While war in Iraq kept some Americans away and SARS fears kept the Japanese grounded at home, the French broadcasters were doing business at MIPTV 2003, held March 24-28 in Cannes, which netted a $200,000 deal for Toronto distributor Oasis International.

Screech Owls, Shaftesbury Films’ 26 half-hours for ‘tweens’ about a mystery-solving hockey team, was sold to French kids channel TPS Jeunesse.

According to Steven Murphy, Oasis’ VP of sales, negotiations for Screech Owls began at NATPE and closed at MIPTV as the distributor’s biggest piece of business at the event.

‘They started a new channel and there is a big demand for live action,’ he says.

World events, adds Murphy, meant many meetings were cancelled, but business was about even with last year. ‘The people who were there came to do business,’ he says. ‘There weren’t a lot of time-wasters.’

Rates were also steady, says Murphy, and the comedy genre was hot, perhaps as an antidote to bleak situations around the globe.

The Canada Pavilion had some last-minute cancellations from its roster of 65 companies, but business was as brisk as it was back at MIPCOM 2001 when the U.S. delegates stayed home after 9/11, says Lise Corriveau, Telefilm Canada’s manager, festivals and markets.

‘People had more time to chat and connect,’ she says, referring to the meeting cancellations. ‘People picked up new clients from the walk-bys. It was very encouraging, especially when some were expecting a lousy market.’

And despite the conflict in the Middle East, Regina’s fact-based producer Partners in Motion did some modest business with All Time Entertainment, which supplies countries like Iran and Iraq, says CEO Ron Goetz. The $20,000 contract included titles such as Very Odd Jobs (13 x 30) and Weather Untamed (5 x 60) and animal series Growing Up Wild (5 x 30).

Other jurisdictions pay more per episode, says Goetz, and sales are pending in the U.S., Canada and Europe for titles such as Legend Hunters (2 x 60), Future Medicine (3 x 60), Crime Stories (3 x 60) and Extraordinary Lives (13 x 30).

‘Traffic at the market was down,’ says Goetz, ‘but most people were buyers. We ended up doing about triple what we did last market, and we weren’t expecting that.’

Buyers, Goetz adds, were more willing to pay 100% of the acquisition fee on signing of the contract rather than stretching payments out over time – another indication of the improving market, he says.

Nelvana, meanwhile, signed deals for Russia and Eastern European states.

Russia’s Minimax, for instance, has purchased a number of new seasons of Nelvana titles, including 13 episodes of Franklin VI and 13 episodes of Braceface IV, which is the highest-rated program on Minimax’s Saturday and Sunday morning lineup.

Eastern European children’s and family programming distribution specialist NOX Kids has signed on to distribute more than 375 hours of Nelvana programming, including Franklin, Babar, Care Bears, The Berenstain Bears, Braceface and Beyblade.

And the National Film Board’s commercial transformation was deemed a success by Johanne St-Arnauld, director general of distribution.

Arctic Mission (5 x 60) and The Man Who Studies Murder (2 x 60), about Newfoundland criminologist Elliott Leyton, attracted interest that should result in contracts by MIPCOM this fall, she says. Arctic Mission, by Montreal filmmaker Jean Lemire (Glacialis), has a distribution agreement pending for a U.S. theatrical release.

Half-hour animated series Noel Noel also generated business, but the NFB did not have figures at press time. Meanwhile, Lemire’s new project, The Last Survivors of the Sea, a high-definition show about whales, attracted presale interest, says St-Arnauld.