Briand film to open WFF

Manon Briand’s La Turbulence des fluides has been selected as the opening-night film at the 25th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival. The gala screening is set for Aug. 22. This year’s festival and parallel International Film Market run from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2.

Turbulence is set in a small Quebec coastal village where the oceanic tides have mysteriously disappeared. Alice, a Tokyo-based seismologist, is called in to investigate and is subsequently drawn into a strange world where love, fate and the unexplained collide.

Leading players are Pascale Bussieres, French actress Julie Gayet, Jean-Nicolas Verreault and Genevieve Bujold.

Turbulence was shot by DOP David Franco and is a Canada/France coproduction between Max Films and Europa Corp. of Paris. The Canadian distributor is Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm.

High times at CHUM

Always quick to embrace new technologies, CHUM Television wants Canada’s first digital over-the-air licence to go to its flagship station Citytv. The broadcasting powerhouse applied to the CRTC for high-definition approval on July 18.

This follows the June 12 release of the CRTC’s basic plans and policies for the introduction of digital signals, wherein the federal regulator guaranteed that existing broadcasters will get the first shot at digital, provided they apply ‘in a reasonable amount of time.’

‘Before that, we couldn’t deal with it because we didn’t have a policy. Now we can go ahead,’ says CRTC spokesperson Denis Carmel. He says no other applications have yet come in.

The feds will seek public comments through August, and begin formal hearings in the fall. If approved, this will be the latest in a series of firsts for City, which was Canada’s first commercial UHF broadcaster when it went on the air in 1972, and the world’s first all-videotape station.

CBC buys all of Country Canada

CBC has acquired Corus Entertainment’s 70% stake in the diginet Country Canada, giving the public broadcaster 100% ownership of the channel that celebrates rural Canada.

‘We believe that successful digital services will be those that leverage the core programming strengths of their operators, and the heart of Country Canada is the news and information programming, all of which is provided by CBC Television,’ states Corus president and CEO John Cassaday.

‘The transfer of full ownership and control of Country Canada to [CBC] will allow Corus to focus on the development of our four other digital services, which more closely align with our programming expertise.’

Providing a window to the vast landscape beyond Canada’s urban centres, the CBC sees the channel as part of its commitment to a strong regional focus, says CBC president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch.

The channel, currently available to roughly 340,000 Canadian homes, was launched in September 2001 as a Category 1 licensee.

Corus and the CBC remain partners in The Documentary Channel, along with the National Film Board and four independent producers.

In other news, CBC has announced plans to buy transmission assets associated with six CBC-affiliated stations currently owned and operated by CTV. They are: CKBI in Prince Albert, CKOS in New York, CFCL in Timmins, CHNB in North Bay, CKNC in Sudbury and CJIC in Sault St. Marie.

Upon CRTC approval of the deal, CTV will surrender its licences for the respective stations, but will continue to broadcast its full lineup on its CTV affiliates.

NFB leaves London

The National Film Board is moving all of its commercial distribution operations for Europe to Paris, and will close the doors of its London office on Oct. 14. NFB director general of distribution Johanne St-Arnauld announced the shuffle July 30, citing a study that found duplication of effort between the two offices.

‘This decision is intended to maximize the profitability of our distribution system,’ said St-Arnauld in a statement.

The City of Lights will be the base of the NFB’s business in Europe. The New York office will continue to serve North American markets, and reps in Montreal will continue to handle Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

NFB’s three London employees will lose their jobs. Paris is expected to expand later this year.

DGC inaugurates awards

The Directors Guild of Canada is inaugurating its first annual awards Oct. 5.

Honoring achievements in film and television by its 3,600 members, the DGC Awards have been established to coincide with the guild’s 40th anniversary and is set to present member Norman Jewison with the first DGC Lifetime Achievement Award.

The DGC Distinguished Service Award will be given to former DGC VP and Alberta District Council chair Grace Gilroy in recognition of her dedication to the guild and the Canadian film industry.

Awards will be presented in 11 team and craft categories, spanning achievements in such formats as feature film, MOW, TV series, children’s, comedy and doc, and in such crafts as direction, production design, picture editing and sound editing. The jury, comprised of members from every region of the country and each job department, will select four finalists in each category to be announced the week of Aug. 12.

All DGC-signed productions that received their premiere broadcasts or screenings during the 2001 calendar year are eligible.

The jury has already received more than 300 nominations.

Rogers to rebrand ethnic stations

Rogers Media has announced the rebranding of its Toronto-based multicultural TV operation to coincide with the launch of a new station, which had the prelaunch title of CFMT Too.

Operating under the umbrella Omni Television, the new station, which was granted a licence by the CRTC in April, will be dubbed Omni.2 and will begin broadcasting Sept. 16 on channel 44, cable 14.

The long-established CFMT will phase in its new moniker, Omni.1, over the next year, beginning with a name change to Omni News for the station’s news programming.

Omni.2 will provide programming in 20 languages representing 22 ethno-cultural groups, focusing on Pan-Asian and African languages.

Hot Docs turns attention to U.K.

The 10th annual Hot Docs will take 12 filmmakers to the 8th annual Sheffield International Documentary Festival in October as part of its forthcoming UK Exchange – promising delegates ‘priviledged access’ to local broadcasters, producers and industry insiders.

Citing its ‘rich documentary tradition,’ festival exec director Chris McDonald says the U.K. is a ‘vital destination for our producers and directors.’ Like its previous forays to Australia, the Nordic countries and Germany, the Toronto-based documentary festival hopes the exchange will build bridges between the industries in both countries.

As part of the exchange, Hot Docs will also bring top U.K. films and filmmakers across the Atlantic for similar meet ‘n’ greets when it returns to Toronto April 25 to May 4, 2003, and will spotlight U.K. doc cinema.

Indie producers/directors have until Aug. 26 to apply for the exchange.

The Sheffield doc fest runs from Oct. 21-27.

CanWest grabs The Shield

The ink was barely dry on this year’s Emmy nominations when CanWest Global announced it would air The Shield in Canada as part of its 2002/03 season. Season one of the gritty cable drama – produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Columbia TriStar Television, and aired in the U.S. by the FX Network – scored Emmy nods for directing, writing and lead actor on July 18, and was picked up a week later by the Winnipeg-based broadcaster.

The Shield, which follows a team of semi-crooked cops on their rounds through inner-city Los Angeles, will likely air in Global’s 10 p.m. slot on Fridays. The series lost a number of sponsors after its March 12 debut on FX.