Canadian know-how very much in evidence at International Emmys

With only three categories for interactive television, the International Emmy Awards probably aren't the highest-profile industry event for Canadian new media firms. Nonetheless, it's quite a coup that four Canadian companies have been selected as finalists for this year's awards, with three of four nominees in one category alone hailing from the Great White North.The International Emmys are the brainchild of the New York-based International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, a global organization of television producers and other stakeholders boasting more than 500 members in more than 70 countries. Open to anyone but US-based producers and companies, the awards are only in their second year. The main award ceremony is in November, but awards in three categories - Best Interactive Program, Best Interactive Channel, and Best Interactive Service - are handed out annually at the MIPTV event in Cannes, France in April.Despite their relatively small size and newness, Thomas Wallner, a producer at Toronto-based Xenophile Media, is ecstatic that his firm's ReGenesis II extended reality game - which ties in with the Shaftesbury Films-produced TV series of the same name - is in the running for an International Emmy for Best Interactive Program."If you had told me two years ago, or even a year ago, that we would be nominated for an international Emmy for an interactive project, I would have told you you were crazy. It's quite something," Wallner says. "We're delighted and surprised by the fact that we're going to Cannes for this kind of award. It's really neat - I think it really says something about changes in the industry and broadcasters."Xenophile faces a tough field of competition for the honour, however: fellow Torontonians Zinc Roe Design and marblemedia have also been named finalists for Best Interactive Program, as well as a children's project backed by the BBC. Zinc Roe got the nod for its Zimmer Twins animated interactive series, while marblemedia shares its nomination with BravoFact and the National Film Board for the Shorts In Motion: The Art of Seduction series of mobile shorts.Nominated in another category - Best Interactive Channel - is Mississauga ON-based BiteTV, which will be competing against two UK-based firms."Regardless of whether we win or not, the fact that we've been nominated goes a long way to validating what we've been doing," says BiteTV president and CEO Jeffrey Elliott. He adds the exposure will also help BiteTV as it broadens its reach outside Canada this year.Elliott also says that incorporating the awards into an international event designed primarily around selling and buying television productions allows nominees to use their status to drum up interest. "We have a whole slate of meetings set up with broadcasters and telcos, et cetera, from all over the world that have actually contacted us and were interested in everything from our mobile component to our VOD component to the whole format for the channel," he says.As any interactive producer in Canada can attest, firms here often benefit from early funding from one or more of the various independent production funds devoted to digital media. Wallner points specifically to the Telefilm Canada New Media Fund and the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund as two examples especially vital to giving early-stage interactive projects a leg-up."Without Telefilm and the Bell Fund Canadians wouldn't have this leading edge in the world doing these kinds of projects on this level," he says, adding the fact that four of 11 finalists across the three categories are Canadian firms is "a testament to the fact that these kinds of projects are nurtured in a really special way here in Canada."The three awards will be handed out in Cannes on April 18.

Canadian know-how very much in evidence at International Emmys

News | 04/10/2007 12:48 pm EDT

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