The future of new media content looks rosier in the wake of new funding recently announced by Bell and Telefilm Canada.

New York City: Applications of new media platforms in the kids production sector was the prevailing theme at the seventh KidScreen Summit, held in New York City Feb. 8-10.

Studio B Productions’ Being Ian (above) joins Decode Entertainment’s Naturally Sadie, Soapbox Productions’ Heads Up!, Halifax Film Company’s Poko and CCI Entertainment’s Harry and His Buck Full of Dinosaurs as the finalists for the 2006 Shaw Rocket Prize, honoring the best Canadian children’s program for the 12-and-under crowd. The producers of the winning show will receive $50,000. The finalists, selected by an international five-person jury, were announced on Feb. 9 at the KidScreen Summit in New York.

Washington, DC: The way David Houts sees it, his Take This Job… was ‘one of the most successful failures’ on TV.

Producer Robert Lantos and filmmaker David Cronenberg are collaborating for a third time on the feature film Maps to the Stars, written by longtime Cronenberg friend, novelist and Hollywood satirist Bruce Wagner.

Some of the latest and greatest work by alums of the National Screen Institute will unspool in Winnipeg next month at the NSI FilmExchange Canadian Film Festival.

The Alliance for Children and Television has announced that its 2006 awards will honor excellence in French-language Canadian kids TV.

AIDS conference calls for video proposals

Canuck or not Canuck?

Eve & the Fire Horse: Vancouver writer/director Julia Kwan’s debut feature film may have won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance, but Canadian critics are giving Eve & the Fire Horse mixed reviews.

A story in the Feb. 6 issue misspelled the name of Kirstine Layfield, CBC’s new executive head of programming.

Many players in the Canadian production community are putting on a brave face in the wake of the Conservative Party’s unsurprising victory in the Jan. 23 federal election. But don’t let that fool you – privately, many are expressing some grave concerns. These range from the new heritage minister to potential funding cuts and greater deregulation of the broadcast industry.