• Texans took well to Guy Maddin’s latest film at South by Southwest, handing the festival’s prize for best experimental short to Night Mayor. The 10-minute black-and-white from the Winnipeg director and Joe MacDonald of the NFB follows a Bosnian immigrant who broadcasts images of his homeland to Canadians from coast to coast. Maddin has described it as ‘a fable about the NFB.’ The film and music festival, which wrapped earlier this week in Austin, also handed an activism award to Waterlife Interactive, the web component of the NFB think piece about H2O.

• CHFD in Thunder Bay has finalized its divorce from CTV, breaking from the network with a nod from the CRTC. The station has gone independent, but will draw non-local programming from Canwest Global. Its owner, Thunder Bay Electronics, has also moved to break its CKPR from the CBC.

• Toronto’s film critics are among the groups calling for the release of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The White Ribbon, Crimson Gold), who remains in solitary confinement in Iran after two weeks. Panahi is ‘a major international director whose films have shed a spotlight on the plight of the poor and especially women in Iran,’ noted Brian Johnson, president of the Toronto Film Critics Association. ‘Now he’s being used as an example to anyone in Iran who wants to speak out.’ Panahi was arrested on March 1, along with fellow filmmaker Mahmoud Rasoulof, who was reportedly released on Thursday.

• Newspaper boss Dennis Skulsky is stepping down at Canwest, ending his tenure as president and CEO of its publishing division on April 30.

• Sweden’s Sparks Network has picked up Battle of the Blades, and will sell the format rights to the skating reality worldwide following a deal with Insight Production in Toronto.