– H@bitat

Canadian Film Centre founder Norman Jewison is opening up the cfc to cyberspace training with the creation of Medialinx @ habitat, a $500,000 multimedia training facility to be developed on the cfc site.

Jewison, alongside cfc vice-chair Kevin Shea and Medialinx ceo John Sheridan, announced the project at the annual Toronto film fest barbeque. The initiative marks one of Bell Canada’s first appearances on the development side of the film and tv business.

The site will be developed at Windfields and is expected to be open by early 1997. The curriculum will consist of short workshops. Details on eligibility requirements and the range of facilities at hand are still to be worked out, but there will be 10-12 multiplatform workstations available, says Jewison. An equipment supplier has yet to be decided.

– Boyle back

PowerTel TV, under the direction of former ExpressVu president Ted Boyle, will file licence applications with the crtc and Industry Canada to offer 100 digital channels to consumers in Metro Toronto and the Golden Horsesh’e region. Boyle is PowerTel’s new president and ceo, and Harry Dunstan, formerly a senior exec with PowerTel’s parent company, Simmonds Capital, is the chairman.

PowerTel, which uses multichannel multipoint distribution systems (mmds), is wireless digital technology and can also provide subscribers with Internet access, subject to approval. Consumers would need a small outdoor antenna and a set-top receiver.

PowerTel plans to begin service within a year of being licensed. Pricing and programming details are yet to be outlined.

– Atlantic fest

Telefilm Canada will present a new award at the Atlantic Film Festival (in mid-flight, Sept. 20-28), a $10,000 prize for best short film from the Atlantic region.

Films and videos 59 minutes long or less are eligible, and the award will be presented at the festival’s closing ceremony. The prize money is a pre-approved contribution for the development or production of an eligible project of the winner’s choice.

In addition, prize money for the Margaret Perry Award for Best Nova Scotia Produced Film, sponsored by the nsfdc and Kodak Canada, has been bumped up from $1,000 to $2,500. The award is open to all Nova Scotia films and videos selected for screening.

– CANAL+ merger

CANAL+, Richemont and mih have agreed in principle to merge NetHold and canal+, this strategic move creating one of the largest television groups in the world, particularly in the pay-tv field with total subscribers at over 8.5 million.

According to canal+, the merger will create a company able to meet the challenges of digital tv through the development of new technology, offer an increased range of tailor-made channels across Europe, distribute programming software across a wider territory, and compete worldwide as one of the top media groups.

– Tapestry Films

Toronto independent producers Kathleen Cummins, Lou Mersereau and Kim Daynard have opened a new production company under the name Tapestry Films, which will develop and produce dramas and docs focusing on environmental, racial, class and gender issues.

Cummins, an independent filmmaker, recently completed The Seduction of Mary Day, to be broadcast on cbc’s Reflections series and Finland’s yle tv2. Daynard is an mfa candidate in York University’s department of film and video while also working as production designer, writer and editor on various short dramas. Mersereau is a dop, director and editor of shorts and videos, most recently shooting Mary Day.

Tapestry is currently looking to finance its first feature, Tobacco Road, which tells the story of one woman’s struggle against toxic waste dumping on rural lands in Ontario. Cummins is writing the screenplay, a fictional story rooted in real events, and Mersereau is dop. Production is tentatively slated for late spring. Principal characters include Deborah Verginella (Fly Away Home), Scott Maudsley (The Kelly Gruber Story, Between Generations) and Robert McCarrol (Mary Day).

– Softitler opens in Canada

International subtitle service company Softitler has opened an office in Montreal, Softitler Canada.

The rapidly expanding company based in Florence, Italy, services all media formats, including tv, film and compact disc. Softitler will move into digital video disc (dvd) by the new year, says the system’s mainly l.a.-based developer Fabrizio Fiumi.

The Softitler theatrical system – Classic Titles System – creates digital electronic titles which appear beneath the theater screen, totally independent of the movie print.

Fiumi is overseeing the North American expansion with projects for Warner Bros., m.o.m.a. and the Lincoln Center, among others.

– Malo expansion

With only weeks between its September purchases of ReadySoft Incorporated and Filmline International, Malofilm Communications has announced its intention to buy out Image Organization, an l.a.-based distributor and production financer owned by Pierre David and Malofilm chairman Rene Malo.

The deal calls for a cash and share swap to a company controlled by Malo and a potential cash earn-out based on performance.

Malofilm president Robert Hogan says the deal ‘gives us a solid foreign distribution and production infrastructure in the United States’ and will add about $10 million to consolidated revenues in ’97.

Founded in 1987, Image finances the production of some four to five movies annually. The acquisition adds 74 titles to Malofilm’s international library.

The Image buyout news came less than a week after Malofilm expanded its digital media scope with the purchase of Toronto-based entertainment software developer ReadySoft.

Nine-year-old ReadySoft’s core business is animated action/ adventure games for interactive digital media, and the company is expected to add about $6 million to Malofilm’s consolidated revenues during the next fiscal year.

ReadySoft president David Foster will assume management of all entertainment software publishing activities, which will be integrated with Malofilm Distribution’s multimedia arm.

The purchase is being financed through cash as well as 117,057 class b subordinate voting shares of Malofilm plus a potential earn-out payable in shares. It follows on the heels of Malofilm’s purchase of MMI Multi Media Interactif, a cd-rom developer and publisher specializing in sports reference titles.

Malofilm also increased its profile as a feature film and tv movie producer earlier this month by acquiring Montreal-based Filmline International.

Malofilm announced the acquisition of Filmline from sole owner Nicolas Clermont on Sept. 6 for $2 million in cash and a potential earn-out based on future performance payable in cash and shares.

In 1995, Filmline, which coproduced the Highlander tv series with France’s Gaumont, ranked fourth among Canadian producers with a production volume of $58 million. The acquisition is expected to add between $20 million and $30 million to Malofilm’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 1997.

The deal will see Clermont assume responsibility for all live-action production at Malofilm.

Filmline recently completed Natural Enemy, a $6.2 million feature with Donald Sutherland, and Silent Trigger, a $10.5 million feature coproduction with u.k.-based Algonquin Productions starring Dolph Lundgren.

– People

After three years with the CanWest Global System, Joanne McKenna, president of the development group for Canadian operations, is leaving the company.

The announcement came as a shock, particularly after McKenna twice led the fight for Global’s senior’s specialty channel application, which was awarded the licence for Prime tv three weeks ago.

McKenna joined Global in 1993 after two years at the John Labatt Broadcast Group (now NetStar Communications) as executive vp. She joined tsn in 1985 as vp finance and administration and was promoted to corporate vp in 1988, where she contributed to the development and launch of TSN Enterprises, Skyvision Entertainment and rds, and to the establishment of the Broadcast Group itself.

– In the midst of streamlining processes, WIC Western International Communications is renaming its tv, radio and production departments. ‘Westcom’ is ditched and replaced with WIC Television, WIC Radio and WIC Entertainment, which brings us around to the people. With ctv exec John Cassaday staying put with three new specialties, former Southam exec William Ardell is the rumored frontrunner in the search to replace former wic president Doug Holtby.

– Ian McDougall is the new senior vp, production, at Alliance Television where he will oversee all of Alliance’s tv productions such as The Inheritance for cbs, The Morrison Murders for USA Network and the North of 60 series for cbc.