*Arthur Christmas special on PBS

Cinar Corp. has started production on a one-hour Arthur primetime special, Arthur’s Perfect Christmas, which will premier on pbs during the 2000 holiday season. Production executives for the special are Carol Greenwald for wgbh Boston, Micheline Charest for Cinar and Marc Brown, author of the popular book series. pbs has provided funding.

Arthur has been sold in 120 countries, most recently to China.

*Eye tops domestic box office

The Canada/u.k. coproduction Eye of the Beholder edged out Ice Cube’s Next Friday and Norman Jewison’s The Hurricane with a Jan. 28-30 weekend take of $6.2 million, topping all films at the North American (‘domestic’) box office, according to the film’s Canadian distrib Seville Pictures.

Seville released Eye of the Beholder on 71 Canadian screens, including 30 French-track screens, for receipts of $226,572, with 95% of total receipts coming from u.s. distributor Destination’s near-wide release in the u.s.

Eye of the Beholder was shot over nine weeks in Montreal in the spring of ’98 and was directed by Stephan Elliot. The $17.9-million thriller stars Ashley Judd, Ewan McGregor, Genevieve Bujold, Jason Priestley, Patrick Bergin and country singer k.d. lang.

Nicolas Clermont produced for Behaviour Communications subsidiary Filmline with Tony Smith of the u.k.’s Hit and Run Productions. Hilary Shor and Mark Damon, president of Los Angeles-based Behaviour Worldwide, are the film’s exec producers. Behaviour Worldwide has foreign rights.

Bad weather and competition from the 34th Super Bowl combined to undermine movie attendance over the weekend.

*Rockies entry deadline

The entry deadline for the 2000 Banff Rockie Awards is Feb. 21. For complete technical requirements and an entry form, visit the website at: //www.banfftvfest.com or call Jerry Ezekiel at (403) 678-9265.

*Jeunes Createurs 10th anniversary

Quebec funding agency sodec is sponsoring a delegation of nine young filmmakers attending this year’s edition of Festival du court metrage de Clermont-Ferrand in France, Feb. 4-12.

The occasion marks the 10th anniversary of sodec’s Jeunes Createurs program, a development, production and distribution envelope reserved for filmmakers aged 18 to 35.

Export agency Horizon Quebec/ sodec and Communaute francaise de Belgique are sharing a stand at the Clermont-Ferrand short film market, and have organized a 100-minute screening of Quebec short films on Feb. 8.

Jean-Francois Rivard’s Kuproquo, produced by Christian Ciupka, has been entered in the festival’s official competition.