Corus lays out Women’s Programming Fund

Corus Entertainment has worked out the guidelines for its new $15-million Women’s Programming Fund, the only Canadian fund dedicated to programming created for Canadian women.

With the aim of triggering programming for the recently acquired WTN, the fund consists of $13.5 million in licence top-up fees and $1.5 million in development assistance over the next five years. Up to $500,000 in licence top-up fees will be awarded for a single program or a maximum of $1.5 million for a 13-part series. A maximum of $50,000 in development assistance will be available per project.

The fund is accessible to all Canadian independent prodcos for such genres as drama and comedy, documentary, music and dance, and variety.

‘We’ve kept the application process simple and straightforward, with decision-making by the fund manager and the broadcast program executive at the acquiring services,’ says Sharon Mustos, director of program funds in Corus’ Calgary office. ‘This will allow us to announce some allocations as early as March 2002.’

Meantime, WTN VP and GM Wendy Herman along with a handful of Corus programming execs are touring the country, providing information to producers about the new fund and other Corus initiatives.

DGC, CFTPA come to terms

While the details have yet to be finalized, the Directors Guild of Canada and the CFTPA have come to terms on a one-year agreement that will bring directors working in the Prairie provinces in line with their brethren in Ontario.

Under the agreement, DGC members in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta will for the first time have standardized negotiated agreements in place with terms consistent across jurisdictions. Previously, only Ontario and B.C. had negotiated agreements. All other councils had what is called promulgated agreements, which hold less clout.

‘This is actually quite a substantial change in size and scope of our relationship with the CFTPA,’ says Marcus Handman, executive director of the DGC Ontario District Council.

Handman hopes this is the first step to a national accord with consistent interprovincial terms for working conditions and compensation ranges.

‘It’s a sign of the maturing of the industry when you start to bring people into a more formal relationship,’ Handman says. ‘It brings stability to the industry.’

Under the accord, directors will be entitled to average annual increases in the 4% range. The contract is also based on a scaled pay system so that costs are lower to producers when budgets are lower.

FilmExchange boasts big names

Some of the country’s biggest names in filmmaking are taking part in this year’s 2002 FilmExchange: The NSI’s Canadian Film Festival, formerly known as the Local Heroes Canadian Film Festival, running Feb. 23 to March 2 in Winnipeg.

Director Atom Egoyan is booked to participate in a special ‘In Conversation With…’ session at the festival, which opens with Guy Maddin’s Dracula – Pages From a Virgin’s Diary and closes with Serendipity Point Films’ Men With Brooms from director Paul Gross (who also cowrote and stars in the film). Genie best picture nominee Atanarjuat from director Zacharias Kunuk, Helen Lee’s The Art of Woo and Carl Bessai’s Lola will also be showcased.

The festival’s returning ‘Spend the Morning With…’ session at the Telefilm Canada Industry Centre presents a lineup of producers, directors and writers who share their experience working in the Canadian film and television industry. Participants include Bruce Sweeney, Luc Dery, Joe Bodolai, Bessai, Kevin DeWalt, Frank Borg, Gary Burns, Sandra Cunningham and Karen Walton.

Genie winner opens in U.S.

Maelstrom, writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s film about a shallow young woman’s redemption, recorded US$2,100 at the box office after opening on one screen in New York City over the Jan. 25 weekend, according to U.S. distributor Arrow Releasing. (Odeon Films and Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm distributed domestically). The following weekend, the film opened on one screen in New Jersey as part of an expansion that will eventually reach 40 American markets, including Washington, D.C. (March 22), Los Angeles (April 5) and San Francisco (May 10).

The French-language Maelstrom debuted at the Montreal World Film Festival in fall 2000, proceeding to win five Genie Awards. Playback readers voted it the ninth best Canadian film of the last 15 years.

At press time, the New York Times was reportedly planning to run a feature on Villeneuve in its Feb. 3 edition, with the Los Angeles Times soon to follow.

Maelstrom is not the only Canuck flick to receive favorable press in the Big Apple. Alberta director Gary Burns’ waydowntown, right behind Maelstrom on Playback’s best film list, also recently opened in NYC through Lot 47 Films, generating good reviews.

Nuit earns Golden Reel, special Genie for Pratley

As expected, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television is presenting this year’s Golden Reel Award for top box office to the Quebec comedy Nuit de Noces, which has grossed $2.1 million during the qualifying period (October 2000 to October 2001).

The film, directed by first-timer Emile Gaudraeult, produced by Genie Award-winner Denise Robert (Le Confessional) of Cinemaginaire and distributed by Films Seville, ranks 10 on the all-time Quebecois release list.

The award, which last year went to Christian Duguay’s The Art of War, will be handed out at the 22nd annual Genie Awards, Feb. 7.

In other Genie news, Canadian film critic Gerald Pratley has been chosen to receive a special Genie in recognition of his lifelong dedication to the promotion and support of Canadian cinema.

Pratley is the founder of the Ontario Film Institute. He is also a former film critic for CTV and the director of both the Stratford International Film Festival and Little Cinema.

He has written extensively on Canadian filmmakers, as well as international auteurs such as John Huston and John Frankenheimer.

This year he plans to publish his crowning achievement: an index to Canadian feature films.

Among his many awards, Pratley is a recipient of the Order of Canada.

OMDC joins Telefilm at MILIA

The Ontario Media Development Corporation is joining the Telefilm Canada group stand at this year’s MILIA, taking place Feb. 4-8 in Cannes.

The partnership helps give access to small and medium-sized Canadian businesses by reducing their participation costs for one of the world’s largest annual exhibitions of interactive content.

Eleven Canadian companies under the Telefilm umbrella include: Bitcasters, Big Orbit, DC Studios, Dream Mechanics, ecentricarts, Hemera Technologies, Marble Media, Primitive Entertainment, SRP Inter@ctive, Strategy First and Trapeze Media.

Team Canada, made up of trade commissioners from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade posted in nine countries, is returning to the convention.

‘In addition to promoting the Canadian new media industry as a whole, we will be working with the OMDC and Team Canada to help companies make good sales and develop lasting production financing and distribution partnerships,’ says Johanne St-Arnauld, director of international relations at Telefilm.

BravoFACT! shorts follow Sex In the City

In a programming move sure to increase the exposure of emerging Canadian filmmaking talent, five Bravo!FACT shorts will air immediately after the first five new episodes of Sex In the City on Bravo!, from Feb. 8 to March 15.

They are: Larry Weinstein’s operatic comedy Toothpaste, starring Mark McKinney; Cassandra Nicolaou’s mockumentary The Girlfriend Interviews; Soo-Woo Lee’s romance Max & Zoe; Moze Mossanene’s dance fantasy The Doctor and Patient (The Rings of Saturn); and Douglas Bensadoun’s adaptation of Al Purdy’s poem At the Quinte Hotel starring The Tragically Hip’s Gordon Downie.