Montreal: Richard Stursberg, Telefilm Canada’s new executive director, says the industry has ‘a lot of work to do’ to build box-office performance for Canadian films, notably on the English side where market share dipped to under 0.5% last year. With little in the way of performance indicators – new films produced in the first year of the Canada Feature Film Fund have yet to be released – the newly released CFFF guidelines for 2002/03 hold the line on reserved production and development financing for producers at 50%. Stursberg, however, gives strong indications the fund’s performance component will move to 60% in 2003/04.

‘We considered moving the performance [share] up to 60%, but there are so many companies with envelopes, even if you move another 10% over, it doesn’t give enough to the individual companies such that they can produce by themselves. They still have to come to the selective side,’ said Stursberg in an interview from the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival.

As a countermeasure, Stursberg says selective projects in 2002/03 will be subject to more market-based criteria, ‘those aspects of the grid that are likely to lead to commercial success. For example, we’ll put some real emphasis on how many dollars distributors are prepared to commit by way of marketing money.

‘We want to get those box-office results, we want to have more commercially successful films. We have a lot of work to do here,’ he says.

Major guideline changes

Major changes outlined in the 48-page CFFF guideline document, released Feb.7, include:

* The eligibility of broadcast-affiliate production companies for performance fund production financing is capped at one-third of the overall performance allocation per linguistic market.

* In distribution, companies with performance envelopes may use up to 50% of their reserved allocation for minimum guarantees or acquisitions, although Telefilm says it intends to continue to move support from acquisition to marketing costs. In 2002/03, the agency will advance up to 35% of MGs undertaken by distribs.

(Only three of nine CAFDE member companies will have reserved envelopes of $500,000 or more in 2002/03, Alliance Atlantis, Seville Pictures and Christal Films Distribution, down from eight distribs this year. Stursberg says several distribs have 2002/03 envelopes close to $500,000, and that granting CAFDE’s request for a minimum $500,000 threshold for companies ‘with a track record at least during the transition period’ would effectively undermine the resources of distribs actually delivering better results. ‘Telefilm told them [distribs] about a year ago that’s where we’re going, and we’re going to continue with it. [New companies] will have to come in on the selective side [15% of the marketing funds] and start to build their business,’ says Stursberg.)

* On the issue of foreign leads in CFFF-funded movies, Stursberg says, ‘At the end of the day it will be Telefilm that makes the decisions.’

In a prepared statement, the agency says, ‘Telefilm Canada will continue to exercise flexibility as regards to the requirement for a Canadian performer in a lead role in co-protagonist and ensemble situations, and in cases where the non-Canadian lead is integral to the film’s market potential.’

New CFFF films

As many as 17 new Canadian and Canadian-coproduced feature films in the CFFF/CTF 2001/02 production/distribution pipeline have budgets of between $5 million and $15 million. Among them: Ararat, Le Collectionneur, Un Homme et son Peche, Shiney’s Head, Between Strangers, Men With Brooms, Owning Mahowny, The Book of Eve, The Republic of Love, The Suspect, La Turbulences des Fluides, Spider, The Snow Walker, L’Odyssee d’Alice Tremblay, Heist, Mariposa Azul and Pinocchio 3001.

CFFF resources in 2002/03 are expected to be at the same level as this year when $73 million was set aside for production and development in the main program, split evenly between reserved and selective envelopes. Funding includes $11 million for distribution and marketing, with 85% in 2002/03 earmarked for distribs with reserved envelopes; $2.3 million for screenwriting assistance; $1.8 million for low-budget feature projects (under $750,000); and $6 million for complementary activities, including festivals, awards and the versioning program.

Telefilm says it will post the CFFF performance (reserved) allocation list for 2002/03 early in the new fiscal year (April 1), but individual producers and distributors have already received written advisories. Production company performance envelopes are capped at $3.5 million in each language market. Distributors are capped at $2.5 million, with the overall corporate cap at $6 million.

CFFF’s performance envelope calculation for producers is based on film(s) box-office results adjusted upwards or downwards by awards and official Canadian and international festival selections, the level of Canadian content, and an additional bonus for children’s films.

The top 20 performing films in each language market are ranked over an established period – Jan. 1, 1997 to June 30, 2001 in the case of the 2002/03 calculation. Telefilm says it’s looking at factoring in a producer’s recoupment record in the performance calculation.

-www.telefilm.gc.ca