NBA star Chris Paul and Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA have boarded the Canadian basketball documentary Handle with Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew (The Notic Studios) as executive producers.

Canadian NBA players Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort, along with CJ Paul and Juanita Thompson of Ohh Dip!!! Productions, have also signed on as executive producers for the film (pictured), according to a news release.

The doc has already won several honours on the festival circuit, including the True North audience award and the Best BC Film Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival last year, as well as a nomination for the upcoming DGC Awards. It had its U.S. premiere at the Urbanworld Film Festival in New York on Thursday (Oct. 27). CAA Media Finance is handling worldwide sales.

Canucks up for Gotham Awards

Canadians Bilal Baig and Sarah Polley have scored nominations for the 32nd annual Gotham Awards. Baig, the co-creator, co-showrunner and star of CBC and HBO Max dramedy Sort Of, is nominated for Outstanding Performance in a New Series. It’s just the latest in a string of honours for the Sphere Media-produced show, the most recent of which was a MIPCOM Cannes Diversify TV Award.

Polley is up for Best Screenplay for the critically acclaimed U.S. feature Women Talking (Plan B Entertainment, Hear/Say Productions), which is adapted from the book by Canadian author Miriam Toews. The drama was a runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award last month.

A total of 23 feature films, 15 series, and 35 performances in 12 award categories are in the running for the Gotham Awards, which will be held live and in person on Nov. 28 in New York. Nominees were chosen by 34 critics, curators, programmers, and writers.

Boffo box office for Drinkwater, Guitar Lessons

A couple of West Coast Canadian features have turned into sleeper hits at the box office. The Stephen Campanelli-directed Drinkwater (Suitcase Charlie Films) had an opening weekend gross of $7,045 and weekly gross of $12,647 from Oct. 17 to Oct. 20 at just one Landmark theatre in Penticton, B.C., where it was filmed and is set, according to Comscore.

The coming-of-age comedy — written by Luke Fraser and Edward McDonald, and produced by Graham Fraser and Dennis Swartman — was at No. 1 after its first two weeks with a gross of $19,763, beating out major titles including Black Adam (No. 2) and Halloween Ends (No. 3). Because of the Penticton success, levelFILM was able to lock down a bunch of additional bookings in B.C., with openings set for Victoria, Kelowna and Vernon on Friday (Oct. 28), a spokesperson tells Playback Daily.

Meanwhile, the High Level, Alta.-shot Guitar Lessons (Extra Butter Pictures), written and directed by Aaron James, debuted Sept. 30 in several Alberta cinemas and has gone on to rankings as high as No. 1, 2 and 3 at theatres in that province and Saskatchewan. The Indigenous dramedy had a total gross of $18,054 as of Oct. 27, according to Comscore. A spokesperson tells Playback Daily that the success of the dramedy has prompted some cinemas to keep the title screening for longer and bookings at more theatres and Indigenous communities through November.

On the home entertainment front, RedBox has declared Canadian director Allan Ungar’s Bandit as its “second-best original release ever” based on its total transactions, as well as its second-best release so far in 2022. The company did not confirm the film’s gross or which title holds the “best-ever” release record. The film stars Josh Duhamel as Canada’s historical “Flying Bandit” and is produced by Goldrush Entertainment and Yale Entertainment.

Short film, VR project lauded at imagineNATIVE awards

Blackfoot Nation Films and Mohawk filmmaker Roxann Whitebean are among the winners of the 2022 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Whitebean won the Live Action Short Award, which comes with a $7,500 cash prize, for her short Rose. Meanwhile, Alberta-based prodco Blackfoot Nation Films picked up the Digital + Interactive Award for the National Film Board of Canada VR project This is Not a Ceremony, created by Colin Van Loon. The award comes with a $2,000 cash prize. 

The awards were presented at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Oct. 22, where Gary Farmer was honoured with the previously announced August Schellenberg Award of Excellence. The Dramatic Feature Award was given to the Australia/New Zealand anthology feature We Are Still Here.

PAL Canada launches masterclasses

The charity PAL Canada Foundation, which represents professional and performing artists, has launched a free Behind The Scenes Masterclass series for youth, especially Indigenous youth. The series kicks off with a class called All About the Script featuring featuring Star Trek: Strange New Worlds executive producer Chris Fisher, script supervisor Jeannine Dupuy, and story weaver and story coach June Cupido, on Nov. 5 via Zoom.

The masterclases are for Canadian youth ages 14 to 30 who are looking for jobs in the Canadian arts and entertainment industry. They offer trade secrets and career tips from industry experts ages 55 and older. PAL Canada will host up to 12 masterclasses through March 2023.

With files from Kelly Townsend