Banff, AB: By the time they rolled the credits, the 2004 Banff Television Festival had played out much like it has any other year – a little less pizzazz, sure, and fewer people, true again – but otherwise a productive four days away from the office according to attendees, many of whom, ironically, were pleased with this year’s diminished crowds, noting that it was easier to arrange meetings with ‘the right people’ at the retooled fest, and that the 25th Banff has regained some of the close, casual atmosphere for which it was once famous. More signal, less noise.

‘It’s been quite a week, but the hard and fast fact is that deals are getting done, and that pleases me very much. We’re enormously flattered by the support we’ve received from the industry,’ said CEO Robert Montgomery, speaking to reporters on the closing day.

‘This has not been what you could describe a financial success, but it has been a critical success.’

Some 1,300 people, mostly Canadians, came to the Alberta town this year, down from almost 2,000 previously.

Andre Picard, French Program director-general at the National Film Board, notes there was a healthy showing of commissioning editors from Europe and the U.S. and that the projects being pitched – both in meetings and in the formal competitions – were also strong. ‘It’s always a challenging experience because [the process] is part content, part entertainment,’ he says. ‘It’s an art form in itself.’

CHUM VP Paul Gratton agrees, noting he was pleased with the quality of the projects being shown to Bravo! and Space: the Imagination Station. ‘They’ve been very strong,’ he says.

International casters in the crowd included France 2, Germany’s ZDF, NHK from Japan plus BBC, Channel 4 and a delegation from Sweden’s SVT. PBS, CNN, Nickelodeon and HBO were among the Americans.

Organizers also confirmed two other fests under the Banff banner, Next Media and the World Congress of History Producers, would proceed as planned in October; surprising news, considering that overexpanding into those and other events contributed to the near-ruin of the Banff Television Foundation. Montgomery believes there is enough demand from the industry, and support from sponsors, for the shows to go on.

He also stressed that the main festival, its sponsors and Pat Ferns will be back in 2005. Ferns, ousted from the CEO spot in the spring during the fest’s brush with bankruptcy, was out of the spotlight this year, quietly running the pitch sessions while avoiding the press. There was much speculation that this festival would be his last.

‘Pat Ferns will be back next year. We’re very happy with the job he’s done,’ said Montgomery.

The biggest winner of the

pitch process was Jeff Newman and his Winnipeg-based Numan Productions, which took the $50,000 grand prize at the CTV Canadian Documart for his project Hockey Gladiators: Behind the Brawl, about one man’s quest to organize rink-side boxing matches. Second place went to Lauren Millar and Omni Film Productions of Vancouver for Finding Fletcher Christian, an investigative piece about the famed mutineer, while third prize and $20,000 went to Dugald Maudsley of Toronto’s Infield Fly Productions, out to make Hearts of Darkness – Pol Pot and the Man Who Found Him.

Toronto’s Dale Hildebrand and Jil Amadio took some pointed questions about their HD project Peace – a concept film modeled after Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi – but won $15,000 and the HDTV Pitch nonetheless, while Brett Gaylor of EyeSteelFilm, Montreal, scored twice at the New Players Pitch, winning $5,000 for his presentation to the jury, and the same amount again with the Audience Choice Award for his Basement Tapes.

-www.banff2004.com