Telefilm Canada executive director Richard Stursberg’s surprising defection to the CBC partway through his five-year mandate has left the federal funding agency and the rest of the Canadian film and television sector slack-jawed and mired in speculation.

Stursberg is the Ceeb’s new executive VP, English Television, replacing Harold Redekopp, who will act as senior advisor to president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch until he retires at the end of the year.

As executive director at Telefilm since January 2001, Stursberg presided over substantial change at the federal funding agency – mostly imbuing it with an appetite for audience development.

There were many expectations for the Stursberg era at Telefilm – mainly building box office for Canadian feature films to 5% of the overall market. So what will happen now that his tenure has been truncated?

Don’t ask Telefilm, which deferred comment on the issue until well after Playback’s press deadline.

Telefilm spokesperson Jeanine Basile says, through e-mail correspondence, that Telefilm chairman Charles Belanger will speak to the Privy Council and ‘needs to clarify certain things regarding the appointment of a new Executive Director’ before talking to the press.

‘Telefilm Canada’s Board will be making recommendations to the minister of Canadian Heritage who is ultimately responsible for the appointment,’ she writes.

That allows for a lot of interim guesswork.

Few film and television insiders expect operational changes at Telefilm in the near term – meaning that the Stursberg business plan will likely remain intact for some time yet.

The returns on Stursberg’s audience development programs may be a bit too fresh to evaluate with authority. Any substantive changes in operations, meanwhile, will probably wait until the new ED is installed, a task made more complicated, at least politically, by the new Liberal minority government, residual fallout from the Sponsorship Scandal and the vision of newly minted Minister of Canadian Heritage Liza Frulla.

For instance, the chosen candidate will have to be confirmed after an appearance in front of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage – an organization with more opposition members on the roster after the June 28 federal election.

That means, according to Ian Morrison, spokesperson for lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, that the governing party will take ‘a second breath’ before making a decision, to ensure that the new executive director passes politically.

Morrison believes there will be an interim Telefilm ED appointed, and then the new government will evaluate Telefilm’s place in Canada’s audiovisual zeitgeist.

‘In my own view, there is the need for more articulation between Telefilm and the Canadian Television Fund,’ says Morrison. ‘Why are they separate institutions?’

Speculation about who might replace Stursberg ranges from industry representatives to bureaucrats to producers. (Carolle Brabant, director – finance and administration at Telefilm, has been appointed acting executive director.)

Since Stursberg is an anglophone, some industry observers think it’s a francophone’s turn. Bilingualism will be a major consideration, and insiders are hoping for a candidate with substantial industry experience.

That said, Slawko Klymkiw, executive director of network programming for CBC Television, seems to be on top of the list as someone with the skills, the clout and the drive to navigate Telefilm – not to mention the buzz that he is miffed by Stursberg’s incursion into his CBC territory.

Andre Picard, director general of the National Film Board’s French Program, rates highly by some, along with Adam Ostry, former CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and Jim Byrd, former VP of English Television Networks at the CBC.

Jacques Bensimon, chair of the NFB and government film commissioner, is a potential candidate according to some observers, along with Sandra Macdonald, president and CEO of the CTF, and Elizabeth McDonald, former president and CEO of the CFPTA, who is now at work in Telefilm’s international operations and development division. Sheila Copps, former minister of Canadian heritage, is on some lists.

Peter Herrndorf, the National Arts Centre’s president and CEO, could be a candidate, along with bureaucrats including Judith LaRocque, deputy heritage minister, and Susan Peterson, assistant deputy minister with the federal-provincial relations and social policy branch.

Some industry types hanker for a time when producers ran Telefilm – as Peter Pearson did in the 1980s.

Filmmaker Norman Jewison comes up as a possible candidate. Other names that intrigue include producers Robert Lantos and Laszlo Barna

‘Everyone was surprised [by Stursberg’s move],’ says Guy Mayson, president and CEO of the CFTPA. ‘[Stursberg] has had a tradition of doing his job and moving on fairly quickly.’

Mayson credits Stursberg with making Telefilm more accessible and transparent, strengthening the consultative role with industry, and giving the organization an improved operation plan to go forward.

‘[Stursberg] changed the [cultural] landscape and improved the agency-industry relationship,’ says Mayson.

He adds that Stursberg listened and seemed sympathetic to producers, but that some of that goodwill didn’t translate into practice. For instance, negotiations between producers and Telefilm on issues such as recoupment and administration remain difficult, he explains.

The new executive director, Mayson says, should ensure that Telefilm stays true to its original legislation – to build a production industry. With that in mind, he hopes Telefilm will balance audience development and industry development equally.

‘[Stursberg] made a lot of changes in a short time,’ says distributor Hussain Amarshi, president of Mongrel Media in Toronto, who hopes the new Telefilm ED might slow the rate of change.

‘There was too much pressure to achieve objectives quickly,’ he adds, noting that the increased responsibility of distributors was reasonable but adds risk. ‘I admire [Stursberg’s] desire to shake things up and get us focused on certain goals. The upheaval it generated is good for the industry. We need to know why we are doing what we are doing and measure it. We can’t go back to the era in which box office didn’t matter.’

Stephen Waddell, national executive director at ACTRA, says Telefilm is too much of a machine to change much operationally in the near term, and points out that Stursberg was a figure of controversy. For instance, Stursberg’s contract with U.S. agent Creative Artists Agency to ‘repatriate’ ex-pat Canadian stars to Canadian movies rankles still.

‘This has been a difficult time for Telefilm,’ says Waddell. ‘We don’t believe the direction is the right one. We’re pleased that there was a concerted effort to raise box office for English-language Canadian features, but that should be done through better scripts, marketing and promotion.’

Waddell disagrees, for instance, with Telefilm initiatives to ease up restrictions on using foreign actors.

In a release, Telefilm chair Belanger commended Stursberg. ‘In just over two and a half years… Stursberg has given Telefilm new momentum that will continue to benefit creators, the industry and the Canadian public,’ he says. ‘I am pleased to say that Telefilm is an increasingly sophisticated agency, which now has a service charter, an improved consultation process and online business operations. Telefilm’s exemplary management of public funds, its attention to balance and fairness, as well as its programs that further cultural diversity are recognized and valued.’

-www.telefilm.gc.ca