OMNI Television Awards Development Funding to Dolce Vista International Production news / OMNI1 Posted by RAD on May 03, 2005 - 03:56 PM Rogers OMNI Television today announced that it has awarded $10,000 in development money to Dominika Dittwald and Margarita Semadeni of Dolce Vista International for their pitch "Famous Players." The funds were drawn from OMNI's Independent Producers' Initiative and the prize money was presented at this year's Hot Docs Award Ceremonies, which took place at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Friday, April 29, 2005. Dolce Vista International was selected to win this year's prize money for the best third language/ethnocultural documentary pitch at RendezVous 2005. To qualify for the development money, the project had to clearly reflect a story idea that was uniquely Canadian and that would be of interest to various Canadian ethnocultural communities across the country. Beneath the streets of Toronto in long subway corridors, Famous Players follows some of the musicians - many of whom are immigrants from all over the world - to reveal their untold stories and trace their multicultural identities. The project focuses on three main characters from three distinct ethnic backgrounds, each choosing to play their music on the subway for their own reasons. "Millions of subway riders rush past these musicians every day, but how many have stopped to get to know them?" says Dominika Dittwald, Director of Famous Players. "Now, thanks to OMNI Television, their stories can be told - and maybe people will think twice before just walking by." "The OMNI Independent Producers' Initiative is proud to support Famous Players because its story portrays an aspect of multiculturalism that is in plain view yet seldom acknowledged," says Malcolm Dunlop, Vice President, Programming and Marketing for Rogers Media: Television. "Our mandate with the OMNI Independent Producers' Initiative is to grant funds to projects that will resonate across many cultures, and Famous Players fits that mandate." The OMNI Independent Producers' Initiative is the industry's first and only major source of funding for the independent production of non-official language programming. Interested producers can access funding criteria at http://www.omnitv.ca/info/funds/ [1]. This article is from CHANNEL CANADA   http://www.channelcanada.com/ The URL for this story is:   http://www.channelcanada.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=855 Links in this article   [1] http://www.omnitv.ca/info/funds/