*Hot Docs to send doc makers to Australia

Hot Docs and the Australian International Documentary Conference are organizing an exchange program for Canadian and Australian documentary filmmakers to help spark coproduction deals.

Financed by Telefilm Canada, the Ontario Film Development Corporation and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the exchange program will allow up to 12 Canadian doc makers to attend the aidc festival in Adelaide, Australia from Nov. 2-6. They will participate in the Canadian Showcase portion of the festival/conference.

The exchange will also offer the Canadian filmmakers a chance to attend the annual Screen Producer’s Association of Australia Conference, taking place Nov. 10 -13. In return, it opens up an opportunity for up to 12 Australian doc makers to attend the Hot Docs festival in Canada in May 2000.

Hot Docs will accept submissions for the program until Sept. 13.

*Hybride wins FX job on Battlefield: Earth

Special visual-effects producer Hybride Technologies has been assigned to create the 3D special-effects for the big-budget Roger Christian sci-fi thriller Battlefield: Earth, starring and exec produced by John Travolta.

‘The Battlefield: Earth film crew includes some of the top specialists in the field and we are very proud they chose us to create the complex special effects for the biggest scenes in the film,’ says Pierre Raymond, Hybride’s president.

Battlefield: Earth is shooting on location in the Montreal region through to Sept. 24. The distributor is wb.

*INIS master class features script-doctor Wayne

Veteran film and television script doctor Paul Wayne will lead a Sept. 10-12 professional workshop, ‘Creating and Recognizing a Good Screenplay,’ hosted by Institut National de l’Image et du Son, Quebec’s advanced film school.

The master class agenda includes: elements for success, making the story interesting, the role of intrigue, structure and dialogue.

Wayne’s tv credits include the comedy soap Scarlett Hill, The Carol Burnett Show, the ctv sitcom Excuse My French, All in the Family and Three’s Company.