Big Top Academy, The Mystery Files 2 and Raven’s Quest have been nominated for five Awards of Excellence by the Youth Media Alliance:

Best Program, Live Action, Scripted – Ages 6-9 and 9+
Big Top Academy (The Show Must Go On)

Best Program, Live Action Non-Scripted, Ages 6–9
Raven’s Quest (Madison)

Best Program, Live Action Non-Scripted, Ages 9+
The Mystery Files (Nostra Culpa) 

Best Interactive Content – Ages 6-9
The Mystery Files HQ
Raven’s Quest Online 

Set in an elite boarding school, Big Top Academy tells the story of an extraordinary group of young acrobats who, through their dreams of becoming circus artists, transport young viewers to the exciting world of the circus.  In “The Show Must Go On”, crisis ensues during the mid-term student showcase when Chase goes missing, and April’s old ballet school nemesis shows up to see her big performance. 

The Mystery Files follows Kyla and E.B. as they solve their Aunt Hermione’s Mystery Files, connecting clues that reveal surprising facts about the past and how it connects to who we are and how we live now.  In “Nostra Culpa”,  E.B. and Kyla investigate racist incidents in Canada’s past. Kyla meets the daughter of a man affected by the Chinese head tax imposed on immigrants for years, as well as the great granddaughter of a man denied entry to Canada in 1914, along with 375 other passengers aboard the Komagata Maru ship, due to a racist anti-immigration law.  E.B. visits a former Residential School where he meets a survivor and discovers the horrible treatment of First Nations children, forced to attend these schools and forbidden from speaking their language and practicing their traditions.

Mystery Files HQ is a fun online adventure game in which players become agents and along with E.B. and Kyla and look for clues and solve mystery case files. 

Raven’s Quest features first-person stories told by Indigenous children from across Canada.  Madison is 9 years old and from the Mi’kmaq Nation in Richibucto, New Brunswick. In this episode, she takes us on a tour of her parents’ lobster fishing boat and goes clam digging with her dad. Madison and her best friends show us their classroom, go to volleyball practice, and introduce us to Acadian Poutine!

In Raven’s Quest Online, kids can learn more about Indigenous cultures by playing the companion online game featuring the Raven. Players must complete quests to help their animal friends retrieve the missing objects that Raven has hidden in their communities!

About the Youth Media Alliance

Youth Media Alliance (YMA) seeks to enrich the lives of Canadian children and teens by helping improve the quality of the content created for them on all screen-based media. The Alliance pursues its mission of encouraging high-quality content by presenting annual awards of excellence to the best productions targeting young English- and French-speaking Canadians.