The provocative film division of Channel 4 officially grew up this summer. On June 1, its three movie operations – u.k. distribution, Film Four International and Film Four Production – were folded into a new umbrella arm called simply Film Four, a wholly owned subsidiary of Channel 4.

The 16-year-old Channel 4 is legendary for producing and supporting saucy, startling films like My Beautiful Laundrette, The Crying Game, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and Secrets & Lies. So now what? As a dedicated, standalone film company that has in the past provided tremendous support to independents, what can we expect from Film Four? Is the emphasis now going to shift towards Hollywood?

Fear not, says Bill Stephens, Film Four’s director of international sales and marketing in London. As a 10-year veteran of the Toronto International Film Festival, Stephens reassures us that it’s pretty much business as usual for the u.k. titan.

The station, which was set up in 1982 ‘to be different,’ went after programming that had a cutting-edge flavor and which would also have multicultural appeal, says Stephens. That same strategy has always applied to its film operations, with the result that, since its inception, the film house has produced more than 230 films with ‘reasonably low budgets that Hollywood would never have produced,’ he says.

At Film Four’s helm now is chief executive Paul Webster, who has upwards of 4,000 scripts zooming across his desk each year.

‘The people selecting the films now have changed,’ says Stephens, ‘and their tastes could be differentÉbut I trust them,’ he laughs, when asked what direction he sees the company taking.

Francois Girard’s The Red Violin, a Rhombus Media/Mikado/Film Four/Fine Line coproduction, is opening the festival and Stephens has an additional three films under his arm: The Acid House (Paul McGuigan), Vigo – A Passion for Life (Julien Temple; coproducers are Little Magic, mact, Road Movies, Tornasol) and Babymother (Julian Henriques; a coproduction with Arts Council of England).

The Acid House, with a budget of £1.25 million ($3.2 million) continues in the tradition of Trainspotting by taking a hard look into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation. Worldwide rights are available except for Poland, Canada, Japan, Bulgaria, Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Benelux, the Baltics, Israel, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand.

Vigo – A Passion for Life, budgeted at £3.9 million ($10 million), is a tragic but inspiring love story set in the 1930s that is loosely based on the passionate relationship between Jean Vigo, a young filmmaker, and his wife Lydu.

Babymother, a Black reggae film set in North London about a girl traveling along the bumpy road to adulthood, will receive its international premiere at tiff as part of the Planet Africa series. The film has a budget of £1.9 million ($4.8 million) and worldwide rights excluding the West Indies and the u.k. are up for grabs.

The Acid House and Vigo are being distributed in North America by Alliance, which has an existing output deal with Film Four to take on 10 films.

Stephens, who handles between 10 and 15 films a year, says there’s a healthy £32 million ($81 million) in Film Four’s 1999 production fund. Roughly 50% of that is earmarked for coproductions, which means Film Four creative staff are always looking for new talent to bring on board, says James Wilson, deputy head of production.

Networking is the main reason Wilson is coming to Toronto. As a production and creative executive, he wants to meet filmmakers and is on the lookout for new directors.

‘In order to be a player in the world cinema arena, we must have a presence in Toronto,’ he says.

Though the cornerstone of Film Four productions tends to be British and European films, such as last year’s Welcome to Sarajevo (a coproduction with Miramax), the film house also welcomes stellar examples of world cinema, says Wilson.

Wilson, who produces 10 films a year with budgets between £3 million and £5 million ($7.6 million to $12.7 million), says he can’t say what kinds of films audiences are hankering after, but he quickly points to a current production boom worldwide that has him worried.

With companies looking for surefire commercial successes, rather than distinctive, sophisticated product, he says there’s the danger that quality will be sacrificed. It does put a chill on producers, says Wilson, when there’s a push to produce carbon-copies of films like Fox Searchlight’s The Full Monty.

‘It’s superficial trendinessÉand it becomes cannibalisticÉand creates a conservatism that is not a good thing creatively in filmmaking.’

Though his eagle eyes will be trained on talent at the festival, he says he still doesn’t know which films he’ll be watching. He intends to peruse the festival catalogue on the flight over from London and expects to be bleary-eyed after taking in upwards of four films a day.

For more Buyers and Sellers, see p. 7.