The market may be as difficult as it’s been in years, but Canadian producers and exporters sound decidedly upbeat as they head to MIPCOM, the international film and program market for TV, video, cable and satellite, running Oct. 10-14 in Cannes, France.

Telefilm Canada reports an unprecedented 80 Canadian production and distribution companies will rally under the Canada Pavilion at MIPCOM, up from 65 last year.

‘The Canadian television industry is in full swing, producing high-quality programs on rich, diverse subjects,’ says Richard Stursberg, Telefilm’s executive director. Stursberg says success at home with Canadian programs also ‘involves increasing the global competitiveness of Canadian companies by facilitating strategic partnerships and increasing export opportunities.’

Hugh Beard, CEO of Force Four Entertainment in Vancouver, says his company is looking to secure more international financing and is moving quickly to diversify production across lifestyle, documentary and drama platforms.

Distrib Alliance Atlantis will be selling the Force Four/House on Films six-hour immigration drama copro Human Cargo, directed by Brad Turner and licensed in Canada by CBC and Showcase. ‘[AAC] is giving it a very big launch and we’ll be there to help support that development,’ says Beard.

Beard will be looking for partners and financing on Murder Unveiled, a new MOW in development with CBC, as well as a miniseries and a $6-million theatrical feature, A Diamond for Veena, set in Canada and the U.K., about an arranged marriage in an East Indian family.

‘One of the things that people are looking for is highy diversified programming,’ says Beard.

Force Four (Jinnah on Crime) is also looking for additional funding support ($3 million to $4 million) for the Citytv-commissioned theatrical/MOW Jillian Guess, about the infamous Vancouver juror who slept with the accused. It’s slated to shoot in B.C. in March 2004.

Although distribution may be in the company’s future, ‘at this point in time we need the distribution advance, and the expertise, too,’ he says.

Pushing Betty

Ira Levy, executive producer at Toronto’s Breakthrough Films & Television, says, ‘We are going to be pushing Atomic Betty [an animation series coproduced with France], because we have a lot of presales so far. We are also pushing [drama series] Paradise Falls because we have a renewal [from Showcase], and Little Miracles, – 10 new hours – because we’ve had tremendous success selling that internationally.’

Michael Prupas, president and CEO of Muse Entertainment Enterprises, Montreal, says the company will be selling existing product at MIPCOM as well as scouting out coproduction deals and financing for new production.

Muse Distribution International titles include the CTV movie Deadly Friends (aka The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton); The Clinic (for sales to Germany), a TV movie set in an animal emergency facility, originally commissioned for Animal Planet and A-Channel; and the TV movies Chasing Cain I & II and The Many Trials of One Jane Doe, all three multiple Gemini nominees.

Muse also has world rights to Wonderland, 13 new one-hours slated for CBC primetime and scripted by Dani Romain and George Walker.

This year, Muse is sharing a Horizon Quebec stand with Spectra Distribution International (Montreal International Jazz Festival).

In terms of new projects and presales, Muse and Beyond Entertainment are developing Answered by Fire, an ambitious miniseries to be produced in association with CBC and ABC, as well as Honest Blue Eyes, a one-hour action/drama series ‘a la Mission Impossible’ set in Montreal and major European capitals, to be coproduced with Swedish partner Ter Vanner.

On production financing trends, Prupas says producers are moving away from the deficit-financing model, typified in Canada by Fireworks Entertainment/CanWest, to upfront presale financing and deeper programming commitments on the part of broadcasters.

Ken Faier, VP production and distribution, children’s TV at Alliance Atlantis Communications, is launching two new series at MIPCOM, the stop-motion/FX animation series Poko (Salter Street/CBC) and Peep and the Big Wide World, a preschool show produced by WGBH and 9th Story Entertainment for TVOntario and Discovery Channel’s TLC block in the U.S.

AAC-distributed kids shows with new episodes at MIPCOM include Henry’s World (in-studio at AAC), Mental Block (Zone3), Connie the Cow (Neptuno Films in Spain) and Degrassi: The Next Generation (Epitome Pictures), sold in the U.S. to Noggin, France 2 and ABC in Australia.

AAC’s kids segment strategy is focused on three areas – preschool, action-adventure for the six-to-11 market (typically boys’ toy-driven properties) and live-action comedy/drama for eight-to-14 tweens.

International Potential

AAC’s involvement in projects ranges from producer and exec producer to distributor. The company looks at a project’s international potential and ultimately its prospects for a U.S. platform, says Faier. ‘The bottom line is we are looking to manage the rights, in distribution, both nationally and globally, as well as for merchandising and licensing,’ he says.

Marie-Christine Dufour, EVP, distribution and marketing at CineGroupe, Montreal, says the company is moving deeper into late-night/primetime adult animation.

The big sales push at this year’s MIPCOM will be Tripping the Rift (13 half-hours), ‘a sexy 3D sci-fi spoof’ produced by CineGroupe and slated to preem on Space: The Imagination Station in January.

‘It’s a whole new market for us and we’re really excited about it,’ says Dufour. ‘It’s opens up a new perspective and is triggering other [animation] products that we have in development for primetime.’

CineGroupe will also introduce a new live-action/CGI series called 11 Somerset, a light tween-targeted X-Files-type story coproduced with Montreal’s Trinome Inter.

Selling is still a mix of presales and distribution, says Dufour.

‘Presales are an increasingly important function, but if you can get away without doing too many presales you can get great distribution,’ says Dufour. ‘Presales are way ahead of time – a year or two before you actually deliver the product.’

Barry Ward, president of Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, says top-of-line product at MIPCOM includes the half-hour animated special The Christmas Orange, nominated for two Geminis and winner of four B.C. Leo Awards.

Lodged at the Canada Pavilion, Bardel will also be selling the 13 half-hour kids mythical-adventure series Silverwing, the house’s star product which recently preemed on Teletoon.

‘We’ll be looking for a coproduction partner for the second season,’ says Ward.

Silverwing is based on the best-selling youth novel by Canadian author Kenneth Oppel and is the first in a trilogy of books including Sunwing and Firewing, which have sold close to one million copies in 10 countries.

The third installment, Firewing, released in April 2002, knocked the Harry Potter books out of the number-one spot for children’s and youth fiction in Canada, says Ward.

‘I am trying to build relationships, as opposed to just doing sales,’ he says. ‘Coproduction is going to become, as it always has been for Canadian companies, one of our main ways of raising financing.’

Les Harris, president and CEO of Toronto’s Canamedia, says new product at the market includes the CTV/Discovery one-hour doc The Invisible Machine (Morag Productions), on the terrifying frontier of electro-magnetic science (pulse-weaponry); the internationally shot lifestyle series Design for Living (produced and hosted by Kimberly Seldon); the extreme sports/travel adventure series Drop In (Fall Line Productions); and Talkin’ Blues (Mako Funaska), 26 half-hours of contemporary blues/history commissioned by Bravo!

‘I can tell you we’ve just had two of the toughest years of our life. We have had to cut back administration staff,’ says Harris. ‘What I have noticed for the first time in two years is that we are getting requests for screeners that are coming out of the blue from broadcasters around the world.’

Harris says Canamedia is getting increasingly ‘involved with producers in preselling their shows, and we are becoming more like executive producers as well as distributors.’

-www.mipcom.com