Toronto, October 28, 2004 — Chilly Beach, a top-rated CBC animated series, has received three nominations in the 19th annual Gemini Awards for excellence in Canadian television.

The nominations include Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series for the episode "Invasion of the Beer Snatchers" and Best Interactive, for Chilly Beach's award-winning website http://www.chillybeach.com/.

A key offering in CBC Television's youth lineup, Chilly Beach chronicles the hilarious misadventures of Dale and Frank, two beer-guzzling, hockey-obsessed buddies who inhabit an unsuccessful resort community built on a drifting ice floe.

The 26-episode series is now in its second season, airing Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. (ET) immediately following The Simpsons. Produced by Toronto's March Entertainment, Chilly Beach represents the first time a Canadian property created as online "webisodes" has been picked up by network television.

"Chilly Beach has evolved amazingly over the last seven years," says Dan Hawes, president of March Entertainment. "To go from a Web-based series with a devoted cult following to a full-fledged television show earning the industry's highest accolades, truly is an extraordinary achievement."

Chilly Beach's Flash-based website, which offers a myriad of audiovisual content including show previews, original webisodes and several interactive games, also received a nod in the Most Popular Website competition.

The Most Popular Website award is determined by the fans themselves, who can place their votes at www.geminiawards.ca. The winner will be announced at the Gemini Industry Gala on December 12 from the National Trade Centre in Toronto.

The Gemini Awards will be broadcast on CBC TV the following day, December 13, from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The Geminis are presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, who have increasingly acknowledged the convergence of television and interactive media over the years.