With the exception of offering financing to its first feature comedy, committing to one film without a director and showing preference to first-time filmmakers, Telefilm Canada’s Toronto office is showing next to no signs of anything extraordinary in its commitments to feature film production and development for 2000/’01.

To date, the regional office has made commitments to the production of four feature films, with budgets ranging from $750,000 to $4 million. By the end of last year, six features – from 15 applications – with total budgets of $19.5 million were greenlit for production out of the region.

The Toronto office’s overall envelope for production and development is $6.5 million, the mirror image of last year’s feature film financing expenditures.

The regional budget is derived from the English-language feature film production and development envelope for all of Canada, ringing in at $17.5 million for 2000/’01.

All regional budgets are determined both by projected expenditures based on historical data and by a region’s population base. The exceptions are Quebec and the Maritimes, which have such small English-language populations that the agency does some adjusting, says Karen Franklin, Telefilm’s director of operations Ontario.

A ‘sunset date’ has been set for the first working day in September, at which time whatever money an office hasn’t spent or committed goes back in the overall English-language pot.

A fifth feature is still to be announced by the Toronto office which will also continue to support the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project by contributing to two low-budget films, also yet-to-be-announced.

This year the ffp, now in its fourth round, is changing over from running in two-year periods, in which three or four films are produced, to operating on an annual basis.

Commitments to the four confirmed features, which were selected from 17 applications considered in May and June, are dependent on proof of full financing. ‘Amounts could change over the course of ongoing negotiations and as the financing for the movies may alter,’ says Jeanine Basile, Telefilm Canada’s director of communications and public affairs.

Telefilm will finance up to 49% or $1.5 million in the production of a project, depending on which is less. For development, it gives up to 50%, or $15,000-$25,000 per phase (up to four phases).

The first four confirmed features are:

* Century Hotel, produced by Victoria Hirst of Victorious Films, written by David Weaver – who makes his feature directorial debut – and co-written by Bridget Newson. With the lowest budget of the four ($750,000), the film, set to shoot in Toronto this fall, tells seven stories, each played out over the course of the 20th century in a downtown hotel.

* Red Green’s Duct Tape Forever, written by Steve Smith and based on the popular series The Red Green Show (which, coincidentally, the agency has also committed to finance this year for the first time), the token comedy of the group. It’s also unique as it doesn’t have a director attached yet and usually Telefilm does not make a commitment without a director. ‘But with this one it was reasonable to make an exception because Steve Smith is the driving force of the project. It’s not a director-driven film,’ says Franklin. Set to shoot next spring in Ontario, Duct Tape is a road movie that follows the perils of Red and his techno-geek nephew Harold as they attempt to stave off a disaster about to befall their Possum Lodge.

* Entertainment Life is a dark, comedic drama, produced by Accent Entertainment’s Susan Cavan with Chris Grismer attached as writer and director. Set in suburban Regina, the film tells the story of teenagers, murder, romance and a random bomber.

Entertainment Life marks Grismer’s second feature. His first film, Clutch, was produced by the Feature Film Project and partially financed by Telefilm.

*Perfect Pie marks the film directorial debut of Rhombus Media’s Barbara Willis Sweete. Based on screenwriter Judith Thomson’s stage play of the same name, and produced by Rhombus’ Niv Fichman and Daniel Iron, the film tells the challenging and uplifting story of two women, one a country homemaker, the other an international celebrity, reuniting after years apart. Set in rural Ontario, the film will shoot in two parts next winter and summer.

A portion of the Toronto feature film envelope is set aside for completion requests, ‘but not more that $30,000 per project and we don’t do more than two or three a year,’ says Franklin. No completion commitments from what is known as the ‘regular fund’ have been made yet. *