Stargate, Sanctuary nab 38 Leo nominations

The teams behind the productions of SCI FI Channel’s Stargate and Sanctuary landed an astounding 38 seperate nominations for the 2009 Leo Awards, to be held Saturday, May 9 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Stargate Atlantis led the pack with an astounding 17 nominations, including Best Program, Best Direction (Robert C. Cooper’s “Vegas”), three screenwriting nods (“Remnants,” “The Shrine” and “The Queen”), Cinematography, Picture and Sound Editing, Costume and Production Design, Visual Effects, and Make-Up. In the actor categories, Jewel State is nominated for Lead Performance (Female) for “Tracker.”

David Hewlett was originally nominated in the Lead Performance (Male) category for “The Shrine,” but reportedly removed himself from the running because he did not live in Canada — and thus would not qualify.

Stargate: Continuum earned 11 Leo nominations in the film category, ranging from Best Director (Martin Wood) and Screenwriter (Brad Wright) to Cinematography, Picture and Sound Editing, Production and Costume Design, Visual Effects, and Lead Performances for Michael Shanks (“Daniel Jackson”) and Amanda Tapping (“Samantha Carter”).

Finally, Stargate‘s Friday night companion series Sanctuary earned 10 nominations for its freshman season, including Direction, Screenwriting, Picture Editing, Make-Up and Visual Effects. Tapping was nominated for her performance in the episode “Requiem,” along with Ryan Robbins (“Edward”), Christopher Heyerdahl (“Revelations, Part 2”), and guest stars Jonathan Young (“Revelations, Part 2”) and Gabrielle Rose (“Edward”).

Atlantis and Universe co-creators Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper will also be honored at the ceremony with a special Outstanding Achievement Award.

The annual Leo Awards honor the best in British Columbian television and film production. The awards are a program of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences foundation of British Columbia. The Leos were founded in 1999, and were established to provide support and recognition for the work of film and television producers, writers, directors, performers and others.

To put the nominations in perspective, it’s important to look back to the past. While Stargate has always received a handful of yearly nominations, the last time a Stargate production took home an award was in 2005, when Stargate SG-1 won a costuming award for “Moebius, Part 2” and Atlantis won a Visual Effects award for “The Eye.” Tapping also won for her acting performance in Season Eight’s “Threads.” Since that time, no Stargate production has taken home awards, as they’ve gone to other Vancouver-based series such as Smallville, Painkiller Jane, Flash Gordon, and more.

Listed here are a full look at the nominations. GateWorld also extends congratulations to the cast and crew of Sanctuary, who have garnered ten nominations in their first year — including acting nominations for Stargate alumni Amanda Tapping, Christopher Heyerdahl and Ryan Robbins.

Additional reporting by Darren Sumner.

(Thanks to Morjana, Sheena and 2cats for the tip)