``Rebelle'' ruled while ``Flashpoint'' continued to burn bright at the inaugural Canadian Screen Awards on Sunday, as the best in homegrown film and television gathered for a new joint
bash hosted by an off-the-wall Martin Short  who brought along his popular alter ego Ed Grimley.

The Oscar-nominated child soldier drama ``Rebelle'' dominated the film categories with a whopping 10 trophies, including wins for best film, best director, best screenplay and best actress for its teenage star, Rachel Mwanza. It had been up for 12 awards.

``I'm very touched,'' said Montreal director Kim Nguyen as he collected the best director prize. ``I'd like to dedicate this to the women in the Congo, their strength, their courage and their resilience.''

Meanwhile, perennial TV favourite ``Flashpoint'' took the top prizes in the TV race, including best drama and best dramatic actor for star Enrico Colantoni. That was in addition to four previous
prizes it collected at a pre-gala bash.

Short kicked off the new awards show  which combined the Geminis and the Genies  with a musical opening that saw him hoisted by wires to soar over the star-studded audience.

``They had me so high up there I could see both of Mike Duffy's houses,'' quipped Short, keeping things topical for his Canuck audience. He later lobbed affectionate barbs at Canadian celebrities Don Cherry, Rick Mercer and ``The Bachelor Canada'' winner Brad Smith, and took aim at recent Oscar winner ``Argo,'' which earned criticism for downplaying Canada's role in rescuing six U.S. citizens caught up in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
 ``It's always nice to be home,'' Short said to a star-studded audience including James Cromwell, Jay Baruchel, Sandra Oh and Stephen Amell.
 ``I flew in on Air Canada. Or as Ben Affleck calls it, American Airlines.''

``Rebelle'' which lost the foreign-language Oscar last week to Austria's ``Amour'' also picked up trophies for best screenplay,editing, cinematography, sound editing, overall sound and art
direction/production design. While walking the red carpet before the bash, Nguyen said he was happy to shine the spotlight on his film crew, noting it was ``a team effort.''

``We were always in an improvisational kind of mode and we were always in-the-moment. For that to work, we had to have a team that was really on cue and that was the case,'' he said.

Xavier Dolan's gender-bending feature ``Laurence Anyways'' collected prizes for best make-up and costume design.

The best TV comedy trophy went to The Movie Network's ``Less Than Kind,'' besting The Movie Network/Move Central's ``Good God,'' Showcase/Action's ``Kenny Hotz Triumph of the Will,''  CBC's ``Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays'' and CBC's ``Mr. D.''