Telefilm Canada reports 67 companies will be grouped under the Canada Pavilion umbrella at MIPCOM 2002, a major increase from the 35 companies last year and 16 in 2000.

The Canada Pavilion is the largest in terms of surface area at the fall program market and the second most important stand in terms of human traffic after Media – the European Union Programme. This year’s MIPCOM runs Oct. 7-11.

Lise Corriveau, Telefilm’s manager of festivals and markets, says, ‘Branding has made a big difference to many of the companies, creating a big buzz around Canada. The pavilion projects a dynamic image and that brings in a lot of clients.’

With the Ontario Media Development Corporation joining the fold for the first time, Horizon Quebec is the only provincial agency not included in this year’s Canada pavilion lineup. Overall, Corriveau estimates 150 Canadian companies are attending MIPCOM.

Cineflix president Glen Salzman reports several firsts for this year’s MIPCOM. The Montreal-based factual program producer will officially launch the opening of Cineflix International, its London-based operation headed by managing director Paul Heaney. The company has its own stand at the market and its first fully repped third-party product. The overall investment is in the $500,000 range, says Salzman.

As a distrib, Salzman is looking to build a ‘non-fiction boutique’ operation, ensuring clients see net revenues and commissions are kept low.

Toronto’s Portfolio Entertainment plans to launch two major series at MIPCOM, Igloo-Gloo, a preschool puppet series produced by Montreal’s Zone 3, and Taipei Diaries, ‘primetime TV’s first unscripted drama,’ according to Joy Rosen, president and cofounder.

Taipei Diaries takes viewers on an episodic journey into self-discovery and the real and ‘culture-shocked’ world of six young would-be English teachers in Asia. The eight-episode program is written and directed by celebrated filmmaker David Hansen and produced by Stephen Onda of WestWind Pictures.

In 2001, Rosen and partner Lisa Olfman were named among Animation Magazine’s top-rising women in the business.

Rosen says Portfolio has worked especially hard, and smart, at maintaining sales of between $2 million and $3 million annually – by paying closer attention to potential clients in new or difficult markets like Eastern Europe and Asia.

Indie Kids

Galafilm and London-based partners will launch a new kid prodco called Indie Kids at MIPCOM. The partnership will produce a range of programs for kids aged two to 12 and includes Galafilm president Arnie Gelbart (minority) and Dan Maddicott, who worked with Gelbart on the international coproduction The Worst Witch. Maddicott has worked with United and Granada in the U.K.

Indie Kids’ first production is a coproduction between Indie Kids and Galafilm titled Fungus the Bogeyman, based on the classic U.K. book by Raymond Briggs. The show (3 x 60, or six half-hours) mixes live action and CGI animation and has been presold to BBC and CBC.

Gelbart says the plan is to shoot Fungus the Bogeyman in both England and Canada, starting in late 2002, on a budget of $5 million.

Galafilm is also partnering with Telefactory producers Leanna Crouch and Jesse Fawcett.

Telefactory is a Toronto-based producer of factual and lifestyle programs and formats for the international market.

‘By working together [Galafilm has a third of the equity], the two companies can provide quality programming solutions to all broadcasters for any part of their schedule, from kids to factual to films,’ says Gelbart.

Atomic Betty

At MIPCOM, Toronto-based Breakthrough Entertainment, the international distribution arm of Breakthrough Films & Television, will be scouting sales and presales for Atomic Betty, a half-hour animated TV series about a little girl with a big secret. With only a short teaser in hand, and a presale commitment from specialty channel Teletoon, the series was the third most-screened program at last year’s MIPCOM Junior.

Atomic Betty is a coventure between producers Ira Levy and Peter Williamson of Breakthrough; Kevin Gillis (The Raccoons, Robocop: The Series) and Steven Hecht of Fresh Produce; producers and series creators Trevor Bentley, Rob Davies, Mauro Casalese and Olaf Miller of Atomic Cartoons; and six-time Emmy winner Phil Roman of Phil Roman Entertainment, who is providing executive producer services and repping the show in the U.S. Gillis is producing for Breakthrough, the show’s worldwide distributor.

The new series is Atomic’s first co-proprietary TV production.

Mundovision president George Matta is at MIPCOM consolidating international sales for the one-hour doc special The Parkinson’s Enigma with Michael J. Fox (produced by Raincoast Storyline), and the one-hour special Vanishing Acts (Ayasha Productions), about people who have disappeared.

Matta is also pre-promoting ‘six major doc specials’ with advances from the company’s new CTF SME Distribution Fund envelope.

The doc lineup, all in production or preproduction, includes No Kidding: In Search of the World’s Funniest Joke by filmmaker and Academy Award winner John Zaritsky; John Haslett-Cuff’s Crime of the Heart, a one-hour doc on adultery; and Josh Freed’s new investigative doc on sleep, In Search of Sleep (Galafilm).

Established in 1980, Mundovision’s principal focus is the international distribution and coproduction of high-profile investigative documentary and current affairs specials.

The Multimedia Group of Canada and president Jacques Bouchard are heading into MIPCOM with a slate of new one-off documentaries and a new 3D animation kids special, The Dancing Pumpkin (1 x 42), a family adventure about four children who befriend a charismatic pumpkin and set out on an eventful journey to stop the evil ogre Finkgrinder.

In docs, MGC is launching the one-hour exclusive Through Saudi Eyes, the first program about the accused airline hijackers told solely from the Saudi perspective.

Product profiles

Telefactory’s MIPCOM highlights include Vice Report, a new 6 x 30 docu-comedy miniseries with the CBC and Showcase in which comedian Andy Jones delves into the world of legal vice to investigate things ‘sinfully tempting.’

Discovery Channel is working with Telefactory on two one-hour docs, Test Flight and Space Tourist, which profile ‘the new breed of tourist.’

New third-party acquisitions by Cineflix (from Hallway Group Productions of Toronto and Nashville) include the musical series Impact; specials on Johnny Cash and Chet Atkins; and two shows currently in production, Roller Coaster, the story of David Clayton Thomas of Blood, Sweat and Tears, and a one-hour on Shania Twain.

Atomic will also be pitching its latest high-energy cartoon, Coney Island Carneys, a zany chronicle of the lives of cartoon carnival characters created by animation artists Garnet Syberg-Olsen and Jared Deal.

Breakthrough Film & TV has had major international sales success with The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon and the poignant hospital documentary Little Miracles, sold in more than 100 territories. The house’s most recent project, the tween live-action comedy I Love Mummy, is a coproduction with the U.K.’s Winklemania Productions and will also be unveiled at this year’s market.

Portfolio will also be selling RoboRoach (52 half-hours), produced by the company’s new animation division and distributed worldwide (excluding the U.S.) by Fox Kids Europe, as well as launching Carl Squared, a new animation series in development for Canada’s Family Channel.

Mundovision will also be selling The Holy Warriors, a prescient look at fundamentalist terror coproduced by Mundovision and Belgium’s Kanaka.

Other new doc acquisitions from Multimedia include This Is Nowhere, a funny and endearing look at American motorhome travelers; Unlocking the Grid, on issues related to improved airport security; and the one-hour doc Juchitan Queer Paradise, a film that portrays a small Mexican city where homosexuality has never been considered taboo.

Telefilm’s marketing assistance program has been cancelled for MIPCOM and NATPE (Jan. 20-23, 2003 in New Orleans).

Partners under the Canada umbrella include Canada West (British Columbia Film, Alberta Community Development, Saskfilm and Video Development Corporation as well as Manitoba Film and Sound Development Corporation), the four provincial funding organizations from Eastern Canada (New Brunswick Film, Newfoundland & Labrador Film Development Corporation, Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation and Technology PEI), the CFTPA, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade – Arts and Cultural Industries Promotion Division, the Canadian Television Fund and the OMDC.