Here is a summary of various industry news bits to come Playback’s way recently.

Awards

Canucks won at more than just the slots in Vegas this past week.

Warren Sonoda’s Servitude (pictured) won a Jury Award in competition at the 2012 Las Vegas Film Festival, which took place July 19 to 22.

Casey Walker’s A Little Bit Zombie nabbed a Golden Ace award, while Jason Nardella’s doc, 78 Days, took a Silver Ace award.

The Las Vegas Film Festival aims to bridge the gap between indie filmmakers and audiences, and connect emerging filmmakers with established industry professionals.

Sales

International sales and distribution company Ohm:TV sold several Canadian titles from Vancouver-based Omni Film Productions and Exploration Productions Inc. into Spain and Germany this week.

In the Spanish deal, Omni’s Pure Design (26 x 30 min) have been licensed to Chello Multicanal’s Decasa channel for Spain and Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

And six seasons of Exploration Production’s crime investigation series Forensic Factor (43 x 60 min) will be broadcast on Crimen & Investigación from The History Channel Iberia, also part of the Chello Multicanal group of channels.

In Germany, Exploration’s hour-long doc Factory City will be broadcast on news channel N-TV.

Fall slates

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) this week unveiled its fall programming lineup, including a slate of Canuck comedy and drama, and Aboriginal kids programming.

New to the network this fall are CBC shows Heartland and Arctic Air, whose first seasons will premiere Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 16 at 9 p.m., respectively.

Returning shows are kids adventure series Planet Echo (Sept. 7), By the Rapids (Sept. 8) with its final season, comedic medicine men Bionic Bannock Boys (Sept. 8) and kids educational series Tiga Talk (Sept. 8).

The network is also premiering new French programming, including PachaMama Express, Shaputuan and Mouki, all on Sept. 3.

*all times ET

Launches

The 12th Gimli Film Festival launched July 25 in Manitoba, showcasing more than 130 feature films and shorts. The fest will run to July 29. Stay tuned for award winners.

Elsewhere, The Vancouver-headquartered First Weekend Club is bringing its screening series to Toronto.

The event will launch Aug. 9 with a screening of The Whistleblower, and feature a moderated Q and A after the screening with director Larysa Kondracki via Skype, and producer Christina Piovesan in person.

The Whistleblower will screen at 8 p.m. at the Deluxe Screening Room in Toronto, with a reception at 7 p.m.