Omni Today

After thirty years, Omni Film Productions Limited continues to diversify its projects, explore new technology and win awards.

Omni Film, in partnership with Fox Television Studios, has begun production on Defying Gravity, a 13 x 60 relationship drama series following an international space exploration mission. Defying Gravity is executive produced by Jim Parriott (Grey’s Anatomy), Michael Edelstein (Desperate Housewives), as well as Brian Hamilton and Michael Chechik from Omni. The series is produced for CTV, Space, BBC (UK) and ProSieben (Germany).

Also in production are several lifestyle and factual series including Smart Cookies, a smart money series for W Network, Word Travels, a unique docusoap currently airing on OLN and National Geographic Adventure Channel that looks at the ‘lives behind the bylines’ of two of Canada’s top travel writers and Pure Design, a new ‘green’ design series for HGTV. History Television has recently commissioned Buffalo Air, a series about a maverick arctic airline.

Make Some Noise, our teen rockumentary series for CBC about young people changing the world won the Shaw Rocket Prize and the prestigious Japan Prize. And Stuntdawgs, the factual series for The Movie Network and Movie Central about the elusive world of stunt performers, won a Gemini, Canada’s premiere television award.

Robson Arms, a 39 part primetime dramedy series for CTV and the Comedy Channel, was the first series in Canada to be shot on an innovative widescreen 24-frame-per-second digital video system.

Dragon Boys, a two-part four-hour mini-series for CBC, is a high octane thriller that centers on a Chinese-Canadian RCMP detective who takes on the world of organized Asian crime in West Coast Canada. This series won a Gemini for best dramatic mini series. Alice, I Think is a heart-warming comedy series based on the popular novels of Canadian author Susan Juby. And Omni Film's award-winning Edgemont a 70-episode teen drama series continues to be broadcast around the world.

Omni Film's latest documentaries include Shock/Wave: Surviving North America's Biggest Disaster, a blue chip documentary special about a possible west coast tsunami and The Dolphin Dealer which examines the issues and ethics of the billion dollar swim-with-dolphins industry, both for CBC. Mystery of the Toxic Swans uses a state-of-the-art CineFlex helicopter mount with a High Definition camera to capture spectacular aerial migration footage. Touring the film festival circuit is environmental doc Greenpeace: Making a Stand.

Our History

In 1977 Michael Chechik chased Russian whalers in a leaky zodiac while crew balanced a 16mm camera inches from salty waves. The result was Greenpeace: Voyages to save the Whales a documentary film that won a Gemini and aired around the world. Soon after, Chechik joined Omni Film, a company formed by cameraman Rob McLaughlin in 1979. Together they shared a passion for environmental documentaries and when McLaughlin pursued a successful career in cinematography Michael Chechik was left at the Omni helm. Chechik produced several more environmental and wildlife documentaries including a second award winning film, Killer Whales in the Wild, the first BC Film supported documentary to make a profit.

Chechik’s passion for documentary filmmaking and solid business sense continued to propel the company forward and a decade later, in the 1990’s, Omni had expanded its productions into drama with The Odyssey, a primetime children’s drama series, for CBC. Omni went on to produce 39 episodes that were distributed to over 55 countries and won critical acclaim, as well as numerous prestigious awards, including an International Emmy Award nomination.
Omni Film continued to diversify its programming and people when in the early 1990’s Producers Brian Hamilton, Gabriela Schonbach and Chief Financial Officer Andrea Droege joined Omni and became Partners a few years later. Soon, the company’s impressive slate of documentary films and youth drama began to include factual series like Champions of the Wild, featuring people who defend wild animals in their habitats around the world. Champions is one of the longest running documentary series produced in Canada and is still shown in over 20 countries around the world.

Into the millennium Omni Film began producing several lifestyle series including 39 episodes of Healthy Home for Discovery Health US, and HGTV, about enhancing personal health and well being in your home and Quiet Places, on Vision TV and Travel Channel which traveled to some of the most inspiring retreats in North America and a 6-part series Quiet Mind, Meditation for Real Life, that was the first ever Canada-Singapore co-production.

In 2000, Michael Chechik also began production of Omni’s second award winning dramatic youth series, Edgemont, for CBC that would air 70 episodes over the next five years.

Omni co-produces with independent producers and broadcasters around the world: