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Banff: One of the things the Banff Television Festival does best is showcase cutting-edge television, as witnessed by the 1995 Grand Prix winner’s acceptance speech: ‘This festival has the best losersÉit’s an honor to win this award.’

The best of festival and best social and political documentary award went to the Netherlands’ Death on Request, a painfully close brush with euthanasia produced by Monique van Dijk and Els Prins for IKON Broadcasting, which they duly dedicated to the family featured in the film: ‘Documentary filmmakers rely on people who allow camera crews into their life.’

Rhombus Media’s September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill, the only Canadian winner, was honored for best performance special.

Special jury awards went to two bbc productions, Shakespeare on the Estate and Suffer The Little Children.

The remaining Rockie winners are: BBC Television/Thames’ Cold Comfort Farm (tv movie); Texas Justice (miniseries) by u.s.-based Patchett Kaufman Entertainment with World Int’l Network; er (continuing series) from Michael Crichton Productions/Amblin Television with Warner Bros. Television; Frasier (comedy) out of Grub Street Productions with Paramount Pictures Television; ABC News’ PrimeTime Live (information program); Duckman: Not So Easy Riders (animation program) produced by Klasky Csupo with Paramount Television; Eva (short drama), also from the Netherlands, for vara; Equinox: Electric Skies (popular science program) by u.k.-based Pioneer Productions for Channel 4 and tlc; and from Spain, The Rotund World of Fernando Botero (arts documentary), Television Espanola with Cituma TV.

Little Lord Fauntleroy: Parts 2 & 3, another BBC Television entry, won for best children’s program, and Fauntleroy producer Richard Callanan expressed a recurring theme of the festival when he exhorted producers to fight their for good children’s programming ‘Éand tell politicians if they want good children’s shows in the future they better get interested.’

It took some adjustment for Banff Television Festival-goers to adapt to the new Banff Springs venue, with many delegates wandering around the labyrinthine halls in a Spinal Tap meets Castaway Island (a Forefront Productions’ series proposal) attempt to find their next appointment.

Despite the overall increase in numbers – 1,200 tickets were sold for the bbq – several Banff attendees felt the number of key players was down from previous years.

On the panel front, despite some heavy-hitters on the stage, big issues drew little audiences. However, on the content side, creative workshops/showcases were a bigger draw than organizers expected, with small to mid-sized rooms squished to the gills, and, as in the case of ‘Television with an Attitude,’ delegates spilling into the halls.

Focused panels with few panel members, such as ‘Frasier: A Case Study’ featuring Grub Streeters Peter Casey and David Lee telling how the series came together, were well-attended and well-received.

The market simulation, suffering an unenviable post-bbq slot, was less fiery than previous years, despite the efforts of moderator Pat Ferns, who had to make do with less designated audience than anticipated. Although some of the pitches fell flat, Patrick Dromgoole and Norman Horowitz were reliably antagonistic, providing their usual prickly brand of entertainment.

In the informative final episode on what it all means, the International Council Convergence panel, moderator Horowitz asked if anyone knew what convergence was. Three people put their hands up. The worse news is it was a sizable portion of the audience.

While the obvious allure of the outdoors and the urgency of non-stop meetings is understandably tough competition for the indoor serious seminars, embarrassingly low attendance has an impact on the future of the festival.

At the World Council report, which had a particularly dismal turnout (the sun had finally come out), panelist Michael Jay Solomon, chair/ceo of Solomon International (past president of Warner Bros. Int’l TV), bemoaned the fact there were only 20-odd non-council members there.

Given the opportunity to sell internationally, ‘it’s beyond my comprehension why this room isn’t filled,’ said Soloman. Perhaps an unhealthy trend given that recent editions of the festival where the major u.s. net development/acquisition players attended, they were featured on panels.

Research was conducted on the panels (lots of questionnaires), and changes being considered for next year include the use of professional moderators on all panels, the likes of Laurier La Pierre whose fearless grilling and forthright manner – ‘Madam, let us talk about your cooking showsÉnone of them know how to cook’ (addressing Janice Platt on the topic of Life’s programming during the specialty panel) – drew and kept the audience in their seats.

Buzz at Banff – beyond the ‘Labatt six-pack’ (Trina McQueen’s description of the lci bid) – included talk of the specialties discussing banding together. ‘Why think about it? Do it’ was the opinion floating around the festival, given the fact that a uniform presence sounds like good strategy at a time when specialties could use some clout in dealing with the cablecos.

Vision TV’s Fil Fraser and Discovery’s McQueen confirm ‘informal talks’ took place, but stress nothing concrete was arrived at.

Funding agencies/organizations also continued to explore areas of common ground.

One new training collaboration that is off the ground was announced by Jan Miller of the National Screen Institute. The nsi and the Canadian Film Centre have joined forces to develop and produce new tv dramas.

The national initiative, entitled the TV Production Lab, will extend the existing hands-on training programs of both groups to address the need for professional training of directors, producers and writers.

The first year of the project will see the production of three half-hour dramas. Projected budget for the project is $690,000, of which nsi and cfc will raise 85%. The production teams will be responsible for the rest.

Telefilm Canada has been confirmed as the initiative’s first funding partner, and according to Telefilm’s director of Western operations John Taylor, ‘This is one investment I know we’re going to recoup.’

The fruit of another ongoing nsi program, its annual pitching workshop, was audible in all the nooks and alcoves at Banff.

In the pitching arena, the mandates of many of the specialties got a good workout being creatively stretched by producers; such as Cristine Richey’s (In The Gutter and Other Good Places) pitch for a doc on s&m to Bravo! with the arts-orientation angle included under the guise of performance art (arte and Canal + were intrigued). The pitch prompted a lot of attention, promoted as it was with ‘I Love S&M’ buttons.

Many shows seemed to be promoting themselves with spirit, such as the sake screening of Barbara Doran and Peter Wintonick’s doc Ho! Kanada and the whiskey-refreshed screening of Pacific Motion Pictures and Nicolette Saina Productions’ Spirits of the Canadian West series pilot.

Other winning promos included Jean Mercier’s series-touting, wherein a spot-the-typo on the A Heartbeat Away cd cover could win you a My Hometown jacket. The elaborate contest was a case of creatively managing a cd-liner typo. ‘Have you ever heard of Heatbeat? What is heatbeat?’ fumed Mercier. Heatbeat, it would appear, like anything that befalls a producer headed to Banff, is an opportunity.

While the fest is all about television, there was also news about bringing big-screen entertainment to the little screen.

In between pitching Big Little Picture Company projects with partner Nicholas Racz, Richard Baumgartel (under his Red Light Filmworks hat) gave Playback a midway update on a six-month Canadian film experiment, and so far the results are looking good.

After several years of beating on doors, Baumgartel secured the support of several funding agencies and drummed up some corporate sponsors to test whether rentals increased when Canadian films had their own section in video stores.

The Canada rack program is testing the rental volume of 56 titles in Vancouver stores, boosted with ‘Made in Canada’ stickers, posters and signage.

While the true number-crunching is yet to come, anecdotal feedback has it that the films are doing well – better than store owners anticipated. The next phase involves analyzing the figures and publicizing results to encourage other video outlets to check it out.