The Department of Film has awarded its Distinguished Alumni Award to Dennis Jackson, the creator of the popular television series Wapos Bay. The award presentation will be celebrated September 26, at The Artesian on 13th in Regina where Jackson will also present an animation master class. “I was very surprised when I heard about this. It certainly cheered me up that day,” says Jackson, who lives in Prince Albert. Jackson graduated from the University of Regina with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production in 1998. His first post-film school project was the award winning “Journey Through Fear” which was presented at the 1998 Banff Television Festival. Jackson and his wife Melanie Jackson then started work on the stop-motion animated film, Christmas at Wapos Bay, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002.