Rendez-vous finalists

More than 130 productions, including six feature film finalists competing for the Prix L.E. Ouimet-Molson, are being screened at this year’s Rendez-vous du cinema quebecois, the 13th edition of the annual film and video retrospective.

This year’s finalists for best feature-length film, preselected from among 27 eligible films by l’Association quebecoise des critiques de cinema, are: Robert Morin’s Windigo, Andre Forcier’s Le Vent du Wyoming, Michel Brault’s Mon Amie Max, Denys Arcand’s Love and Human Remains, Francois Delisle’s Ruth and Pierre Falardeau’s Octobre.

The Montreal dates for this year’s Rendez-vous are Feb 2-11. The retrospective will travel to Quebec City, Feb. 14-19; to Hull, Feb. 21-25; and for the second consecutive year, to Vancouver, March 2-8.

Help on the Horizon

Budding directors working out of the Prairies received good news from Telefilm Canada this month in the form of a new development initiative called Horizon.

Administered by Telefilm’s Vancouver office, the program is aimed at encouraging resident directors of Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba working on a low-budget (less than $1 million) first or second feature film.

Directors can make applications directly to the program with projects in treatment form without the requirement that a producer or distributor be attached to the project.

Professional story editors will provide written critiques for accepted projects. Projects developed under Horizons may then be considered for production under Telefilm’s Low Budget Feature Program.

Production up 40% in B.C.

Film and television production in b.c. topped the $400 million mark in 1994. That’s a 40% increase over 1993 in the total monies spent in b.c. In its busiest year ever, b.c. shot a record 85 productions: 32 features, 15 tv series and 38 tv movies. Total production budgets for the province in ’94 accounted for $649 million.

Verdict soon on CMT

The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to decide within the next two weeks whether it will hear Country Music Television’s appeal of the crtc decision to remove it from Canadian airwaves.

cmt was taken off the air Jan. 1 when Canada’s New Country Network launched. The Federal Court of Canada rejected cmt’s first appeal Dec. 2. A petition was subsequently filed with the Supreme Court.