Telefilm Canada will sponsor the New Media strand, introduce a new international event and present $60,000-worth of awards to tv programs in English, French and aboriginal languages at this year’s Banff Television Festival, June 11-16.

As part of the New Media strand, which Telefilm is sponsoring for the second year in a row, the Banff Centre for Arts’ New Media Focus workshops will cover such topics as: ‘e-Motion’ and interactive, emotional media with rich story experiences; ‘Culture of Science’ and the amalgamation of culture and science into new forms of knowledge, marketing and design; and ‘Connecting with Kids’ and how the Internet and games are helping to shape the present and future.

There will also be a CyberPitch market simulation where participants will have a chance to pitch their new media ideas to a panel of experts.

Telefilm is also sponsoring four Banff Centre master classes: ‘Web Design,’ ‘Writing for Interactive Media,’ ‘Paradigm Shift’ and ‘Money & Law.’

Awards totaling $60,000 will be given to four recipients as pre-approved contributions for the development or production of future work eligible for Telefilm assistance.

Two $20,000 awards go to Banff’s best English-language program and best French-language program, as selected by the festival’s international jury; and two $10,000 awards from Telefilm and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network will go to the best aboriginal program in either English or French and the best aboriginal program in an aboriginal language, as selected by an aboriginal jury formed by aptn.

Finally, Telefilm will announce the coming u.k. Immersion 2000 for Canadian producers, a program focusing on tv drama and feature film. Taking place in London, u.k., Nov. 20-24, the program is a collaboration between the Canadian High Commission and Telefilm.

On the coproduction front, Telefilm has scheduled meetings at Banff with the Chinese and Singaporean delegations.