Vancouver: St. Monica, a B.C./Ontario coproduction, is one of the first features to benefit from the booty falling from the Canadian Feature Film Fund’s performance envelope.

The producers attached to the drama previously engineered the box-office successes The New Waterford Girl, Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny of Sienna Films, and Better than Chocolate, Sharon McGowan and Peggy Thompson of Mortimer & Ogilvy Films, who have $709,000 and $409,000, respectively, due from the $100-million kitty. The producers got money from both the performance and selective envelopes.

Set in Toronto (where much of the action was filmed), the feature tells the story of a young girl who lives with her mother and uncle in a basement apartment and dreams of being an angel in the church processional. When she doesn’t get her wish, she steals a pair of angel wings, looses them, and then has to retrieve them from a homeless woman who believes they are a gift from God.

The producers describe the feature as a serious drama with a child lead, following the standards set by acclaimed features such as Central Station and Ponette.

The production shot one week in Vancouver by mid-October and will do its post-production here. Lenka Svab of Silver Screen Digital is set to edit.

St. Monica is the second feature for writer/director Terrance Odette (Heater). Nine-year-old Vancouver actor Genevieve Buechner plays Monica. Brigitte Bako, Clare Coulter and Maurizio Terrazzino costar.

Seville Pictures will distribute on the big screen next fall. Citytv, Movie Central and The Movie Network are also aboard.

Hi holiday

Various Positions, the first feature funded from B.C. Film’s new ‘low-budget’ envelope, wraps almost three weeks of production Nov. 10. Written and directed by Ori Kowarsky (short film Riding the Bus) and executive produced by Karen Powell (Studio B Productions), the feature is a romantic drama about a Jewish university student who fails his exams for law school, falls in love with a Gentile and brings her home to meet his conservative family during Passover.

Tygh Runyen and Carly Pope star in the feature that has Movie Central and The Movie Network on board. No distributor is yet attached to the feature, made for less than $750,000 and shot on location in Vancouver.

Last count

For its opening weekend in limited release, Vancouver-made feature Last Wedding earned $25,000 at the box office.

Bruce Sweeney’s wry black comedy about modern relationships – a favorite on the Canadian festival circuit – closed the Vancouver International Film Festival on Oct. 12, the day it opened at Vancouver’s Fifth Avenue Theatres and Granville Seven Cinemas. It opened in Toronto, Victoria, Nanaimo and Abbotsford Oct. 19.

‘We’re very pleased with the first weekend,’ says distributor Andy Myers at ThinkFilm in Toronto. ‘It’s on track to do extremely well.

By Oct. 19, first-week box-office receipts totaled $35,000 from the two Vancouver theaters.

Previously, Sweeney’s features Live Bait and Dirty generated, let’s just say, less enthusiastic box office success.

On the record

Last issue, in a news story about B.C.’s domestic film industry and the effects of cuts to government, the politician in charge got back to me too late to be included.

When asked if organizations such as funder B.C. Film, tax credits and the B.C. Film Commission were threatened by calls for a 35% cut in provincial spending, Rick Thorpe, the minister of competition, science and enterprise, says: ‘Film in B.C. is a very important sector in the economy and I want to grow the film industry in B.C. For the most part, what we do in our film industry is competitive and compatible. Film is a strategic priority.’

While he doesn’t anticipate any big changes such as the closure of B.C. Film, there will be less money.

‘Every organization can do better with more efficiency. My challenge to B.C. Film and the [B.C. Film] Commission is to see where inefficiencies and duplication are hampering growth.’

Just what that means, however, will have to wait until early January when budget planning gets into full swing.

Rare Welsh bit

Vancouver-based tax-shelter company Sentinel Hill is bankrolling the negative pickup feature New Cardiff with Colin Firth, Heather Graham, Minnie Driver, Mary Steenburgen and Oliver Platt.

In the romantic comedy, a heartbroken British artist lands in a small eastern U.S. town only to fall in love with a local nurse and face the return of his ex-fiance.

Shooting will take place in Vancouver, Fort Langley and Hope. Barnaby Thompson (An Ideal Husband, High Heels and Lowlifes) produces and Mark Herman (Little Voice) directs. Veteran Grace Gilroy PMs. Buena Vista International distributes.

Phat chance

Vancouver’s Mainframe Entertainment is partnering with superstar skateboarder Tony Hawk to create an animated teen comedy set in the world of extreme sports.

Dan DiDio, Mainframe’s senior vice-president of creative affairs, says Hawk brings an extensive fan base to the project. ‘We want to create a fun show that will feature a little bit of a Fat Albert-type of feel while staying true to the real essence of action sports and incorporating elements from Tony’s personality,’ he says.

Polo shot

Treasure Mountain, a comedy-adventure feature by writer/director Adriane Polo (Sea to Sky Entertainment) of Squamish, debuted Oct. 14 in her hometown. Shot in the Squamish area this summer, the feature follows two girls who search for a pirate’s long-lost treasure while they elude modern-day pirates who want to find it first.

Nadine Sykora, Camille Clarke, Travis Woods, Mark McConchie and Doreen Ramus (Scary Movie) star and Dan Cassell coproduces with Polo.