* At the Western office of Telefilm Canada, John Dippong has been appointed head of feature film for the Western office. Dippong was previously an investment analyst and before that a programmer at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

* Lyne Denault has been appointed director of programming at French-language lifestyle channel Canal Vie.

Denault previously worked at MusiquePlus and Groupe tva prodco affiliate JPL Productions. As Canal Vie program director, she will also participate in developing other tv projects from Canal Vie’s operator, Radiomutuel. Marie Collin is associate gm of Canal Vie.

* Karynn Austin has joined Toronto-based Oasis Shaftesbury Releasing as vp sales and acquisitions.

Austin was most recently an account exec at ECHO Advertising and previously held distribution jobs at Malofilm, CFP and Cinephile.

* espn president George Bodenheimer has assumed responsibility for all of espn’s domestic and international operations. Bodenheimer will now be in charge of all areas of the u.s.-based tv sports powerhouse following Steven Bornstein’s promotion to president of abc.

In addition to its four u.s. cable networks, espn distributes or owns equity in 20 international networks distributed in 20 languages, including a 32% stake in The Sports Network, recently purchased by ctv as part of the NetStar deal.

* Reg McGuire has joined Ellis Enterprises as a sales executive. McGuire was most recently vp sales and marketing at Digital Media Networks.

* Promotions announced at Vancouver-based digital animation house Mercury Filmworks include: Derrick MacPherson, senior systems and network administrator; Kent McCormack, senior camera and effects supervisor; William Stone, rushes technician; and Ian Baylis, background calibration technician.

Mercury’s client list includes Nelvana, Fox, Sony and Studio B.