Industry aids Copps’ campaign

A handful of film and television players has been identified as helping fund Heritage Minister Sheila Copps’ Liberal leadership campaign.

In a recent public disclosure of leadership campaign donations to Liberal cabinet ministers, Copps disclosed $48,995 in cash and $5,494 in in-kind contributions.

Among the list of cash donators are: Temple Street Productions ($5,000), Breakthrough Entertainment’s Peter Williamson ($2,500) and Ira Levy ($2,500), Nabet Local 700 ($5,000), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters ($500), the CFTPA ($500), Elizabeth McDonald ($500), Independent Film Financing ($200) and the Toronto International Film Festival ($200), to name just a few.

Cassels Brock & Blackwell was among the in-kind contributors, raising $2,829.54.

The list was released by federal ethics counselor Howard Wilson July 11.

Cinar takes legal action against Globe-X

Cinar Corp. has petitioned the Supreme Court of the Bahamas for permission to wind up Globe-X Canadiana and Globe-X Management and to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers as liquidators.

Cinar says Globe-X has failed to pay the balance of slightly more than US$39.3 million ($60.3 million) plus interest of US$4.7 million ($7.2 million) still owing from an original principal amount of US$122 million ($187 million).

The funds were initially placed with Globe-X by former company directors in what Cinar management subsequently determined was an ‘unauthorized’ investment.

In October 2000, Cinar says Globe-X committed to make weekly payments until the entire ‘investment’ was returned to Cinar, with the final payment due in August 2001. Since then, Globe-X has made payments totaling US$11.6 million ($17.8 million), but defaulted on its weekly schedule and has not made the final payment, says Cinar.

In the meantime, a report in the Montreal Gazette says Globe-X has been sold to unidentified buyers.

In financial news, Cinar reports consolidated revenues for the six-month period ending May 21 were $62 million, down 7% from the same period last year. Educational revenues were up 11% to $46.6 million, while entertainment revenues declined from $24.9 million in 2001 to $15.4 million in 2002, due to a drop in production and library sales. Gross margin is $31.1 million, more than 80% from the education division. The company recorded a $2-million tax provision during the period and $1.3 million from its share of profits from specialty service Teletoon.

Net income for the six-month period is $7.6 million or $0.19 per share.

TIFF update

Edoardo Ponti’s Between Strangers, starring Sophia Loren, Deborah Kara Unger and Mira Sorvino, makes its world premiere as a special presentation at the 27th Toronto International Film Festival, running Sept. 5-14.

Also part of the Special Presentation lineup are the North American premieres of David Caesar’s Dirty Deeds and Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention, the Canadian debut of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated adventure Spirited Way, and Francois Ozon’s 8 Femmes.

In Canada, Between Strangers is distributed by Equinox Films, Dirty Deeds by Odeon Films, with Alliance Atlantis handling worldwide sales, Divine Intervention and 8 Femmes by Seville Pictures, and Spirited Way by Walt Disney Pictures.

In other TIFF news, the Masters lineup so far includes the North American premieres of Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen, Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing, Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten and Mani Ratnam’s A Peck on the Cheek.

Telefilm funds 32 new media projects

Telefilm Canada has announced funding for 32 of the 183 new media projects filed for the April 29 deadline. Of the total, 18 products are in the predevelopment/development stage, while 14 will receive production and marketing support.

Telefilm’s new media fund has an annual budget of approximately $9 million.

Thirteen projects are new media-TV convergence products with tie-ins between television wireless products, interactive games and websites. The others are CD-ROMs, multimedia installations, game consoles, Web content, websites and wireless products. Overall, two-thirds of the accepted projects are for online platforms, while one-third are for offline platforms.

In addition, Telefilm reports 21 of the 32 products, 65%, are in the educational/edutainment category.

For a full list of accepted projects go to: www.telefilm.gc.ca/upload/ fonds_prog/CNMF-April-29.pdf.

Grey market crackdown

On July 11, Vancouver police seized illegal satellite equipment including receivers, hacking cards, emulator boards, software and CD burner equipment. Investigators allege the equipment taken from allmodchips.com was intended for sale and to illegally decode U.S. and Canadian satellite signals.

‘The distribution of illegal satellite equipment directly harms artists, actors and broadcasters as well as the satellite and cable industries, the licensed and lawful distributors of broadcasting services in Canada, and we are pleased that the law has been upheld in this manner,’ says Serge Corriveau, national director, film and video security office on behalf of the Black Market Satellite Coalition.

Under Canada’s Radiocommunication Act, it is illegal to own or use unauthorized equipment to decode encrypted programming. A Supreme Court decision in April determined the reception of unauthorized satellite services in Canada is illegal, including the use of U.S. addresses to pay a monthly fee to U.S. satellite services to receive them in Canada.

Alice Tremblay tops $1M

Distrib Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm reports Laura Cadieux director Denise Filiatrault’s third feature film, the satirical fantasy L’Odyssee d’Alice Tremblay, earned just over $1 million at the Quebec box office in its first two weeks of release. Produced by Cinemaginaire, Alice opened number one over the June 28-30 weekend on 81 screens.

‘It’s always a pleasure to see a Quebec production do better than American films produced and released with considerably greater resources,’ says Vivafilm president Guy Gagnon.

Alice pulled in another $137,614 over the July 12-14 weekend for a cumulative 17-day total of $1,143, 519, according to consultant Alex Films.

Based on exhibitor demand, AAV’s next Quebec release, Ricardo Trogi’s twentysomething road-movie comedy Quebec-Montreal, has been upped to 40 screens. The release is set for Aug. 2. Produced by Go Films, Quebec-Montreal preemed at this month’s Comedia/Just For Laughs film festival in Montreal.

Feore wins at Monte Carlo

Colm Feore has won a Golden Nymph for best actor in a miniseries at this month’s 42nd annual Monte Carlo Television Festival. Feore won for his portrayal of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the four-hour Big Motion Picture production Trudeau, broadcast on CBC.

The CBC Witness series documentary In the Line of Fire, produced by Sandworks, on the extreme dangers faced by journalists covering the Middle East crisis, won a special mention prize in the current affairs category.

NFB, France 2 call for proposals

France 2’s documentary unit, headed by Yves Jeanneau, and the National Film Board’s International Co-production Unit, headed by Eric Michel, unveiled a new partnership for the coproduction of two feature-length documentary films at last month’s Sunny Side of the Doc in Marseille, France.

The two institutions are calling for proposals from Canadian and French directors and producers for the production of two feature-length documentaries for primetime broadcast on various international networks, including France 2.