Habibata Ouarme and Jim Donovan’s feature documentary Koromousso, Big Sister (pictured) will have its world premiere at the Toronto edition of the Human Rights Watch Canada Film Festival (HRWFF).

Written and directed by Canada-based Ouarme and Donovan, the doc is produced by Quebec’s Denis McCready and Christine Aubé for the National Film Board of Canada’s Quebec, Canadian Francophonie and Acadian Documentary Studio. It follows a group of African-Canadian women on a mission to break cultural taboos, take ownership of their bodies, and heal from trauma brought on by female genital mutilation.

Koromousso, Big Sister will premiere on March 9 at the Toronto festival, which runs from March 8 to 19. It will also have its international premiere on March 23 at the London edition, running from March 16 to 26, according to a news release.

Three Canadian projects receive Frameline’s 2023 completion fund

Tünde Skovrán’s Who I Am Not, Seán Devlin’s Asog, and Christopher Yip’s Fish Boy are among this year’s Frameline Completion Fund recipients. The fund from non-profit organization Framline is for emerging and established filmmakers with projects that represent and reflect the LGBTQ+ community.

Who I Am Not is a Romania/Canada/Germany/South Africa/U.S. copro and marks the Skovrán’s feature-length directorial debut. It will be the first project from this year’s recipients to be released, with a premiere slated for the SXSW film festival in March, according to a news release. It follows a beauty queen and an activist, born both female and male, who speaks out about their experience.

Who I Am Not is produced by Andrei Zinca of Miami-and L.A.-based Double 4 Studios and Voxx Studios and coproduced by Patrick Hamm of Berlin’s Bulldog Agenda and Paul Cadieux of Quebec’s Filmoption International. Executive producers include Patricia Arquette, Zinca, Skovrán, and Marc Smolowitz of the U.S.; South Africa’s Jafta Mekgoe; and Belgium’s Danielle Turkov.

Asog is directed and written by Vancouver-based Filipino-Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Devlin and produced by Amanda Ernst. The experimental narrative and doc feature follows a non-binary Filipino comedian who goes on a road trip to a drag pageant after losing their job hosting a local TV show after a typhoon destroyed the studio.

Fish Boy, written and directed by Toronto-based Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yip, is a short based on his childhood. Produced by Playback 2021 10 to Watch alums Kent Donguines and Malachi Ellis, it centres on a 16-year-old who questions his love for God, while exploring his sexuality.

This year, the $25,000 fund is being split among eight different projects, marking “the most films awarded in a single year in the Completion Fund’s history,” said the release.

Viaplay Group streaming platform set to launch in Canada

Stockholm-headquartered Viaplay Group is launching its DTC streaming platform Viaplay in Canada next month.

Viaplay, which offers over 1,500 hours of Nordics-produced content across feature films, documentaries and series, is set to launch in the country on March 7, making it available to 13 markets worldwide. The expansion to Canada was first announced in September 2021.

The service was previously launched in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands and the U.K., with collections of branded Viaplay Select content also available on partner platforms in 20 markets.

Clement Virgo attached to direct and executive produce Netflix’s The Madness

Brother filmmaker Clement Virgo is among the directors set for Netflix’s limited series The Madness. The eight-part conspiracy thriller, which follows a man who must prove his innocence after stumbling across a murder, comes from Chernin Entertainment’s first-look deal with Netflix.

It is created by Stephen Belber (O.G., The Laramie Project), who also serves as a co-showrunner and executive producer alongside VJ Boyd (Justified, S.W.A.T.). Virgo will direct and executive produce the first two and the concluding two episodes, while Quyen Tran (Maid) and Jessica Lowrey (Perry Mason) will each direct two middle episodes, according to a news release.

The remaining executive producers include Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kaitlin Dahill.

CBC partners with global broadcasters for Public Spaces Incubator

CBC/Radio Canada has collaborated with Belgium’s RTBF, Switzerland’s SRG SSR, and Germany’s ZDF for the creation of the Public Spaces Incubator initiative.

The initiative aims to support citizen engagement and democratic discourse, and create innovative solutions that engage accessible and meaningful online conversations free from harassment or bullying about issues that relate to the public’s interests, according to a news release.

The research and development of the project will be done in collaboration with New_Public, and will be aligned with the broadcasters’ public service mandates.

CBC/Radio Canada has previously pledged to collaborate with U.K. pubcaster BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Big Bad Boo opens a new office in Austria

In the wake of its married co-founders relocating their family to Vienna, Austria, Vancouver-based studio Big Bad Boo is opening a new office there. Austria has a 35% tax credit incentive for film and TV production, and Big Bad Boo’s Shabnam Rezaei and Aly Jetha will use that to build a new slate, according to a release.

The Vienna outpost will develop content and continue work on series that are currently in production, such as Galapagos X and 1001 Nights. The company’s latest 2D-animated series, Billy & the Boingo Band, is going into development with TVO Kids this year.

With files from Kidscreen and Realscreen

Image courtesy of National Film Board of Canada