Here is Playback‘s Friday package of news briefs. Have a good weekend.

Film premieres

The Italian Contemporary Film Festival taking place June 26 to July 6 in Toronto has announced its lineup. The Canadian films premiering during the festival include Frank D’Angelo’s crime thriller Real Gangsters (pictured), Antonio D’Alfonso’s feature drama Antigone, Tony Nardi’s documentary Letter Two, Angela Bianchi’s documentary Zia and Friends and Domenica Hoyes’ short film My Fiance.

TV premiere

Edmonton filmmaker Brandy Yanchyk’s documentary Oil Calling will premiere on CBC’s Documentary Channel June 7. The doc focuses on the experiences of new Canadians who go to work in Alberta’s oil patch.

Exploding Sun, a two-part sci-fi TV movie from Muse Entertainment and Sonar Entertainment, will premiere on Space June 10, with its follow-up episode airing June 17.

Mentorship program

The Alberta Media Production Industries Association and Crossroads Television System have opened the application process for the next round of their joint mentorship program. The program offers successful applicants hands-on training working with experienced professionals in their chosen field of film and television production. Internships can take place anytime from July 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014. The deadline is June 21. For more information visit www.ampia.org.

Anglophone Minority Incentive

Earlier this week the Canada Media Fund announced the closing of the Anglophone Minority Incentive for English language production in Québec due to the high number of eligible applications received. As the name suggests, the incentive is designed to encourage English-language content creation by production companies in Québec.

Crowdfunding

Director Robert Cohen and his team launched a crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo May 17 to raise funds to complete the feature documentary, Being Canadian. The directorial debut of comedy writer/director Cohen (Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons) the documentary is produced by Colin Keith Gray and Megan Raney Aarons of GRAiNEY Pictures and executive produced by Michael Souther and Teza Lawrence of Amaze Film & TV. As of Thursday they had raised $12,000 of the $95,000 goal.

Channel news

Several new Shaw-related channels were unveiled this week. Blue Ant Media announced that Shaw Cable customers will now have access to its specialty HD channels HIFI, eqhd and radX. As well, Disney XD and Disney Junior en Français have been added to Shaw’s cable offerings.