Future of Cinema

Ana Serrano is the Director of CFC Media Lab, a world-renowned new media research, training and production facility created in 1997 at Norman Jewison’s CFC (Canadian Film Centre).

As director of CFC Media Lab, she provides strategic leadership, fiscal development, program design and creative direction for all of the Centre’s new media initiatives, including the development and production of a diverse range of critically acclaimed interactive narrative prototypes.
In 2003, Ana was recognized for her contribution to Canada’s new media industry with three Canadian New Media Awards including Industry Advocate of the Year, New Media Educator of the Year and New Media Visionary. In addition, she was selected to be the sole Canadian expert panel member for the 2003 and 2005, World Summit Awards, part of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society.
She has also co-developed the Bell Globemedia Content Innovation Network, a partnership with the Banff Centre for the Arts and L’INIS, thus founding the Interactive Project Lab, a unique alliance of knowledge, resources and funding fostering the creation of innovative projects and viable start-up new media companies.
In 2000, Ana produced the Great Canadian Story Engine Project, a national tour and bilingual website that serves as an interactive storytelling community where all Canadians can share personal stories about their experiences in Canada.In 2004, she created Canada’s first interactive feature film program designed to create, develop, produce, distribute and market long form interactive narrative works.
Ana is currently producing the Interactive Narrative Feature Program’s (INFP) first project, in co-production with the National Film Board.Named one of Canada’s 100 Canadians to watch in McLean’s Magazine, Ana is active on the boards of Artscape, Laidlaw Foundation, M3F, and several start-up companies focussed on interactive entertainment and adjudicates awards for the Webby, Resfest, CNMA, and others.
She teaches at York University’s Communication Studies Department and frequently speaks at new media and film festivals throughout the world about the emerging realms of interactive art and entertainment.  

About CFC Media Lab:
Created in 1997, CFC Media Lab (formerly Habitat New Media Lab) provides a unique training, research and production think-tank environment for emerging new media artists, content developers and practitioners.  An internationally acclaimed and award-winning facility, graduates of CFC Media Lab emerge as leaders in the world of interactive media and launch careers as new media producers, interactive media designers, business development professionals, and creative entrepreneurs.

The CFC Media Lab TELUS Interactive Art & Entertainment Program (IAEP) is Canada's first post-graduate training and production program based on a philosophy that compelling content is created though a collaborative process harnessing a wide range of creative skills and talents.
Team-based, self-directed and project-driven, the TELUS IAEP merges collaborative exploration with the fundamentals of new media, with a particular emphasis on narrative theory and storytelling. Residents learn from a variety of perspectives including academic, industrial, artistic, technological, and practical. 

Interactive Project Lab 
The Interactive Project Lab incubates select new media companies with innovative projects by providing strategic mentorship, professional development, and production support at the Banff Centre's Banff New Media Institute (Banff), the CFC's Media Lab (Toronto), and L'Institut national de l'image et du son (Montreal).
To find out more about please visit:
http://www.iplab.ca/iplab/en/activities/realization/

Interactive Narrative Feature Program 
Launched in 2003, CFC Media Lab created the Interactive Narrative Feature Program (INFP) to experiment with the creation, development, production, financing, marketing and distribution of interactive feature films. Inspired by CFC Media Lab's interactive prototypes, the INFP seeks to build Canadian capacity and talent in interactive narrative production.
The nature of the interactive films produced from this initiative interrogates story, narrative structure, the relationship between time, space and meaning, and how audiences participate in meaning-making. The platform of choice varies depending on the subjects explored, but will include DVD-video, gaming consoles, mobile, the Web and interactive television, and a combination of the above. The intention is to create compelling experiences that radically insert audiences into the meaning-making process of storytelling in its purest form.