Feature film analysts with both Telefilm Canada and provincial agency sodec are in high-scramble mode with most producers looking to shoot this year forced to file for the Jan. 22 eip/lfp deadline.

Oversubscription is a problem, but not a new one. The real concern with the jumped-up deadline is its potentially negative impact on the quality of screenplays and release product in the year 2000.

The timing is important because the ’98/99 crop of Quebec features includes both critically acclaimed festival hits and box-office winners, and is arguably the strongest year in a decade.

Based on box-office data from Alex Films, Quebec movies pulled in a record $9.6 million in ’98, with three films – Louis Saia’s Les Boys I & II and Denise Filiatreault’s C’t’a ton tour, Laura Cadieux – among the overall top 10. Quebec films took in 8% of all box-office receipts last year, double the share in ’97.

Application deadlines for French-language features applying for both eip and lfp funding (with broadcaster and distributor letters) was Jan. 22, and March 19 for lfp-only funding. In Quebec, the deadline for English projects seeking eip and lfp funding is Feb. 15. The cut-off date for Feature Film Fund applications is April 9.

The setup is far from ideal and could lead to a situation where projects with back-end commitments won’t necessarily have the Feature Film Fund money many will need.

‘No money will be disbursed before April 1,’ says Joelle Levie, Telefilm director, Quebec operations. ‘It’s a problem because there is so much oversubscription [and] the only way to make good decisions is to evaluate all the projects [together].’

Projects filed with Telefilm will be evaluated within new Canadian Television Fund guidelines.

Levie says Telefilm does not yet have a fixed budget for ’99/2000, but the industry here is being told funding for French-language features will be approximately $10.5 million, the same as in ’98/99.

The $10.5 million is made up of just under $5.5 million from the Feature Film Fund and approximately $2.5 million in both the eip and lfp envelopes. Quebec operations funding for English features is $2.8 million. Telefilm no longer administers the feature film lfp component.

sodec will have $3 million more next year than this year for various feature film investments. About $5 million more in government appropriation was added in ’98/99.

Screenwriting support from sodec rose to $1.4 million from $858,000 this year, while combined film and tv production investment rose to $10.3 million from $5.9 million.

Just for features, sodec added $4.3 million to an existing $3.5-million envelope for a ’98/99 total of $7.8 million. The agency’s Jeunes Createurs youth program was not increased beyond its initial $1.25-million budget, but will be as of April 1, says Suzanne Laverdiere, director-general, film and television production. Laverdiere manages five selective aid programs, in screenwriting and production.

Guidelines as to how the new money will be spent should be ready by mid-February following talks with the industry, but there is a firm proposal to increase the cap for features to 35% of the budget to a maximum of $1.4 million from the current 25% of the budget to a maximum of $600,000. The new cap requires ministerial authorization.

‘It was obvious the moment we had these new credits we’re going to have a much more important role in the financing of feature films,’ says Laverdiere.

Levie met with feature producers in the apftq prior to Christmas outlining where the Telefilm Quebec operations group stood in terms of ’99/2000 financing, and rule changes.

Expanded role for SODEC

The Quebec operations office invested $10.5 million in 13 features in ’98/99, representing about $30 million in combined budgets. The average feature budget is up slightly to just under $3 million. Four or five of the 13 films received only post-production funds, totaling $120,000.

Levie says between 25% and 30% of all projects are accepted for production financing.

‘The way the financing works in [French] Quebec it’s very hard to finance a film over $3.5 million,’ she says.

The evolving financing model for publicly funded French-track Quebec movies includes:

* a maximum of 49% equity investment (copyright) in French-language films from Telefilm, a budget share that rises to 55% with the non-equity lfp contribution top-up;

* tax credits including a provincial 20.25% refundable (and bankable) production tax credit, and a small – under 5% – federal credit calculated on the distributor’s minimum guarantee and producer’s investment (‘non-public’ investment);

* an average 10% equity investment to a maximum of $600,000 from sodec in recent years, which in all probability will rise to 35% or a maximum investment of $1.4 million in ’99/2000; and

* advances from distributors, producer deferrals and other investors.

Primary audience

Telefilm distributed a draft evaluation grid for French-language features to producers last month. It charts three general areas: an analysis of a perspective film’s primary audience and distribution potential; a creative assessment based on the quality of the screenplay and the composition of the creative team, including the screenwriter, director, producer and performers; and a cost/benefit analysis with reference to Canadian Television Fund objectives and the agency’s recoupment prospects.

A project’s impact on ‘corporate development,’ including coproduction potential, is also part of the evaluation criteria.

Levie says Telefilm needs more precise information on a film’s audience or target market. ‘Is it a good investment opportunity, like Les Boys, or is it a film that will be selected for all the festivals?’

She says there’s confusion around the issue because many producers think identifying a film’s audience is the same as saying the audience has to be as large as possible.

‘What we’re saying is the film has to be made for a specific audience, even if that audience is marginal.’

If a project is highly original, personalized – as in film d’auteur – Levie says producers and distributors should say so, and make it clear the film is destined for serious movie buffs, critics and festivals. ‘If we know the film will have a career on the international festival circuit, we’ll respect that.’

Recoupment levels for Quebec features continue to hover in the 4% to 6% range.

The lfp funding request will be transferred to lfp after the eip evaluation. lfp-only applications go straight to lfp.

Development funding

Telefilm invests $750,000 annually in Quebec feature film script development.

‘There is no obligation to go first [through] development and then secondly into production,’ says Levie. ‘What we might like, maybe for new production companies that we don’t know, is to have them apply first in development so we can follow them through the process and then be more secure at the production level.

‘There is no rule,’ continues Levie. ‘But production companies here in Quebec don’t have enough money to develop [projects] themselves so they need public funding for development.’

And if producers typically do not match development (writer fee) funds from Telefilm, at least they can include administrative and fee charges in the development budget, as high as 15% and 20%.

Time crunch and

new programs

Although the six- to 12-week turnaround for development applications is too long, Levie says production analysis is the absolute priority. Telefilm’s feature business unit in Montreal includes three content analysts and a legal analyst. And Levie says the team quickly needs a new unit director following Nicole Giroux’s resignation last month.

Laverdiere’s department at sodec has three film and tv content analysts and two business and legal analysts.

Pushed by producers, Levie says the agency is looking at an ‘automatic component’ for producer development funding, possibly scaled against box-office results, overall production levels and critical acclaim. The automatic share could represent as much as 50% of all development spending, up to a per-project top of $75,000.

She says it’s part of a plan to explore new ways of working with the industry, including a better mix of automatic and selective funding components, perhaps as a prelude to a new, amalgamated feature film fund.

Telefilm’s Quebec operations group also wants to create a program for features budgeted under $1 million.

The program will have a per-project cap with the hope of financing three or four small-budget features in the new year. Levie says she also hopes to maintain the $120,000 post-production fund.

‘We received a lot of applications from new producers in ’98/99. Many of them come from other parts of the industry [directors, writers, das, etc.] but they want to be producers now. I think it’s okay, it’s fair. The only thing is we’ll have to split the pie into smaller pieces, or we’ll have more people eating the same pie,’ she says.

Coproduction

is growing

Six publicly financed Quebec coproduced features were funded in ’98/99, including Curtis Wehrfritz’s Four Days (coproduced with Ontario), Lewis Furey’s Beyond Mozambique (with France), Gabriella Cristani’s Ladies Room (with the u.k.) and Lea Pool’s Emporte-Moi (with France and Switzerland).

Telefilm made a small investment in the French-language historical drama La Veuve de St-Pierre, a coproduction with France, and a $2-million Feature Film Fund investment in the Denys Arcand English-language film 15 Moments, also a Fench coproduction.

Producers have deepened relations with domestic and foreign partners, says Levie. ‘We’ll have a lot of coproductions in ’99/2000. I think the industry has changed and has really tried to open a door to other ways of financing.’

Levie says she’s proud of the diversity and success of Quebec films released in ’98/99.

‘What I like the most is that we have different kinds of films, and all of them are interesting. They won’t all have the success of Les Boys or Laura Cadieux, but (the new crop) is a growing sign of maturity and professionalism.’

Cinema d’auteur

With its expanded funding, Laverdiere says sodec will continue to support cinema d’auteur, but there will be a greater diversity of projects.

In ’98/99, 20% (the allowed maximum) of sodec’s production and development funding went to English-language projects.

sodec administers the Quebec refundable production tax-credit program, which includes an interim guarantee of up to 90%. French-track features are credited at a rate of 20.25%, 15% for English films.

Features other than coproductions which received both Telefilm and sodec investments this year include Johanne Pregent’s L’Ile de Sable, Richard Ciupka’s Le Dernier souffle, J.F. Duval’s Matroni et moi and Louis Saia’s Les Boys ii. Jean Beaudin’s Souvenirs d’intimes received sodec funding this year and Telefilm money last year, while Pierre Falardeau’s Miracle a Memphis is largely financed by Telefilm. All the films except Les Boys ii (currently with box-office receipts of over $4 million) are slated for theatrical release in the weeks and months ahead.

Despite the new success at the box office, the wider issue of responsibility for a movie’s success or failure – producer, distributor or funding agency – remains largely unanswered.