CTF shuffles management

Banff, AB: The Canadian Television Fund has announced the reshuffling of several key management positions, including the removal of Garry Toth from the position of president and CEO.

According to a release put out during Banff2002, Toth, who is on a leave of absence, will be offered a new role within the organization upon his return.

‘The Board struggled with the decision to seek out a new CEO but we simply felt that the CTF is at a crucial stage in its development and required the commitment of a full-time person,’ Janet Yale, chair of the CTF board of directors, said in a statement.

Louise Baillargeon will act as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

At the same time, the CTF announced that it is eliminating the recently created regional vice-president structure. This puts the future roles of Susan Brinton, Berni Wood and Carole Vivier into question.

While the restructuring comes at the same time as a management restructuring at Telelfilm Canada, according to CTF spokesperson Victor Ashley, the timing of the two moves is pure coincidence.

NSI, CBC’s ZeD ink prize deal

The National Screen Institute and CBC Telelvision have announced a new partnership that will see the NSI Drama Prize rebranded the ZeD Drama Prize.

Named after the national broadcaster’s late-night showcase for short films, animation and performance art, the ZeD Prize will include a mentor-based training program to guide filmmakers through the development of a short film.

The program will also provide completed films with licence fees for national broadcast on CBC.

‘It’s a major development’ for the NSI and the students making the shorts, says Bill Evans, the institute’s director of showcases. Beyond going on the festival circuit, ‘a lot of them never see the light of day.’

Winners at Banff2002

Winners of the $10,000 Telefilm Canada/Aboriginal Peoples Television Network awards at Banff2002 were producer/director Leetia Ineak’s Puppet Health (Inuit name Takugunai) for the best Canadian aboriginal-language television production, and Art Napoleon’s Cree for Kids for best Canadian English- or French-language aboriginal television production.

* Valerie Bissonnette won the US$7,500 prize for her project G in the HDTV Pitch.

* Baptiste Neis won $7,000 in development funding from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund for Mediajamtv.com in the Banff Centre Interactive Focus CyberPitch competition.