Sandra Oh to host Genie Awards gala

Actress Sandra Oh iscoming back to Canada next weekend to host the Genie Awards, the annual celebration of the year's top Canadian films, organizers announced Monday evening.

Though perhaps mostwell-knownfor her Golden Globe-winning turn as an ambitious young surgeon on hit TV medical drama Grey's Anatomy, Oh has also maintained strong links to the independent and Canadian film communities.

Earlier this year, the Nepean, Ont.-born, Ottawa-raised Oh served as a juror for the dramatic competition grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Oh is also a former best actress Genie-winner for her roles in Don McKellar's Last Night and Mina Shum's Double Happiness. Her credits range from the Oscar contender Sideways to the HBO comedy Arliss to early work in Canadian productions like CBC's The Diary of Evelyn Lau.

In December, the Toronto branch of the group Women in Film and Television presented Oh with the international achivement honour at its 2007 Crystal Awards. She recently returned to filming Grey's Anatomy after the end of the recent U.S. screenwriters strike during which she was a prominent face on the picket linessupporting her writer colleagues.

With 12 nominations each, David Cronenberg's Russian mafia thriller Eastern Promises and the Rwandan genocide drama Shake Hands with the Devil are the lead nominees going into the 28th annual Genie Awards.

The ceremony will be held in Toronto on March 3.