Although Being Julia star Annette Bening didn’t leave the Oscars with a best actress statue in hand, her nomination helped push the ThinkFilm release over the $1-million mark at the Canadian box office.

Domestically, Being Julia had grossed $1,030,579 as of March 7, with 37% of that generated since awards season, when Bening won best actress nods from the Golden Globes and the National Board of Review, and was nominated for an Oscar. As of March 7, Being Julia was approaching US$9 million south of the border, and producer Robert Lantos says he expects the total box office there to reach around $10 million.

‘The Golden Globe win and the Academy Award nomination have significantly helped at the box office both in Canada and the U.S.,’ says Lantos.

ThinkFilm’s Andrew Austin says that when the Toronto-based distributor initially released the film in mid-October, it was up against some pretty stiff competition during the Christmas movie season.

‘This year, in particular, the Christmas play period saw an abundance of adult-oriented programming, with something new coming into the market every week,’ says Austin. ‘We decided to refocus our resources on awards season and it worked to our advantage.’

Being Julia is the young distributor’s first English-language release to clear the $1-million mark in the Canadian market.

Such an achievement would usually be a big deal for an English-Canadian feature, considering that passing $1 million triggers a feature film performance envelope from Telefilm Canada, worth up to 49% of eligible Canadian production costs in equity investment. However, for Lantos, it’s no biggie.

‘This is nothing new. I’ve always had that privilege since the envelope system was first introduced,’ says Lantos. Serendipity Point Films has been granted a performance envelope from Telefilm for the last five years running, based on the strength of his previous films.

Being Julia was partially financed through an envelope. And Lantos’ previous films, such as The Statement, Ararat and Men with Brooms, were all envelope-financed movies. With the Canada Feature Film Fund currently under review, however, it remains uncertain whether Being Julia’s success will translate into yet another envelope for Serendipity.

Also on English-Canadian screens, Olivier Assayas’ Clean, which received strong reviews when it played at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, got off to a slow start when released by TVA Films March 4 on two Toronto screens and one in Vancouver. After its opening weekend, the art-house feature had grossed $7,690, for an average of just over $2,500 per screen.

Meanwhile, in French Canada, the Christal Films release Daniel and the Superdogs jumped into the number-one spot on the Canadian box-office chart during its opening week. Released Feb. 25 on 65 Quebec screens, the family film from André Melançon grossed $333,510 by March 7, for an average of $5,130 per screen.

The English-language version of Daniel, released March 4, grossed approximately $35,000 from 61 prints over opening weekend.

Homegrown features to be released this month include Phil the Alien from Lions Gate, which was due to hit theaters on March 11. From Odeon Films, Seven Times Lucky will be released on March 25, with Saint Ralph to follow April 1.