Cambium, Catalyst merge

Two of Canada’s prominent and long-standing producers/distributors, Cambium Entertainment and Catalyst Entertainment, have merged to form Cambium Catalyst International, Toronto’s newest production and distribution house.

Cambium CEO Arnie Zipursky becomes chairman and CEO of the new entity and Catalyst president Nancy Chapelle is CCI’s new president.

Catalyst CEO Charles Falzon will remain on the board as a director, but moves on to focus primarily on his role as president of Catalyst’s international affiliate Gullane Entertainment, which becomes the international affiliate to CCI.

Falzon will remain in his Toronto office, where the new company will be housed.

Layoffs have yet to be announced, although the company confirms that at least a few jobs will be eliminated as a result of the merger.

The merger of the two Toronto-based companies, a strictly paper transaction, represents more than 30 years of experience in the Canadian production arena.

Oscar nom for Strange Invaders

Strange Invaders, Cordell Barker’s hilarious and cautionary tale of the baby out of the blue, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the animation short film category, despite the fact it was overlooked for a Genie. It’s Barker’s second Oscar nomination, following his 1989 classic The Cat Came Back.

Produced by the National Film Board, Jennifer Torrance and Barker, and executive produced by Svend-Erik Eriksen, Strange Invaders garnered major awards at seven international festivals in 2001, including the International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France, The New York Festivals and the 44th International Festival for Documentary and Animated Films in Leipzig, Germany.

The NFB has received 66 Oscar nominations, winning 10, nine for individual productions and one for overall achievement.

The Academy Awards ceremony will be held March 24.

Deeply dives into U.S. direct-to-video market

In what its producer says is a ‘striking example’ that Canadian distribution does not adequately support domestic production, the Bellwood Stories feature Deeply has been digging into U.S. video premiere charts for the past month.

The first feature for writer/director Sheri Elwood, which received three Genie nominations but struggled at the domestic box office, is proving a popular choice with video renters south of the border.

Deeply was the number one rental in the direct-to-video category through January, beating out the likes of Beethoven’s 4th and Barbie’s Nutcracker, according to Video Premiere Online, a Web-based publication controlled by Variety parent Cahners Business Information.

The film, with the drawing power of stars Kirsten Dunst and Lynn Redgrave, grossed more than $2 million in its first three weeks in video distribution.

The film’s producer Carolynne Bell credits a strong marketing push by rental chain Blockbuster for the solid showing.

‘The marketing machine behind the project in the U.S. was much more viable,’ she says. ‘It didn’t perform exceptionally well in Canada, I think, because of the distribution. There wasn’t any money put behind it.’

According to Mark Slone, VP marketing and publicity at Odeon Films, Deeply’s Canadian theatrical distributor, the film received the level of support all films do with ‘comparable star power and quality.’

The film was promoted locally through newspaper ads, posters, festival showings, promotions and press screenings.

NFB launches copro unit

The National Film Board has created an international coproduction unit charged with developing key partnerships and/or framework agreements with international broadcasters and other organizations.

‘Public agencies are at a crossroads, and as the only public producer and distributor of its kind in the world, the NFB has a duty to spearhead the movement to recover the ground lost by the public sphere in recent years,’ says NFB chair and government film commissioner Jacques Bensimon. ‘Not only to recover this ground but to enlarge it. We don’t want to deny the essential role played by private industry but, rather, to work with it.’

The new unit will manage all international NFB coproductions, with a broad focus on general-interest programming.

Four coproduction unit projects are underway with French producers: Autopsie d’une utopie, on the ‘virtual utopia’ of the Internet; Les Casques bleus (13 Productions); Qui sait?, an examination of modern physics (Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse); and Oceans, an Arctic adventure film (Gedeon Programmes/Glacialis Productions).

Diginet sign-ups on the rise

Early results indicate promising numbers in cable and satellite customers signing up for new digital channels.

According to both Rogers Cable and DTH carrier Bell ExpressVu, sign-up is at close to 40% of their customers.

As of Feb. 7, ExpressVu has seen 40% of its one million customers sign up since the end of the preview period one month earlier.

Meanwhile, Rogers has seen 38% of its more than 265,000 digital customers place orders for one or more diginet since the free preview period began in September. That is up from 30% reported last month.

MOW Savage Messiah gets Christal release

In a rare coup for a TV movie, Muse Entertainment’s potent story of murderous cult leader Roch Theriault will be released on more than 30 screens April 27 by Montreal-based distrib Christal Films.

Mario Azzopardi directed from a Sharon Riis screenplay adapted from the Paul Kaihla and Ross Laver book Savage Messiah. The film was shot last fall on a budget of $4.2 million and is an official Quebec/Ontario/U.K. coproduction with German gap-fnancing support.

Canadian licences include Showcase Television, Series+, The Movie Network and Movie Central.

$2.5M libel ruling against CBC stands

The CBC will not be allowed to appeal an April 2000 judgment against The Fifth Estate to pay $2.5 million in damages to an Ottawa physician and scientist. It is the largest libel damages award ever made against a Canadian media outlet.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in early February not to hear the appeal by the CBC hoping to overturn a ruling that it had defamed Dr. Frans Leenan in a 1996 broadcast of its flagship investigative reports program.

Watchdog calls for halt to caster political contributions

Ottawa-based watchdog The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has called for an amendment to the Canada Elections Act prohibiting broadcasters from making federal political contributions.

According to a study titled ‘Follow The Money: Part II, Federal Political Contributions by Canada’s Broadcasting Industry, 1993-2000,’ contributions by broadcasters and cable companies to federal politicians and parties doubled in the 1990s, reaching nearly $1 million in the 2000 election.

‘Shareholders of companies operating in a federally regulated industry might well applaud giving cash to federal politicians as a useful business expense, but the interests of Canadian democracy are not being served. The scope for abuse is already wide enough when so few media companies filter news received by Canadians,’ says spokesperson Ian Morrison.

According to the study, three of the top 20 contributors to the Liberal Party in 2000 were broadcasters: Rogers Communications (12th at $66,342), BCE (18th at $59,562) and CanWest Global (20th at $56,156).