Banff: The door is wide open for Canadian feature film producers looking to gain entry into European coproduction.

Up to 25 producers from small- and medium-sized companies with a track record in features have until Aug. 24 to apply to Telefilm Canada’s European office in Paris for Immersion 2001 – Europe, a virtual tour of the Euro movie industry scheduled for Nov. 19-23, in Paris.

The program, the seventh consecutive, is organized in association with the producer network Atelier du Cinema European/European Film Studio, and includes five days of genuinely privileged access to European decision-makers, producers, distributors and financiers from the U.K., France and Germany, as well as feature film commissioning editors from Canal Plus, ARTE, Channel Four, ZDF and others.

Sheila de La Varende, director of the Telefilm Europe office in Paris, says the Immersion program reflects ‘a new strategy and reality in that it aims to reflect the new reality of economic union. In six months (Europe) will have a monetary union.

‘It’s time for Canada to position itself strategically with Europe as a multilateral territory and not only as a bilateral territory,’ she says. ‘There is no radical change in treaties or the agreements. The radical change is in the marketplace – in the way coproductions are being put together and the way Europeans are working more and more together. Rarely are we seeing European coproduction between two partners only.’

The 2001 Immersion program is sponsored by Alliance Atlantis Communications.

Telefilm has received up to 80 applications for past Immersion programs.

New doc forum

Telefilm is also accepting applications from up to 20 Canadian producers with credits in creative documentaries for the Canada-France Forum on the Creative Documentary, slated for Jan. 18-23, 2002, in Paris and Biarritz, France.

The ’99 French Immersion session for docs has spawned some 20 projects currently in development, says de La Varende.

This year’s session, held in partnership with Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels, promises access to many of the top French producers and broadcasters in factual programming including ARTE, La Cinquieme and France 3.

The deadline for applications is Sept. 21. *