French-language films continued to lose market share last year, while those in English were up very slightly, thanks in part to Passchendaele. according to the year-end report from Telefilm Canada.

The funder released its numbers for 2008/09 on Friday, touting its recent bridge-building with foreign partners and overseas sales.

‘We are placing a great deal of importance on forging alliances with foreign partners and promoting co-production activities,’ said chairman Michel Roy in a statement. ‘It’s worth noting that in 2008, each dollar Telefilm invested in markets generated close to $12 worth of foreign sales.’

The overall box office was up in Canada last year, climbing to $919.6 million from $857.4 million in ’07 — but the market share of domestic films dwindled to 2.9%, down from 3.3%.

French-language films also had an off-year, losing some of their recent momentum. Down from a recent high of 26.6%, French-language films last year sagged to a ‘disappointing’ market share of 13.8%.

‘The erosion of market share mirrors a decline in the volume of French-language films released in theaters,’ says Telefilm.

English Canada remained, as usual, a distant second to movie-mad Quebec, though the share of its films went from 1% to 1.1%, in part due to Paul Gross’ war drama Passchendaele. The film took in an exceptionally high $4.4 million.

‘It’s success demonstrates the importance of ‘hit’ titles in the English-language market,’ reads the report, going on to applaud the marketing efforts of Alliance Films. ‘This immense success is partly due to the strong marketing campaign of the film which began a year before it was released.’

In 2008/09, Telefilm backed 41 features through its main Canada Feature Film Fund: 21 in French, totaling $27.2 million, and 20 in English, adding up to $37.5 million.

Other top earners at the box office were: Cruising Bar 2 ($3.5 million), Babine ($2.2 million), Dans une galaxie près de chez vous ($1.9 million) and Borderline ($1.3 million).