Ocean Vista Films joins global children's charity

January, 2006 (Hong Kong): Ocean Vista Films has teamed up with global children's charity Room To Read, providing free production services to help promote the charity and raise funds for its operations in Asia. Room to Read is an organization devoted to providing educational opportunities to children in the developing world. It opened its 2,500th bilingual library in 2005 and donated its millionth book in November 2005. It was founded by John Wood, a former Microsoft executive who left the company in 1999 in order to devote "the next chapter of my adult life" to providing the lifelong gift of education to children in some of the world's poorest communities. Room to Read helps communities to build schools, libraries, and computer and language labs in Cambodia, India , Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. During 2006, the organization will begin its expansion into Africa. Ocean Vista Films has made several corporate documentaries on the charity's asia-based operations for use in media-related and fund-raising activities. OVF filmed the opening of the 2000 th library in Cambodia and recently made a three-minute infomercial, which helped the charity win the US$1.2m. Skoll Foundation award in San Francisco in March. The money will allow RTR to establish more than 5,700 new community libraries and expand its education programs into 11 additional countries over the next five years. The award is one of 16 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship that identify, fund and celebrate the most innovative and effective approaches to resolving critical social issues. For more information on Room to Read, visit www.roomtoread.org .

OVF wins 10 th annual Asian TV award

December, 2005, ( Singapore ): Ocean Vista Films has won this year's 2005 Asian Television Awards for the Best Single News story / report. The award was for the news documentary Rebel Impasse. Reported and produced by Craig Leeson and filmed by Australian cinematographer, Wade Muller Rebel Impasse investigates the situation in Nepal three years after the massacre of the Royal Family, with Maoist rebels controlling most of the countryside and negotiations to find a political settlement stalled. Meanwhile, killings by both the guerillas and the military continue. During the height of the Maoist insurgency, Craig Leeson treks into the Nepalese mountainside to talk to victims caught up in the troubles, including a 14 Year-old boy who was kidnapped by rebels and taught to spy. The news documentary was aired as part of Star TV's Focus Asia programme.

Queensland ACS Gold Medal

July 2005, (Queensland): Rebel Impasse , filmed by Bangkok- based Australian cameraman, Wade Muller, wins the Gold medal at the Queensland branch awards of the Australian Cinematographers Society.

Shooting from the hip – Sunday Morning Post, Post Magazine – 10.04.05

Ocean Vista Films features in a front page Sunday Morning Post magazine article on independent filmmakers in Hong Kong . Click here to download the article.