Amuz Distribution has been renamed as Just For Entertainment (JFE) Distribution after its rebranded parent company.

The rebrand follows Quebec City-based ComediHa!’s June 2024 acquisition of the Just For Laughs Group assets and ComediHa!’s October 2024 rebrand into Just For Entertainment Group.

According to a release, the distribution unit will now represent more series from the holding company, including Gala ComediHa!, SuperFrancoFête and Starmania.

Alex Avon (pictured), JFE’s chief marketing officer, called the rebranding a “natural progression” in a statement.

APFC offers two free training programs

The Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada has launched two free training programs for emerging francophone content creators in minority communities in the Prairies, Western Canada, the Northern Territories and Ontario.

One program is for screenwriting and the other for editing through the APFC’s Netflix-supported Élan program. Both will be implemented by digital broadcasting platform WebOuest at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University in collaboration with TV5 and Unis TV.

Creative Editing: The Art of Storytelling is aimed at participants looking to improve basic editing skills. The program will run 15 hours on March 15 and 16, led by editor Isabelle Malenfant.

The 30-hour Advanced Screenwriting, run from March 22 to 23 and 29 to 30, will be led by TV5’s Guy Boutin.

Canadian coproduction to screen in competition at FESPACO

Writer-director Beza Hailu Lemma’s 35-minute short film Alazar will compete at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso.

The film will compete in the FESPACE Shorts program. Making its African premiere, the Amharic and English-language short film will screen at FESPACO on Feb. 23 and 25. The festival only accepts in competition films by African or diaspora filmmakers, according to the festival website.

Alazar is a coproduction between Toronto- and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia-based Gobez Media and the French prodcos Condor and Kidam. The film was also made in collaboration with Martin Jérôme of Paris-based Les Cigognes Films.

The film is set in contemporary Ethiopia, where the son of a prominent patriarch launches his own investigation following his father’s disappearance from his grave.

Following its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Fillm Festival’s Critics Week, Alazar screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Red Sea International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Yusr Short Film Award.

Lemma is in-development on his debut feature, The Last Tears of the Deceased, a Canada/France/South Africa coproduction with Gobez leading the financing and production strategy.

Image courtesy of Just For Entertainment Group