A total of USD 50,000 is being made available in this year’s Latvian Foundation competition for projects supporting Latvian culture and arts, the foundation has announced.

The deadline for proposals is March 1.

Proposals may be submitted in one of two categories: Small projects with funding up to USD 2,000 and large projects with funding from USD 2,001 to USD 10,000.

Proposals must be submitted by e-mail to pieteikumi@gmail.com and by air mail to Latvian Foundation, P.O. Box 59, Merrifield, VA 22116, United States.

Further information about and forms for applying for funding are available on the foundation’s Web site, www.latviesufonds.info.

Funding proposals are first evaluated by the foundation’s board of directors and those that pass muster are then put to a vote of the membership. Results are announced in October or November.

The Latvian Foundation was formed in 1970.

The Latvian Hawks team has accepted an Irish Ice Hockey Association to return to league and championship play, ending a two-month-long row over rules and refereeing, a team spokesman said Jan. 7.

The Hawks’ “A” team quit the championship round of the Irish Hockey League after the association on Dec. 5 determined the team had infringed on league rules by bringing in players from Latvia for a Nov. 11 game against the Belfast City Bruins. The association reversed the game result, handing a victory to the Bruins.

The Hawks then announced the team was quitting the league as well. The announcement came in the third period of a Dec. 8 game against the Dublin Rams, which the Latvians claimed saw incompetent and discriminatory refereeing.

In response, the hockey association’s executive suspended the Hawks from league play pending an investigation by the IIHA Disciplinary Committee.

“We considered the federation’s request to return and decided that at the moment this would be beneficial to the team,” team manager Janeks Oberts said in a press release.

The team’s next game is scheduled at 16:30 hours Jan. 13 against the Dublin Flyers. The game will be played in the Dundalk Ice Dome, Dundalk Retail Park, Dundalk. Several new players, including a new goaltender, are to be added to the roster, a team spokesman said.

The Irish Hockey League includes four other teams besides the Hawks: the Dundalk Bulls, the Dublin Rams, the Dublin Flyers and the Belfast City Bruins. The Latvian Hawks are in last place.

The seventh annual Baltic Film Festival is to showcase three films during a three-day run Jan. 11-13 in Toronto, including the Estonian-Latvian animation film Lotte from Gadgetville.

Sponsored by the embassies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and with support from the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Affairs in Latvia, the festival also will screen the 2005 Estonian film Fed Up! and the 2006 Lithuanian film Anastasia.

Lotte from Gadgetville (Lotte no Izgudrotāju ciema), a 2006 release, was directed by Heiki Ernits and Janno Põldma. The film focuses on an annual contest in the village of Gadgetville to design the “most efficient and wittiest invention,” according to promotional material for the animation. The film was co-produced by Estonia’s Eesti Joonisfilm and Latvia’s Rija Films.

“One of the most famous inventors in the village is Oskar, the father of the energetic girl dog Lotte,” the promotional material states. “His primary rival is Adalbert the rabbit, whose wife even participates in the competition with all her heart. Victory would be important to their family and would bring honor to the entire rabbit clan.”

Anastasia is directed by Latvia-born Māris Martinsons, who now runs a production company in Lithuania. The film centers on two Russian brothers who want neither to move to Russia nor live under the new post-independence Lithuanian government. They take a minivan full of passengers hostage and demand compensation.

Fed Up! is directed by Peeter Simm. The film is a comedy about a German truck driver whose wife has left him. He takes a trip to Estonia with a cast of characters in tow.

All three films will be screened at the NFB Mediatheque, 150 John St., Toronto. Fed Up! is scheduled at 7 p.m. Jan. 11, Lotte from Gadgetville at 6 p.m. Jan. 12, and Anastasia at 6 p.m. Jan. 13.

Tickets are CAD 9 for the general public and CAD 6 for senior citizens and children. Fed Up! and Anastasia are restricted to audiences age 18 and older.