The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning (established in December 2004) are literary awards handed out annually since 2005 during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to Canadian cartoonists honouring excellence in comics (including webcomics) and graphic novels published in English (including translated works). The awards are named in honour of Canadian cartoonist Doug Wright . Winners are selected by a jury of Canadians who have made significant contributions to national culture, based on shortlisted selections provided by a nominating committee of five experts in the comics field. The Wrights are handed out in three main categories, "Best Book", "The Spotlight Award" (affectionately known as "The Nipper"), and, since 2008, the "Pigskin Peters Award" for non-narrative or experimental works. In 2020, the organizers added "The Egghead", an award for best kids’ book for readers under twelve. In addition to the awards, since 2005 the organizers annually induct at least one cartoonist into the Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall Fame .
31-556: The Wright Awards are modeled after traditional book prizes, with the intention of drawing attention to the comics medium from a broad range of demographics inside and outside of its traditional fanbase. The Wrights have garnered acclaim as well as earning the support of a diverse range of participating artists and jurors including Scott Thompson , Don McKellar , Bruce McDonald , Jerry Ciccoritti , Bob Rae , Andrew Coyne , Sara Quin , Greg Morrison , Chester Brown , Lorenz Peter, and Nora Young . The Best Book and The Spotlight awards are
62-722: A reality television program in Canada called My Fabulous Gay Wedding . Thompson defended Mordecai Richler 's novel Cocksure in Canada Reads 2006 . He has continued to tour, and act in numerous movies and on TV. He joined the other Kids in the Hall to tour as recently as 2014, guest-starred in two episodes of Reno 911! , and performed in the project Death Comes to Town (2010) with fellow KITH members Dave Foley , Bruce McCulloch , Mark McKinney , and Kevin McDonald . He had
93-487: A concert film on Broken Social Scene was released on June 25, 2010. Hard Core Logo 2 premiered at the Whistler Film Festival on December 4, 2010, with the members of Die Mannequin and McDonald walking the red carpet. Expectations were set high for Bruce McDonald when he released the second instalment of Hard Core Logo . This caused the film to receive mixed reviews; Postmedia News wrote that it
124-1753: A hat post. It was also designed by Seth. Each recipient of a Doug Wright Award also receives a custom-bound copy of their winning work. Source: The Doug Wright Award for best book Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper) The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small- or micro-press book The Egghead Award Source: The Doug Wright Award for best book Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper) Pigskin Peters Award The Egghead Award Source: The Doug Wright Award for best book Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper) Pigskin Peters Award The Egghead Award The Doug Wright Award for best book The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for emerging talent The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small- or micro-press book The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for best kids’ book The Doug Wright Award for best book The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for emerging talent The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small- or micro-press book The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for best kids’ book Doug Wright Best Book Award Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. The Nipper ) Pigskin Peters Award (Jurists: Sara Quin , Michael Redhill , Anita Kunz , Marc Bell and Mark Medley ) (Jurists: Matthew Forsythe , Geoff Pevere , Fiona Smyth , and Carl Wilson) Winners of
155-469: A large wood-and-glass trophies which are engraved with images from Wright's comic strip (the one difference being the images that are etched on the glass). The award was designed by the cartoonist Seth , who admitted to some embarrassment at being the inaugural winner of the trophy he designed. The Pigskin Peters Award, named in honour of a character from Jimmy Frise 's Birdseye Center , is a custom, tailored derby hat with its own unique plaque that doubles as
186-482: A recurring role in the NBC series Hannibal , playing Jimmy Price, an FBI crime scene investigator. Thompson published a humour book, Buddy Babylon: The Autobiography of Buddy Cole , and a graphic novel, The Hollow Planet , based on characters from The Kids in the Hall , and has written and performed two one-man shows. In 2014, Thompson, in character as Buddy Cole, did a series of reports on The Colbert Report as
217-541: Is a Canadian actor and comedian, best known as member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall and for playing Brian on The Larry Sanders Show . Thompson was born in North Bay, Ontario and grew up in Brampton . Named for his uncle, he later dropped the name "John" to simplify his name for the stage. He is the second oldest of the five children in his family. He attended Brampton Centennial Secondary School , and
248-767: Is a Canadian film and television director, writer, and producer. Born in Kingston, Ontario , he rose to prominence in the 1980s as part of the loosely-affiliated Toronto New Wave . McDonald has since directed more than a dozen features films over the course of his four-decade-long filmmaking career. The Hollywood Reporter has called him an "iconoclastic filmmaker". Several of his films, ranging from mockumentaries to horror films , have attracted cult followings . His most notable films include Roadkill (1989), Highway 61 (1991), Hard Core Logo (1996), Pontypool (2008), Trigger (2010), and Hellions (2015). Hard Core Logo has been frequently ranked amongst
279-403: Is a film about "artistic inspiration, maintaining a pure creative heart and connecting with others through honest expression" while The Globe and Mail referred to the feature as giving the audience "no sense of urgency, desire, or necessity" to continue watching. In 2011, he produced the documentary television series Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories , focusing on the history of
310-548: The Portland Queer Comedy Festival . In 2018, Thompson launched Après le Déluge – The Buddy Cole Monologues , a one-man show in character as Buddy Cole. In 2000, Thompson was living with his boyfriend, French documentarian Joel Soler, in Hollywood . Soler had smuggled footage out of Iraq to make an E! News-style satiric political documentary comedy, Uncle Saddam , about the eccentricities in
341-512: The Toronto International Film Festival . Jewison has mentored McDonald throughout his career. McDonald began his filmmaking career in the 1980s. He started out production assistant and driver, and was an assistant cameraman and editor on films by Atom Egoyan , Ron Mann , Peter Mettler , and Amnon Buchbinder . His feature-length directorial debut , Roadkill , won the award for Best Canadian Film at
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#1732776725917372-514: The Yonge Street music scene in Toronto in the 1960s, for Bravo . In 2014, he directed the horror thriller Hellions (2015) starring Chloe Rose , which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and later screened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival . His subsequent film Weirdos , was released in 2016. McDonald's most recent feature film is Dreamland , which
403-860: The greatest movies ever to come out of Canada, and is considered to be McDonald's breakthrough film. The film won the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Music — Original Song for the track "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?" and was nominated for five other awards including Best Film and Best Direction. It won the Best Canadian Feature at the Sudbury Cinéfest and, at the Vancouver International Film Festival, it received
434-472: The greatest movies ever to come out of Canada. McDonald was born in Kingston, Ontario , and later moved to Toronto , where he graduated from film school at Ryerson University . At Ryerson, he made the short films Merge (1980) and Let Me See... (1982), the latter of which won the Norman Jewison Award for best student film at the 1982 Canadian National Exhibition and screened at
465-618: The $ 10,000 CITY-TV award for Best Canadian Film, with Baker winning the Rogers prize for Best Canadian Screenplay. Since the late 1990s, McDonald has directed dozens of film and television productions. His 2006 film, The Tracey Fragments , premiered at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival , where it was awarded the Manfred Salzgeber Prize for innovative filmmaking. The Tracey Fragments
496-483: The 1975 Centennial Secondary School shooting at his Brampton high school, led him to process incidents of terror on micro- and macrocosmic levels through his one-man comedy show The Lowest Show on Earth . Thompson went on tour with this show and secured a spot in New York, off-Broadway. The posters—featuring Thompson lying supine on the ground with a big wad of semen dripping down the side of his face—went up around
527-795: The 2010 Doug Wright Awards were announced on May 8, 2010 in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon in the Toronto Reference Library , during a ceremony hosted by actor Peter Outerbridge . (Jurists: Bob Rae , Andrew Coyne , Martin Levin , Joe Ollmann and Diana Tamblyn ) Winners of the 2009 Doug Wright Awards were announced on May 9, 2009 at the Art Gallery of Ontario during a ceremony hosted by actor and director Don McKellar . (Jurists: Katrina Onstad , Ho Che Anderson , Marc Glassman , Mariko Tamaki and Helena Rickett ) 2008 saw
558-657: The Hall , Thompson and his writing colleague Paul Bellini collaborated in a queercore punk band called Mouth Congress. During the mid-1990s Thompson ran an interactive website, developed by his younger brother Craig and called ScottLand. It had a live-chat area, voting and comedy espionage and sold Buddy Cole T-shirts and video tapes of comedy sketches. He also appeared regularly on The Larry Sanders Show as Hank Kingsley's personal assistant Brian, and made numerous guest appearances on other television series, including Politically Incorrect , The Late Show , Late Night with Conan O'Brien , and Train 48 . Thompson hosted
589-516: The Toronto International Film Festival and McDonald earned some notoriety and media attention when he quipped, while accepting his $ 25,000 prize from TIFF for Roadkill , that he planned to spend the money on "a big chunk of hash ". Roadkill was the first of a trilogy of road movies—including Highway 61 (1991) and Hard Core Logo (1996)—the film launched his reputation as a maverick independent. Roadkill
620-483: The United States, but moved to CBS for its fourth and fifth seasons. Openly gay, Thompson became best known on the show for his monologues as "alpha queen" socialite Buddy Cole , and his appearances as Queen Elizabeth II , secretary Cathy, businessman Danny Husk, suburban housewife Fran, actress Francesca Fiore, and the demented old man in the popular "Love and Sausages" sketch. Concurrently with The Kids in
651-501: The city on September 10, 2001. The following day, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center made the one-man show's difficult material impossible to talk about. In March 2009, Thompson was diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin's gastric lymphoma . He completed six rounds of chemotherapy and one month of radiation and is now cancer free. Bruce McDonald (director) Bruce McDonald (born May 28, 1959)
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#1732776725917682-457: The film remained dormant until McDonald and screenwriter Daniel MacIvor decided to rewrite their original screenplay to be about two women instead; these roles were ultimately played by Tracy Wright and Molly Parker . Wright, who McDonald had frequently worked with throughout his career, was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer during the film's production. It was the last film she completed before her death. This Movie Is Broken ,
713-513: The home life of Saddam Hussein and his family, which bubbled behind Hussein's dictatorial façade. Thompson wrote the narration for the movie, which was read by actor Wallace Langham . Following the movie's release, Thompson and Soler's West Hollywood home was firebombed on November 1, 2000. Thompson has discussed the details of this incident in interviews with Jesse Brown of Canadaland and fellow Canadian comic Elvira Kurt , as being inspiration for his future show The Lowest Show on Earth . In
744-568: The interview with Kurt, he says of the attack, "We were sleeping and a group came to our home. They filled our giant garbage cans with gasoline and set them on fire on our front lawn. They had buckets of red paint. They covered the house with it so it dripped off like blood. They put a note in the front hall that said, 'In the name of Allah, the merciful and compassionate, burn this Satanic film or you will be dead'. They underlined "dead" just in case we weren't freaked out enough". This, along with many other incidents throughout Thompson's life, including
775-769: The introduction of a new category dedicated to works that fall outside the bounds of traditional storytelling. Named after a character in the classic Canadian comic strip Birdseye Center , the Pigskin Peters Award recognizes experimental and avant-garde comics. (Jurists: Bruce McDonald , Mark Kingwell , Judy MacDonald , Lorenz Peter and Jessica Johnson) (Jurists: Justin Peroff , Alan Hunt and Ben Portis) (Jurists: Chester Brown , Rebecca Caldwell, Nora Young , Jerry Ciccoritti and Don McKellar ) Scott Thompson (comedian) John Scott Thompson (born June 12, 1959), known professionally as Scott Thompson ,
806-495: The places where their musical lives were transformed. McDonald directed films starring Die Mannequin , the Cancer Bats , and Geddy Lee of Rush. His 2010 film Trigger was the first film ever screened at Toronto's new TIFF Bell Lightbox . The film was originally planned in the late 1990s as a companion film to McDonald's Hard Core Logo , which would have starred Hugh Dillon and Callum Keith Rennie . However, work on
837-569: The program's correspondent for the 2014 Winter Olympics . In 2015, Bellini and Thompson uploaded all of their Mouth Congress recordings to Bandcamp , and they reunited the following year for several live shows to promote the release. They launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary film about the band; that film, Mouth Congress , premiered at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival in 2021. Around this time, Thompson performed his Buddy Cole monologues at
868-587: Was a success with audiences and critics. Highway 61 (1991) was named Best Canadian Feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival and won awards at festivals in Brussels and San Sebastiàn . In 1996, Hard Core Logo won the award for Best Canadian Feature at Sudbury's Cinefest and at the Vancouver International Film Festival, marking his second win at the latter. Hard Core Logo has been frequently ranked amongst
899-455: Was a witness to the 1975 Brampton Centennial Secondary School shooting . He enrolled at York University but in his third year was asked to leave for being "disruptive". He joined the comedy troupe The Love Cats, where he met Mark McKinney . In 1984, Thompson became a member of The Kids in the Hall , whose eponymous sketch comedy series aired starting 1989 on the CBC in Canada and on HBO in
930-470: Was chosen as one of the top 10 best Canadian films of 2007 by Toronto International Film Festival. He then directed the horror film Pontypool , which was also selected as one of the top 10 best Canadian films of the year, this time 2008, by the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2009, McDonald directed three short films for the cross-platform project City Sonic . McDonald, along with six other directors, shot 20 short films about Toronto musicians and
961-470: Was released on June 5, 2020. Early in his career, he was referred to as a "bad boy" of Canadian cinema. Several of his films, ranging from mockumentaries to horror films , have attracted cult followings . Variety described his films as containing a "mash up humor with adventure, music, or horror". The Hollywood Reporter has called him an "iconoclastic filmmaker". McDonald currently resides in Toronto with his wife, Dany Chiasson, who works as