Held at The Carlu on February 20th, 2015, the 13th annual ACTRA awards honoured the best performances in 2014 by members of the union of 15,000 professional film, video and new media performers.

Tantoo Cardinal | Photo: Nick Lee

Tantoo Cardinal | Photo: Nick Lee

Actress Tantoo Cardinal was the Award of Excellence recipient, a well-deserved honour as she has over 100 television and film credits to her name [via CBC]. Tantoo’s acceptance speech on YouTube here (16 mins).

The full 2015 ACTRA award winners are as follows:

Award of Excellence – Tantoo Cardinal
Stunt Award – Jamie Jones

VOICE
Cory Doran

FEMALE
Tatiana Maslany

MALE
Gavin Crawford

Following the awards ceremony, guests took to the dance floor to dance the rest of the night away.

For more info visit www.actratoronto.com

Our photos from the ACTRA awards by James Shay and Nick Lee

An interview with Jordan Gavaris, nominated for his role in Orphan Black and he recently won a 2015 Canadian Screen Award for it.

Jordan tells us he still gets nervous at auditions.
On what has contributed to his success at a young age:
“Being at the right place at the right time, and being a part of a project that crossed cultural barriers and appeals to a large audience,” he said.

On when he found out he booked the role:
“I was standing outside Summerhill Avenue in Toronto and had just walked out of the incredibly expensive Summerhill Market, where I bought a strawberry for $20 and I am pretty sure I dropped them all when the call came.”

On his greatest learning experience as an artist:
“Working with Tatiana has been the greatest learning experience,” he said. “She inspires me to be a more passionate actor. I thought I was a passionate actor, but her she lives and breathes the art and really encourages actors to be different. A lot of actors get sucked into the idea that they have to imitate the great actors, but she fights against that. It’s been a great experience.”

Christine Horne, nominated for A sci-fi short film written by the writer of Orphan Black, which premiered at TIFF last September.

On what she was looking most forward to for the evening:
“I worked with Kate Trotter and admire her work, so I am looking forward to losing

to her. She is fantastic in the film.” ***they were both in Tru Love, which Trotter was nominated for.

On the best part of her job:
“I get to play for a living and express life through my work.”

On the worst part of her job:
“I don’t love auditioning.”

An interview with Colin Mochrie, nominated for his role in The Anniversary.

Colin Mochrie

Colin Mochrie, nominated for his role in The Anniversary

On the film:
“I actually just saw it for the first time yesterday, so I had to accept the fact that people thought I did well in it,” he says. “I thought I did OK.”

“It’s about a couple on their 20th anniversary, and he goes for a run and doesn’t return. A year later, she holds an anniversary party, hoping he will come back. It centers on that night and the characters who show up at the party. Old wounds are opened up and new wounds were started. But love conquers all.”

On what he was most looking forward to “I am looking forward to seeing friends and catching up with people, who I haven’t seen in a long time because we’re all so busy – which I guess is a good thing.”

He cites working on Who’s Line is it Anyway? as a career highlight, along with getting to work with Robin Williams.

Mikael D 2015 Lookbook "Mystical China"
In the Land of Sea and Honey Dinner - a #FemFoodFeb dining event

Nick Lee

Editor and Photos at BestOfToronto.net