A new APTN animated youth program is the only new English-language series given an injection of cash from the Independent Production Fund.

In its latest funding announcement, the IPF - a private funder of Canadian drama series - awarded equity investment to six returning English-language series, including CTV programs Degrassi: The Next Generation and Instant Star, the second season of Global series Falcon Beach, and the third installment of The Movie Network/Movie Central's ReGenesis.

The lone new series, Anash and the Legacy of the Sun-rock, is a coproduction between Edmonton's Panacea Entertainment and The Thing With Feathers Productions, based in the Yukon.

The six-part, half-hour series combines live-action actors with CG watercolor animation at $400,000 per episode.

"Anash is a fantasy adventure story rooted in the history and culture of the Tlingit, an indigenous people from the northwest coast of Canada," says creator, writer and director Carol Geddes of The Thing With Feathers.

The storyline centers on a young warrior who discovers his destiny to reunite the pieces of the Sun-rock in order to bring peace to the land.

"It has a Lord of the Rings flavor," adds Josh Miller of Panacea. "Anash is a foundling, like Moses, who has to figure out his heritage and his destiny as part of the quest. It is really fascinating stuff."

Financing includes APTN, the Canadian Television Fund Licence Fee Program, Shaw Rocket Fund, the Alberta Film Development Program, Yukon Film Incentive, federal tax credits and the IPF.

The live-action sequences will be shot in Whitehorse this fall, and the animation will take place in Edmonton at Rat Creek Design.

Other series receiving IPF funding are season three of Shaftesbury Films' Life with Derek (Family Channel) and a fourth season of Renegadepress.com, a Vérité Films youth series for APTN and Global.

Three French-language series received IPF funding, including new project Lance et compte: la revanche from Communications Claude Heroux, for broadcast on Groupe TVA. Returning French series awarded funds are Il était une fois dans le trouble (Zone3) and Nos étés (Cirrus Productions).

www.ipf.ca