard life, hard film: true story of Linda M is sequel to Gemini winner Nose and Tina" (''Winnipeg Free Press'', October 17, 1995) mistakenly ascribes a Bijou winner listed here as a Gemini winner.</ref>
==Winners and nominees== {| class=wikitable width="100%" |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Television Drama Over 30 Minutes ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Television Drama Under 30 Minutes |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''War Brides'' — Bill Gough''' *''The Running Man'' *''You've Come a Long Way, Katie'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''The Olden Days Coat'' — Michael MacMillan, Seaton McLean, Janice Platt''' *''Dernier Voyage'' *''Irene Moves In'' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Documentary Over 30 Minutes ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Documentary Under 30 Minutes |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Challenger: An Industrial Romance'' — Stephen Low''' *''The Last Days of Living'' *''The Lost Pharaoh'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Nose and Tina'' — Wolf Koenig''' *''Laughlines'' *''Steady as She Goes'' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Actor ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Actress |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Chuck Shamata, ''The Running Man''''' *Richard Monette, ''A Far Cry from Home'' *Al Waxman, ''The Winnings of Frankie Walls'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Lally Cadeau, ''You've Come a Long Way, Katie''''' *Sharry Flett, ''War Brides'' *Dixie Seatle, ''A Population of One'' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Animation ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Television Variety or Music |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Getting Started'' — Richard Condie, Jerry Krepavich''' *''One Way Street (Les Naufragés du quartier)'' — Bernard Longpré *''Premiers jours'' — Clorinda Warny, Suzanne Gervais, Lina Gagnon | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Royal Canadian Air Farce'' — Trevor Evans''' *''Catulli Carmina'' *''The Hawk'' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Director of a Drama ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Director of a Documentary |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Donald Brittain, ''The Running Man''''' *Martin Lavut, ''War Brides'' *Peter Rowe, ''Final Edition'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Norma Bailey, ''Nose and Tina''''' *Robert Fresco, ''Steady as She Goes'' *Nick Kendall, ''The Last Pharaoh'' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Nielsen-Ferns International First Production Award ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Chetwynd Award for Business Promotion |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Exposure'' - Wayne Arron''' *''Against the River'' — York University Film Department *''Steady as She Goes'' — Pretty Pictures | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''PFA Labs''' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Screenplay ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Non-Dramatic Script |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Gilles Carle and Roger Lemelin, ''The Plouffe Family (Les Plouffe)''''' *Tony Sheer, ''Final Edition'' *Grahame Woods, ''War Brides'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Michel Gerard, ''The Canadian Establishment'': "Ten Toronto Street"''' *Donald Brittain, ''The Lost Pharaoh'' *Gail Singer, ''Love, Honoured and Bruised'' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Instructional Program ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Commercial |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Estuary'' — Peter Jones''' *''Class Project: The Garbage Movie'' *''What's Bugging Him?'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Imperial Oil: "Energy Efficiency" — Patti Grech''' *Coffee Council: "Cowboys" — Rabko Television Productions *Sunlight: "Wedding" — The Partners Film Co. |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Art Direction ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Music Score |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Barbara McLean, ''War Brides''''' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Larry Crosley, ''The Lost Pharaoh''''' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Cinematography in a Drama ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Cinematography in a Documentary |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Vic Sarin, ''War Brides''''' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Robert Fresco, ''Steady as She Goes''''' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Independent Production ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Sales, Promotion or Public Relations Film |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''The Breakthrough'' — Ira Levy, Peter Williamson''' *''The Olden Days Coat'' *''One Thousand Dozen'' *''Le Paradis des Chefs — Badji le pur'' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Snow'' — Lloyd Walton for Ontario Parks''' *''Be a Winner!'' — Pro Creation Canada *''The Little Paper That Grew'' — Extra Modern Productions |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Editing in a Drama ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Editing in a Documentary |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Myrtle Virgo, ''War Brides''''' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Harvey Zlatarits, ''The Hawk''''' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Sound ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Visual Effects |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Ed Chong, ''The Running Man''''' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''Colin Chivers, RC Cola: "Innertube"''' |- ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Audio-Video, 1-7 Projector Programs ! style="background:#EEDD82; width:50%" | Best Audio-Video, 8-18 Projector Programs |- | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''Modulighting''''' | valign="top" | *{{blue ribbon}} '''''The Green Network''''' |}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Canadian Screen Awards}}
Category:1981 in Canadian cinema Category:1981 in Canadian television Category:Awards established in 1981 Category:Predecessors of the Canadian Screen Awards