Several distributors and producers at the CFTPA conference in January openly vented their frustrations over their films allegedly being denied a fair shot at theatrical success. Exhibitors, they said, shun Canuck movies to appease powerful and pushy U.S. distributors. One thing is certain – it’s a tough fight for access to Canada’s 3,500 screens.

‘There aren’t enough cinemas and we don’t get the screen time,’ said Hussain Amarshi, head of indie distributor Mongrel Media.

One conference attendee cited the example of a Quebec film from a few years back – one that ultimately brought in more than $2 million at the box office – that was bumped from a Quebec screen so the exhibitor could fulfill a seven-week contract for a Hollywood studio movie, even though at that point in their respective runs, the Quebec film was outperforming its U.S. competitor. Canadian distributors sometimes see their struggles as fruitless – even when they demonstrate success, they are swept aside by the Hollywood machine.

But Canadian exhibitors shrug off the notion that they show favoritism to U.S. distribs.

‘I think that’s a bit of a cop-out,’ says Nuria Bronfman, spokesperson for Famous Players, Canada’s largest exhibitor. ‘Distributors in this country are getting very savvy about striking their own deals as well.’

In fact, Bronfman is proud of her chain’s support of Canadian films.

‘There are [currently] about seven Canadian films on our big screens, including Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, Luck, The Barbarian Invasions and La Grande seduction, and these are playing in our major commercial houses,’ she says. ‘It’s in our mandate to support Canadian films how we can. We have given cash to the marketing of films and we’ve also done in-theater promotions.’

Adina Lebo, executive director of the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada, a national exhibitors’ group, says the bottom line is that her members are keenly aware of the product that is available, and always keep their audiences top of mind.

‘Our members are retailers and they have to have people coming into the store, so to speak, so they are looking for product that will be attractive,’ she says. ‘It is not country-based at all. There is no shortage of screens for films that are well-marketed, with subject matter that interests the audience.’

But if Canadian films are challenged in making it to the big screen, the distribution landscape has shifted so much in the past few years that it is hardly do-or-die. Home video, particularly the overwhelming take-up of DVDs, could prove the savior. In the U.S., for example, VHS rentals were reported down 30% in 2003; DVD rentals were up 52% and DVD sales up 33%.

Tony Cianciotta, president of the newly launched Capri Releasing, notes that in the U.S. last year, the video market reported sales three times that of theatrical. A movie’s theatrical run now serves primarily as part of the product’s marketing campaign.

‘You like to [create] as much awareness as possible through theatrical and not necessarily make any money, but break even… and then the other windows will do very well,’ he says. Another strong window for Canadian features is, of course, TV – especially on pay-TV nets that are often instrumental in a project’s development and production financing.

The explosion of the DVD format is especially appealing to distributors because of the returns involved, says Michael Mosca, senior VP and COO of Equinoxe Films, which released Mambo Italiano. Although the film’s box-office take was $5.3 million, Equinoxe made more from the $3.5 million in video sales.

‘At the box office, when you’re doing, say, $1 million, about half of that stays in the theaters; the other half you’re invoicing,’ he explains. ‘So you’re making your X percentage of commission on that half, whereas in video, if you’re making $1 million in video sales, your percentage is right off that top; it doesn’t stay in the video stores.’

And thus providing a market where distributors’ fates rest on their own products and marketing efforts, with no one to blame.

With files from Dustin Dinoff