Cogeco Program Development Fund reports it has invested a total of $2.15 million in the development and production of Canadian film and television projects in 2000/01.

This year’s investment figures total almost half of the fund’s total investment since its inception in 1992, which rings in at roughly $5.5 million. The disproportionately high investment is a result of the fund’s expanded mandate in 1999 to include production financing.

Until 1999, the fund contributed an annual $250,000 to $300,000 in development exclusively.

Likewise, this year the fund’s development program awarded more than $270,000 worth of loans for 35 dramatic series, MOWs and pilots.

An additional $99,000 was awarded to three production companies with at least three theatrical feature films in development: Les Films Vision 4, imX communications and Palpable Productions.

Development funds are culled from the interest earned on a $5-million endowment from Cogeco and the repayment of development loans.

Its production program awarded roughly $1.8 million for 10 MOWs.

Cogeco Cable directs 20% of its requisite (BDU) contributions to the industry to the fund’s production program.

Deadlines for application are Feb. 1, April 1, July 15 and Oct. 15 for the television development and production financing programs and July 1 for the Theatrical Feature Film Production Fund.

The Cogeco fund is administered by the Independent Production Fund, which also recently announced recipients of the Videon Program funding.

The Videon fund distributes roughly $420,000 to 30 projects from Alberta and Manitoba producers.

All genres of production were eligible for either development loans or production financing.

Development loans, this year, have been awarded to: ImagiNation Film & Television for 10 Days in the Jungle; Minds Eye Pictures for Mentors and The Andy Seidemann Story; 887429 Alberta for Sudan: the Secret Story; Reel Girls Media for Wild Files; Fortune Films and Voice Pictures for Place in the Sun; and Eagle Vision for Tipi Tales.

Equity funding was awarded to: Minds Eye’s AD 2030; Merit Motion Pictures’ Drug Deals; Karvonen Films for Wilderness Journey; Storytellers Productions for Stories from the 7th Fire; Sharing Visions/Reveries for Sharing Visions; Lank/Beach Productions for Innocence Under Siege; Credo Entertainment’s A Wilderness Station; Les Productions Rivard’s Worlds Apart; and Anaid Productions for Taking it Off.

The IPF has undertaken the one-time administration of the Videon fund, pending Videon’s change of ownership, as required by the CRTC.

The IPF, which also administers the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Since 1991, it has funded 122 dramatic television series. *

-www.ipf.ca