Rogers Media and The Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA) announced today the first round of successful applicants of the Rogers Development Fund, a newly created development initiative that benefits local production communities. Eleven candidates overall were successful, seven candidates in Stream One, and four candidates in Stream Two.

The successful applicants are as follows:

Stream One:

ANAÏD PRODUCTIONS (Edmonton, Alberta)

HIGH DEFINITION PICTURES (Manitoba)

MEDIA RENDEZVOUS (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

MERIT MOTION PICTURES (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

ORIGINAL PICTURES (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

PANACEA ENTERTAINMENT (Edmonton, Alberta)

PAY DIRT PICTURES (Calgary, Alberta)

Stream Two:

THE COMPANY OF WRITERS (Edmonton, Alberta)

DEBORAH CARLSON (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

FUNTIME PRODUCTIONS (Edmonton, Alberta)

TYLER FUNK (Banff, Alberta)

“We were so excited to see the high calibre of creative and innovative submissions we received in this first round of funding,” said Claire Freeland, Director of Original Programming, Rogers Media. “We look forward to seeing these projects develop and hopefully move ahead to production.”

“We are pleased to help develop original content in provinces of Alberta and Manitoba,” said Bill Evans, Executive Director, Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA).

The Rogers Development Fund is a revolving loan program which provides funding to support the independent producers of Alberta and Manitoba in the creation of new and innovative projects in television, film, and digital media. The Rogers Development Fund is available to individual Canadian producers or production companies who have been residents of Alberta or Manitoba for at least one year.

The Rogers Development Fund is governed by a committee of Canadian media industry leaders who determine the successful applicants. The second round of the Fund will begin accepting loan applications on July 15, 2013; interested producers can visit the AMPIA website at ampia.org/funding/rogers-dev-fund  or the Rogers submission website at rogerstvsales.ca/submission for additional program and application details.  Full press release available here.