‘Canadian cinema is a hot property,’ stated Perspective Canada programmer David McIntosh, introducing the 1997 lineup, and Canadian distributors are onside. Of the 20 Perspective Canada features heading into the Toronto International Film Festival, 16 already have a Canadian distributor attached.

Opportunities for snaring deals at the festival also look promising.

When word of the Canadian lineup spread south of the border, the tiff sales office began to field calls from American buyers eager to get a first look, reports Kelley Alexander, predicting a frenzy of activity once the sales office gates swing wide Sept. 4.

Just days after the program was announced, Josh Levy and Andrew Hayes landed offers from an l.a. and a Canadian distributor on their first feature Hayseed, says producer Laura Macdonald. Although the idea of signing and going into the festival with the film fully financed is tempting, she’s biding her time and may hold out for the festival where she’s hoping the comedy, which follows a small-town hick’s misadventures in Toronto, will generate a buzz ­ as well as higher prices.

Pitch directors Spencer Rice and Kenny Hotz financed their $200,000 comic documentary without a distributor, opting instead to knock on the windows of Rolls-Royces across Toronto until they met up with investment broker Fitzroy Clarke, who came up with the total budget.

The film, recounting their attempt to shop a feature at last year’s tiff until they give up on Canada and go knocking on Hollywood doors, has been described as the most American film in the series. Ironically, it’s going into the festival without a Canadian theatrical distributor, but with u.s. sales agent Gotham Entertainment. The company has guaranteed a release in the u.s., says Hotz, and he’s confident a Canadian distributor will follow.

‘You know how it g’es, if this film is released in the States then Canada will jump all over it and say it has to be good.’

Video Services has signed for a Canadian home video release.

Vincenzo Natali’s Cube was produced through the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project and rep Justine White says several offers are on the table for Canadian distribution of the film which follows six people trapped in a lethal maze. A distributor will be secured before the festival, she says.

Quentin Lee and Justin Lin produced their first feature Shopping For Fangs with the aid of a Canada Council Grant and the generosity of friends and are currently shopping for a distributor.

Malofilm is toting the heftiest load of Canadian Perspective films. Mina Shum’s second feature Drive, She Said, the tale of a bank teller taken hostage in a thief’s getaway car, will likely see a spring ’98 platform release in major cities, then a wider opening, says Malofilm’s Bonnie Smith.

Olivier Asselin’s Le Siege de L’Ame is making its English-language premiere at tiff, and will have its French-language opening late September in Montreal and Quebec City.

The Cannes-award winning Cosmos has already screened in French in Quebec, but a release with English subtitles outside Quebec is being considered for November.

Oct. 10 is the scheduled release date of Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter in all major markets across Canada, reports Alliance Releasing. Guy Maddin’s Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, also under the Alliance banner, will hit Toronto screens in October, followed up by a wider release.

Norstar has all rights on Kari Scogland’s Men With Guns and is aiming for a late September opening for the tale of small-time hustlers seeking revenge. The company is holding off on setting a Vancouver date until the city’s film festival announcements are made.

After a world premiere at tiff, Cineplex Odeon plans a November Canadian opening for Gary Burns’ follow-up to Suburbanators, Kitchen Party, a dark comic look at Canadian middle-class suburbia. The distributor has also nabbed Perspective Canada’s opening film The Hanging Garden and will release it at the end of 1998 in major markets across Canada. The film marks the feature debut of Nova Scotia director Thom Fitzgerald.

Andre Forcier’s La Comtesse de Baton Rouge is being distributed in Canada by Compagnie France Film. Max Films Multimedia is the foreign sales agent.

Sienna Films holds Canadian rights on Maya Gallus’ Erotica (A Journey Into Female Sexuality) for Canada and Films Transit is distributing internationally. Celine Baril’s L’Absent has been picked up by Cinema Libre.

National Film Board productions represented in Perspective Canada are: Bruno Pecheco’s City of Dark, Tim Southam’s Drowning In Dreams and Anne Claire Poirier’s Tu As Crie Let Me Go.

Other features with Canadian distributors include Sturla Gunnarsson’s doc Gerrie and Louise (Films Transit), The Planet of Junior Brown (Evergreen Releasing) and John Greyson’s Uncut (Gray Zone).

Registered buyers

Topping the American companies registered at the sales office (as of Aug. 5) are Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., Orion, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fine Line Features, Trimark, First Look Pictures/Overseas Film Group, Lakeshore International, New Line Cinema, New Yorker Films, Spelling Films, Zeitgeist Films, Frontrunner Films, as well as Showtime, BMG Entertainment, Columbia TriStar Home Video, hbo, Hallmark Home Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Classics.

u.k. reps include BBC Programme Acquisitions, Mayfair Entertainment, British Film Institute, Dendy Films and Film Four International.

From Germany, ARD-Degeto Film GmbH, ZDF German Television and Intertainment Filmverleih are registered, as are Paris’ Diaphana Distribution and Seawell Films, and Australia’s Southern Star Film Sales and Neter Distribution.

Other confirmed buyers include Switzerland’s Filmcooperative Zurich, Rome’s Bim Distribuzzione, Televisa S.A. de C.V from Mexico City and Progres Films Distribution in Bruxelles.

In other tiff news, the 1997 Symposium will devote a day to Autobiographies and Alter Ego’s, exploring the ways autobiography shapes a filmmaker’s work. A number of directors screening films in Perspective Canada are lined up for the program panel, including Fitzgerald, Kazimi, Maddin and Shum.

The workshop series is also beginning to take shape.

‘Hard Targets: Canada/Asia Co-Production’ will be moderated by Media Television segment producer Karen Murray, with key guests Terence Chang, executive producer of John Woo’s Face-Off, Telefilm Asia’s Camille Gueymard and Tracey Adelson of l.a-based Adelson Entertainment and one of the producers involved in the making of Hiroshima.

‘The Toy Story: Producers as Toy Moguls,’ headed by Kelly Lynne Ashton, will feature The Licensing Group’s Danny Simon, Scott Irwin of Irwin Toys Limited, Owl Television’s Annabel Slaight and Alliance Merchandising’s Nancy Bassett.

The ‘Alternative Financing Models’ workshop will hear from James Schamus of New York indie production company Good Machine and Maud Nadler of l.a. distributor First Look, moderated by Film Finders’ Levine.

‘The Hot Shots ‘will feature Thom Fitzgerald and the soundtrack workshop has lined up Sony Music Licensing’s Paula Erickson and Mike Simpson and John King of The Dust Brothers.