The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Quebec Section has named the president and VP for its board of directors.

Veteran Montreal producer Antonello Cozzolino (pictured left) has been nominated for president. Attraction’s Cozzolino has produced films such as Mille Bottine and Mafia Inc.

TV5 Quebec Canada head of content Véronique Légaré (pictured right) has been nominated for VP. Légaré, responsible for TV5’s Créateurs en série program, has more than 20 years of experience in the industry including 12 years as VP of TV production at Quiet Motion.

Chloé Leriche’s Atikamekw Suns takes top prize at inaugural Indie Awards

Chloé Leriche’s 2023 feature Atikamekw Suns (Les Films de l’autre) took home Best Narrative Feature at the inaugural Indie Awards.

The Indie Awards were held at the Director’s Guild of America in L.A. on Monday (Dec. 9) and were hosted by actor, comedian and producer Nic Novicki.

Written, directed and produced by Leriche, the film won another three awards at the Slamdance Group-presented ceremony: Outstanding Storytelling Craft for editors Leriche and Natalie Lamoureux; Outstanding Technical Achievement for cinematographer Glauco Bermudez; and The Native Viewpoint Award For Outstanding Indigenous Community Story Collaboration for Leriche.

The drama, which also won four awards at last year’s Whistler Film Festival including Best Canadian Feature, follows a 1977 case in which five Indigenous people were killed in a road incident in the Atikamekw Nation’s reserve of Manawan.

Three other Canadian films won at the Indie Awards: Gail Maurice’s Rosie for Outstanding Ensemble and Cast; Banchi Hanuse’s Telus Original Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun, for Outstanding Cinematography; and Jules Arita Koostachin’s WaaPaKe for The Native Viewpoint Award For Indigenous Film Critic’s Best Overall Selection.

CBC, CHCH-TV and CHEK set New Year Eve specials

CBC is bringing back its New Year’s Eve programming after missing out last year due to financial pressures.

The 60-minute 22 Minutes New Year’s Eve Pregame Special will run on CBC and CBC Gem starting 8 pm ET, followed by the CBC News Canada Live! Countdown 2025 hosted by Adrienne Arsenault and Jann Arden in Toronto and Ian Hanomansing and Ali Hassan in Vancouver.

The special will be available on CBC News Network, CBC Gem, the CBC News app, cbcnews.ca, the CBC News streaming channel and the CBC News YouTube channel. Live coverage will be available on CBC, the local CBC News streaming channels, CBC Radio and CBC Listen, according to the release.

CHCH-TV and CHEK are bringing on Canadian media personality George Stroumboulopoulos to host the third annual live New Year’s Eve special: The Countdown to 2025.

Last year’s special attracted 600,000 viewers, according to a news release. This year will feature live performances from Canadian musicians and be a 2024 retrospective.

The Countdown to 2025 will be broadcast on CHCH-TV for Ontario audiences through both linear TV as well as streaming on its website and on YouTube. CHEK will be broadcasting the special for B.C. audiences, both on conventional television and through its streaming service CHEK+.

Terre Innue rebrands as Nikan Productions

Quebec-based, Indigenous-owned production company Terre Innue and its non-profit education and training arm, Productions Innu Assi, have rebranded themselves as Nikan Productions and Nikan Heritage, respectively.

According to a release, the word “Nikan,” which means “forward” or “the future” in Innu-Aimun and several other Algonquian languages, was selected to signal the organizations’ commitment to their Innu roots, as well as their ongoing dedication to the mission of shedding light on the stories and contributions of the First Peoples.

“Since its foundation, Terre Innue has undergone remarkable growth, transformation and diversification. Today, its activities extend across Quebec, Canada and beyond, with collaborators from many nations. This development has necessitated a name change to better reflect this evolution,” said Nikan Productions president and co-founder Kim O’Bomsawin in a statement. “Moreover, since ‘Terre Innue’ was expressed in a colonial language, the company wished to adopt a name that would highlight the rich linguistic heritage of the First Peoples. By choosing an Innu name, the company not only pays tribute to its origins, but also opts for a term shared by all Algonquian languages.”

The former Terre Innue was launched in 2010 via a collaboration between Innu producer Réginald Vollant and Montreal producer Ian Boyd on the feature film Mesnak (2011), and has since gone on to produce such award-winning documentaries as Innu Nikamu: Chanter la résistance (2017), Teweikan Revived (2018), Tipatshimun (2020) and Call Me Human (2020). Recent projects include the CBC anthology series Telling Our Story, which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

With files from Realscreen

Image courtesy of the Canadian Academy