2008 Quebecor Mentorship Award Winner: Marva Ollivierre

Women in Film and Television – Toronto (WIFT-T), in partnership with Quebecor, is pleased to announce the first annual Quebecor Mentorship Award winner: Marva Ollivierre.

The Quebecor Mentorship Award gives one talented Canadian female or male producer, of a visible minority or Aboriginal group, with the invaluable opportunity to prepare for the 2008 Banff World Television Festival through an intensive one-month market mentorship and festival bursary with with one of Canada's leading broadcast executives. The Banff experience is comprehensive, allowing the award winner to take full advantage of the business and creative opportunities available at this world-class festival. The 2008 festival takes place from June 8th-11th.

Marva Ollivierre

Marva Ollivierre has over 20 years of industry experience and was previously Head of Business Affairs at Inner City Films. While there, she successfully directed ICF corporate re-branding; revamped administrative, procedures and policies; implemented budget controls; brought distribution in house and engineered a new marketing/sales strategy; and re-focused and nurtured the company’s development slate.

Marva started her production company, Doe Eye Media Productions in 2006. She is developing several projects: Kat House – a half hour adult Animation/Live Action Dramadie TV series; Fashion Muse – a half hour un-scripted docu-drama TV/web/mobile series; The Blue Dress Chronicles a serial drama web/mobile; FoodLore - a half hour history/doc radio series; Bannock and Bratwurst a coming of age feature film; and The Hidden Team one hour TV documentary. 

Marva will receive her award at the Closing Ceremony of the 2008 Banff World Television Festival and the 2008 Crystal Awards Gala Luncheon on Monday, December 1, 2008 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.

Mentors:

Tara Ellis

As Vice-President of Showcase and Drama Content for Canwest Broadcasting, Tara Ellis oversees original scripted programming for the conventional channels Global and E!, and Canwest specialty channels including Showcase. In her prior role as Alliance Atlantis’s VP of Content for Showcase, Tara programmed the leading Canadian drama specialty channel, leading acquisitions and the original production slates of dramatic and documentary series. In her previous position of Director, Original Production for Showcase, Tara oversaw the creative development and production of Showcase original series including Billable Hours, Bliss, Webdreams and Slings & Arrows.

Prior to working at Alliance Atlantis, Tara was Executive in charge of Production for CBC-TV’s Movies & Mini-series unit and also programmed Canadian short films and features for the Cinema Canada strand on the network.

In 2000, the Globe & Mail named Tara as one of the 40 Most Influential People in Canadian Television for her efforts in bringing new talent to Canadian airwaves. Tara has served as co-chair on the board of directors for Women in Film & Television–Toronto.

Monica Ille

Monika Ille is a First Nations member of the Abenakis community of Odanak. She has worked in the communication department of the SRC and at the National Film Board, where she collaborated in the development of a training program for Aboriginal filmmakers. It was this latter experience that initiated her into the world of film production and led her to create her first documentary. Monika has also worked with Quebec Native Women and the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa. She now manages the acquisition of programming and licencing of new productions from the eastern regions and is also responsible for the French-language programming at APTN. Since 2005, Monika is a member of the CADC-TVA committee (Comité d’action sur la diversité culturelle of TVA) and has recently been nominated as an industry adjudicator on the CBSC (Canadian Broadcast Standards Council) Quebec Regional Panel.

Tanya Kelen

BEI is managed by Tanya Kelen, a senior-level sales and marketing executive with over 10 years experience in the industry.  As head of distribution, Kelen attends all major markets including MIPCOM, NATPE, REALSCREEN, KIDSCREEN and MIPTV, handling worldwide sales and marketing initiatives. Kelen also seeks out third party acquisitions as well as strategic co-production and executive producing opportunities for the company. 

Tanya Kelen has fostered significant relationships with major broadcasters around the world.  Since joining Breakthrough in 2003, sales have increased by over 500%. 

Prior to BEI, Tanya lived in Montreal and was a senior distribution and marketing executive with the Multimedia Group of Canada (MGC), where she licensed several highly-rated entertainment series such as the Cirque Du Soleil Specials, and the Just Kidding catalogue of comedy clips. Tanya began her career within the drama development department of Telescene, producers of the acclaimed TV Movie, Hiroshima, and highly-rated drama series, The Hunger, a drama anthology series, produced by Tony and Ridley Scott and Big Wolf on Campus. 

Tanya is frequently asked to speak at international and domestic panels and is an active member of WIFT (Women and Film & Television), CWC (Canadian Women in Communications), and The Documentary Organization of Canada.

For further information regarding the application process, please click below:

2008 Application Process
Media Release

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