Spotlight: T.O. Webfest 2024

T.O. Webfest (September 17-18, 2024) – Canada’s premiere short-form series and podcast festival – is designed to support and celebrate creators from Canada and around the world. The festival includes a two-day conference offering panels, networking and screenings, and an Awards Gala!

This year’s festival features 11 ACTRA Toronto productions with ACTRA Toronto members and productions receiving a total of 36 nominations at the Awards Gala. Congratulations to this year’s nominees! Winners are denoted below in bolded text.


AUNTY B’S HOUSE

Welcome to Aunty B’s House! Where foster mom, Aunty B, and her family of foster children use laughter, music, play, & unconditional love to navigate the ups, downs and merry-go-rounds of foster life.

Featuring: Luke Dietz, Nendia Lewars, Claire Poon

Award nominations: Best Animated/Childrens


THE BIG OIL ALLIANCE

The CEOs from energy giants Suncorpse, Rancor, Smegoil, Imperius and Novopus have come together to save Canadians from the climate mess they created. They form The Big Oil Alliance and hire plucky Amanda Green as their chief sustainability officer. But her optimism clashes with their greed and she discovers that The Big Oil Alliance won’t go gently into a clean green future. It’s a clash between a new way of doing things and business-as-usual and Amanda is out-numbered, out-maneuvered and bled-out.

Featuring: Anand Rajaram, Gordon Rand, Rick Roberts, Clifford Saunders, Elizabeth Saunders

Award nominations: Best Comedy


GET UP, AISHA

After surviving a suicide attempt, Aisha, a Pakistani-Canadian student, battles her compulsive need for control. Diagnosed with depression, she adopts a checklist approach to curing the incurable.

Featuring: Armando Alera, Sana Asad, Urooj Khan, Marina Moreira, Husnain Sher, Nitish Saskhuja, Anand Rajaram

Award nominations: Best Actor in a Canadian Series (Sana Asad – winner), Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Series (Martin Roach), Best Drama, Best Toronto Series, Best English Canadian Series, Best Series – Grand Prize (winner).


HOW TO FAIL AS A POPSTAR

How to Fail as a Popstar follows Vivek, a queer brown boy from Edmonton as he tries (and fails) to achieve pop stardom, from the perspective of the now 40-something trans femme artist that boy became.

Featuring: Nadine Bhabha, Jeanie Calleja, Chris D’Silva, Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves, Adrian Pavone

Award nominations: Best Actor in a Canadian Series (Adrian Pavone), Best Ensemble Cast in a Canadian Series, Best English Canadian Series, Best Comedy, Best LGBTQ+ Series.


I WILL BURY YOU (SEASON 2)

I Will Bury You is a Canadian, dark comedy series that follows two brothers as they attempt to carry out their mother’s final wishes by scattering her ashes in the places she loved… if they can only figure out where that might be.

Featuring: Sergio Di Zio, Colin Glazer, Saul Rubinek

Award nominations: Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Series (Saul Rubinek), Best Comedy, Best Toronto Series, Best English Canadian Series.


NEAR OR FAR

Twins Sadie and Lauren Mustafa are wildly different but best friends. Until they start to keep secrets from each other – first accidentally, and then on purpose. Can their connection ever recover?

Featuring: Chloe Avakian, Kalista Wilson, Fanar Zak. Stunt Coordinator: Krystle Ferdinand

Award nominations: Best Actor in a Canadian Series (Fanar Zak),Best Drama, Best Ensemble Cast in a Canadian Series, Best English Canadian Series (winner), Best Series – Grand Prize.


POLY IS THE NEW MONOGAMY

A coming-of-age comedy series about three girls exploring modern day relationships. All of the girls always find themselves with more than “one” in their lives.

Featuring: Cat Hostick, Ann Pirvu, Marianna Phung, Bobby Del Rio, Husein Madhavji

Award nominations: Best Toronto Series (winner), Triple Threat Auteur (Cat Hostick).


SPACE JANITORS (SEASON 4)

A Sci-Fi comedy set on Space Station, which follows a pair of incompetent janitors.

Featuring: Scott Cavalheiro, Rong Fu, Brendan Halloran, Neha Kohli, Scott Yamamura. Stunt Coordinator: Kara Wooten

Award nominations: Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror (winner), Best Ensemble Cast in a Canadian Series, Best English Canadian Series, Best Series – Grand Prize.


STORIES FROM MY GAY GRANDPARENTS

After a near-death experience, Grandma and Grandpa reveal their long-hidden truth: they’re both gay. Finally, they embrace their true selves after decades of concealing it, leaving their small-town life behind.

Featuring: Tricia Black, Scott Farley, James Kall, Jane Moffat, Alexander Nunez, Perrie Voss

Award nominations: Best Comedy (winner), Best Ensemble Cast in a Canadian Series (winner), Best Toronto Series, Best English Canadian Series, Best LGBTQ+ Series.


TWO BROTHERS (SEASON 2)

Fraternal twins Aiden and Aaron navigate love, life’s complexities in Borrorwoods. Their bond strengthens as each episode unveils layers of their divergent sexual orientations, taking viewers on an intimate sibling journey.

Featuring: Andrew Meikle, Meshach O’Brien, Taylor Wint

Award nominations: Best LGBTQ+ Series.


YOU’RE NEVER ALONE

A comedy web series about grief & in-laws. When her late husband’s family moves in, a young widow struggles to assert herself against the in-law invasion.

Featuring: Mandy E. MacLean, Tom McCamus, Chick Reid, Christina Song

Award nominations: Best Toronto Series.


ACTRA Toronto is a proud sponsor of T.O. Webfest’s Best Actor in a Canadian Series and Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Series Performance Awards.


ACTRA Awards nominations

See a performance in one of these series worthy of an ACTRA Award nomination? Submit to the ACTRA Awards in Toronto before the October 31, 2024, deadline! Learn more.

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