Representatives of Quebec’s film community say they are optimistic about the province’s lack of film funding following a meeting with Minister of Heritage Bev Oda.

‘Minister Oda was extremely attentive, and listened very carefully to what we had to say,’ says producer Denise Robert (Les Invasions barbares), one of 16 stakeholders who sat down with the minister on June 21. Robert adds that Oda ‘was very open to what we had to say, and asked very intelligent questions.’

The meeting was prompted by the most recent round of funding to Quebec filmmakers from the Canada Feature Film Fund at Telefilm Canada, which turned down such noted filmmakers as Robert Lepage (La Face cachée de la lune) and Louis Bélanger (Gaz Bar Blues).

Michel Pradier, director of French operations for Telefilm’s Quebec office, said at the time that funding to the federal agency has not kept pace with the burgeoning Quebec film industry, which in recent years has seen popular hits such as C.R.A.Z.Y. and Maurice Richard matched by critical praise for the likes of the Oscar-winning Les Invasions barbares.

The stakeholders are asking for $20 million in additional funding. Robert and producer Roger Frappier (Night Zoo, The Decline of the American Empire) served as spokepersons.

The minister has been oddly quiet on film and TV issues since taking her post in February, and Robert concedes that the Conservative Party has a reputation for being cool on culture. But Oda didn’t fit the sterotype, she says. ‘On the contrary, Minister Oda seemed very open, appeared to understand our problem of underfunding and seemed to get that this industry is important.’

The province is almost single-handedly responsible for the success of Telefilm’s effort to boost the box-office take on domestic films to 5%. By the end of 2005, the end of the five-year program, the market share for French-Canadian films had hit 26%, compared to 1.1% for those in English.

Robert and Frappier described the evolution and popularity of Quebec cinema.

‘We have spent a long time and energy to build up this audience base,’ Robert recalls telling the minister. ‘We have reached a critical mass. If we don’t deliver, the audience will lose interest and move away from Quebec cinema. They will simply go back to the foreign films that they were choosing to see 15 years ago, before we made these gains.’

And yet, Robert says many of Oda’s questions were telling. She asked why it was important for the government to support the film industry and ‘asked us quite a bit about tax credits, how they work and how effective they are,’ perhaps indicating that the Tories would rather arrange for some kind of tax break than an actual cash infusion.

A spokesperson for the minister says Oda is studying the requests of the Quebec stakeholders. She will meet with them again in the second week of July.

Liberal heritage critic Mauril Bélanger was not at the meeting, but says Quebec’s film industry needs support.

‘Quebec’s homegrown film has taken off. We should be acknowledging that success in a permanent way, not just a temporary measure,’ he says. ‘At the same time, we shouldn’t penalize the rest of the country.’

Also at the meeting were producers Pierre Even (C.R.A.Z.Y.), Nicole Robert (Horloge biologique), Jacques Bonin (Duo), Luc Déry (Congorama, Familia) and Marc Daigle (Octobre). They were joined by Céline Pelletier of the APFTQ, Éric Tessier and Lise Lachapelle of the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec, and representatives of groups including the Union des Artistes, the Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma and the Association canadienne des distributeurs et exportateurs de film.

The next deadline for French-language submissions to the CFFF is Nov. 14.