The plight of production…

‘The higher the dollar goes, the more we eat [into our profits]. Nobody is making money right now in the business. Anybody who says they are is lying.’

-Comweb chairman and CEO Paul Bronfman

‘We’ve got to find a way to stay cheap. Hopefully we can all share the pain equally.’

-Lions Gate Studios president Peter Leitch

‘Of course they’re not here – they’re all insolvent.’

-Anonymous entertainment lawyer on the small number of producers at the CFTPA’s Prime Time in Ottawa 2004

‘Any producers who limit themselves to being dependent on the subsidy system are crazy, and anybody on the service side who is dependent upon the dollar is crazy. You’ve got to find the pluses and minuses in both sectors.’

-Producer Patrick Whitley

The precariousness of public funding…

‘This is a significant reversal of the fortunes of Canadian television. This is a much better environment and context for television across the country.’

-Glenn O’Farrell, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, on Ottawa’s two-year commitment to fund the Canadian Television Fund at $100 million each year

‘It is critically important for makers of Canadian programs to think in terms of audience success, because over the long term, the financing will not be there if the public does not care about what is being made.’

-Sandra MacDonald, CTF president

‘Many of you have heard rumors that our government was about to change or pull the tax credit on film- and television-making in Ontario. Well, I am here to tell you that is simply not true.’

-Ontario Minister of Culture Madeleine Meilleur addressing producers at the CFTPA conference

‘This is really, really disappointing. This is a government that in its party platform said it was out to promote indigenous filmmaking in Ontario.’

-Producer Ira Levy on the Ontario budget

‘I’m very concerned when I hear about a movie about Toronto that’s being shot in Regina or Winnipeg. For [domestic] movies to be shot elsewhere simply because of tax credits isn’t acceptable.’

-Toronto Mayor David Miller

‘We should not be considered beggars when we go to the government to get support. This sector [helps maintain] the cultural identity of the county, but it’s also the economic contribution we are making… We should be much more demanding than we are.’

-Andre Bureau, Astral Media chairman

Victory against all odds…

‘People asked me what were my chances of winning an Oscar. I said ‘a snowball’s chance in hell.’ If you find yourself in hell, beware of snowballs.’

-Denys Arcand, whose film The Barbarian Invasions won the 2004 Academy Award for best foreign-language film

Art vs. commerce…

‘The more obscure the material that you wrote and the less likely that it would ever find an audience anywhere in the world, the more of an auteur you were considered.’

-Producer Robert Lantos bemoans what he sees as years of Telefilm Canada backing the wrong kind of filmmaker

‘It’s fucking hilarious. Shine your shoes up Mr. Lantos and Mr. MacMillan – we’re going to the theater!’

-Director Bruce McDonald on a forthcoming comedic play based on his experience of making the failed feature Picture Claire with Serendipity Point Films and Alliance Atlantis

‘Even when you beat them fairly at the ‘free enterprise’ game, and kill yourself to get the ‘bums in the seats,’ you can still get moved out of the theater… proving once again that ‘nobody wants to see Canadian films’ (this last quotation is meant to be read with sarcasm).’

-From an open letter from filmmaker Carl Bessai to British Columbia Film and Telefilm, about how his film Emile was bumped from a Vancouver screen in favor of a U.S. title it had outperformed in its opening weekend

‘We’re not in favor of screen quotas. I don’t know what they do for you. The real way you get people into cinemas is to make movies that people want to see.’

-Then-Telefilm head Richard Stursberg

”Commercial films’ – what does that mean? You make rubbish, in the hope that’s going to be commercial? You have to have genuine filmmakers with a genuine desire to do a certain subject that is close to them, and which they want other people to be able to respond to.’

-Film critic Gerald Pratley, on Telefilm’s mandate to back more ‘commercial’ productions

‘There was nobody to root for. I knew going in it wasn’t going to be commercial. How can you make a film about a despicable murderer and expect people to really respond to it?’

-Filmmaker Norman Jewison explains the lack of commercial success for his feature The Statement

‘I prefer life up here, but in the last little while, with what’s going on with Telefilm, I’ve been thinking about the U.S. for the first time.’

-Filmmaker Don McKellar

Dinner time…

‘[Perspective Canada] served its purpose. We’re eating at the adult table now.’

-Director Jerry Ciccoritti on the Toronto International Film Festival’s initiative to dissolve the Perspective Canada program and screen veteran Canuck directors’ films alongside other international fare

‘This is the third time I’ve been here. The first time was 20 years ago for Ishtar. It’s been all uphill.’

-Actor Dustin Hoffman addresses a TIFF audience prior to the premiere of I Heart Huckabees

A charmer…

‘Serge is a very charming and warm man in small groups. For example, he’s a great host at a dinner party.’

-David Novek, spokesperson for the Montreal World Film Festival, on his boss, Serge Losique

‘We don’t know much about the internal workings of the [WFF]. Mr. [Serge] Losique is of the belief that he is the owner of the festival – that it is a private company and he is not obligated to participate in public inquiry. As public funders we believe, rightly so, taxpayers should have an idea how the organization works.’

-Telefilm chairman Charles Belanger

‘What we are witnessing is an unprecedented and gratuitous bureaucratic attempt to destroy and expropriate our 28-year-old institution… This conduct reflects on the abuses of power by our cultural apparatchiks.’

-Serge Losique on Charles Belanger, et. al.

‘Casting a wide net…

‘We do 10 times more Canadian TV than anybody else… Private broadcasters have to do what private broadcasters have to do, but our job is to do Canadian, and for that reason we’re going to get some nominations.’

-Slawko Klymkiw, CBC executive director of network programming, dispelling allegations of a pro-Ceeb bias at the Gemini Awards

‘I cannot think of anything positive to say about his appointment.’

-Lobbyist Ian Morrison of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting on Richard Stursberg being named CBC’s executive VP, English television

‘I think people, over time, will find I’m a congenial kind of guy to work with.’

-Richard Stursberg

‘The number-one priority of our broadcasting operations is to address challenges to the conventional television business model posed by the proliferation of new specialty television channels and certain regulatory advantages they currently enjoy. In that regard, we will continue to make significant investments in new programming to boost ratings and increase revenues at Global. We will generate more Canadian television production, including profitable news and information programming.’

-Rick Camilleri, newly minted president of CanWest MediaWorks, on the changes that ousted former CanWest execs Jack Tomik, Loren Mawhinney and Doug Hoover

‘Global has been masquerading as a Canadian company. Now it has to ‘come out’ as what it really is. Who knows? Maybe these American execs will be better at slating quality Canadian dramatic programs. They can’t do any worse.’

-Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director, on management changes at CanWest Global

‘It wasn’t canceled because of ratings, it was canceled because of money. Global has always stood by the show… but they never really enjoyed how much it cost to make it.’

-Blue Murder creator Steve Lucas

‘Nice carrot, but where’s the stick? The CRTC should do what’s necessary to make Canada’s private broadcasters earn their licences. They’ve been pampered for too long.’

-Actor and filmmaker Paul Gross on the CRTC’s drama proposals

‘We think there is undue emphasis on advertising-based incentives. They benefit CTV and Global to the detriment of virtually every other conventional and specialty player. If [the CRTC] proceeds with the ad-based incentives, we want them strongly restricted. We’d rather they not go ahead at all.’

-Peter Miller, VP of planning at CHUM

‘Whether CHUM will be sold is no longer a popular topic of discussion.’

-CHUM president and CEO Jay Switzer on his company’s recent good fortunes

It’s a gas, gas, gas…

‘I’m totally dumbfounded by it. We all hoped for half a million [viewers] – a nice target in Canada – then it blew us all away.’

-Comedian Brent Butt on audience projections for his show Corner Gas, which has attracted audiences higher than 1.6 million

‘[Corner Gas] is going to be the biggest advertisement that Saskatchewan can really do primetime TV.’

-Corner Gas producer Viginia Thompson

‘They have to give [the Academy voters] a urine test if Corner Gas doesn’t win.’

-Sun Media TV critic Bill Brioux commenting on the program’s nomination for best comedy series at the Gemini Awards. The trophy went to Trailer Park Boys