Kunuk wins Jutra Award

Zacharias Kunuk is the winner of this year’s Claude Jutra Award for his work on Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner). The award, which recognizes special achievement by a first-time Canadian feature film director, is the third major accolade for Atanarjuat, which also won the Camera d’Or at Cannes 2001 and the Toronto-City Award for best Canadian feature at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. It is also Canada’s official entry for best foreign-language film at this year’s Academy Awards.

The Jutra winner, chosen by a special jury, will be presented at the Genies, airing on CBC Feb. 7.

In other Genie news, the inaugural Genie Screenings, a pre-Genie Awards showcase of this year’s five best picture nominees, take place at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto Jan. 26-30, starting with Atanarjuat and concluding with Renny Bartlett’s Eisenstein.

Each feature will open with a nominated live-action short drama.

This first-time initiative of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television is meant to bolster the profile and exposure of Canadian films and the Genie Awards show.

Ten Canadian films head to Berlin

Ten Canadian films have been selected to screen at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, taking place Feb. 6-17 in Berlin, Germany.

In the Panorama program, the festival’s showcase for art-house films, Canada is represented by Denis Chouinard’s L’Ange de goudron, Lynne Stopkewich’s Lilith On Top, Anne Wheeler’s Suddenly Naked and Dragan Marinkovic’s Canada/Yugoslavia copro Boomerang.

The International Forum of New Cinema is set to screen Carl Bessai’s Lola, Catherine Martin’s Mariages and Mike Hoolboom’s Tom.

Three of the 11 films invited to screen in the 25th edition of Kinderfilmfest are Canadian, including: Gaurav Seth’s A Passage to Ottawa, Peter Markle’s Virginia’s Run and Maria Sigurdatorrir’s Canada/Iceland copro Regina’s Unique Power.

Peter Lynch’s doc Cyberman is screening in Transmediale, an international media art event running parallel to the festival that focuses on the role of digital technology.

At this year’s festival, Telefilm Canada is joining forces with the British Council and the Independent Feature Project in New York to provide a business centre for Canadian delegates, doubling the size of last year’s Telefilm stand.

Les Boys III scores at Quebec box office

Louis Saia’s Les Boys III, produced by Richard Goudreau of Melenny Productions and distributed by Christal Films, was still on 69 Quebec screens after six weeks at Playback press time. Boys III ranked third at the Quebec box office over the Jan. 4-10 weekend with earnings of $313,536, edging out no less than Harry Potter a l’ecole des sorciers (eight weeks in release). Alexfilms.com reports receipts for Boys III as of Jan. 10 totalling $4.5 million.

CRTC readies for iTV

The CRTC is taking its first tentative steps in developing a position on interactive television.

The commission has set Feb. 15 as the deadline for comments on what broadcasters, producers and distributors have planned for the emergence of iTV.

‘This is step one towards a future that is yet to be defined,’ says CRTC spokesperson Denis Carmel.

The call for comment stems from a request by The Weather Network in its licence renewal late last year to change the nature of its service and recognize interactivity as an ‘integral’ part of its digital service. This would require cable companies to free up additional spectrum to allow for two-way

communication.

Carmel anticipates submissions from broadcasters and cable companies outlining how they envision the future and what interactivity will require in terms of capacity.

The process will likely not result in any hearings at this point, Carmel says, but will give the commission an idea of what is involved for them to rule on TWN’s request.

It will also provide a base-point for any future policy positions, he says.

Women’s workshop at Banff

This year’s Women In the Director’s Chair Workshop, a Creative Women Workshops initiative organized in conjunction with The Banff Centre and ACTRA, boasts a world-renowned roster of Canadian talent.

The 17-day workshop, being held at The Banff Centre Jan. 25 to Feb. 10, takes participants through all the components of a professional, dramatic, media production for the screen.

International award-winning Canadian writer/director/producer Nancy Russo (Unbowed) will lead this year’s team of director participants, including Aboriginal filmmaker Shirley Cheechoo (Bearwalker), Saskatchewan-based filmmaker Maureen Bradley and writer/producer Susan Dulia (These Arms of Mine), who is crossing over into directing.

Carol Whiteman, who was recently nominated for a Governor General’s Award for promoting women’s equality in Canada, is the workshop producer.

CTV, through its BCE-CTV benefits program, sponsors the workshop’s Mentor Director’s chair.

18 shorts hit the Circuit

The third edition of the Canadian Short Film Showcase, a selection of films to tour 75 Film Circuit communities across Canada, features 18 acclaimed Canadian shorts from the past year, many of which have been screened at the country’s leading film festivals.

Highlights of this year’s showcase include Stephanie Morgenstern’s war-time drama Remembrance, Soo-Woo Lee’s romance Max & Zoe, Sarah Polley’s breakup film I Shout Love and Academy Award nominee Cordell Barker’s animated tale Strange Invaders.

The Film Circuit, which organizes the CSFS, is a division of the Toronto International Film Group. Last year, the CSFS presented 275 screenings to more than 40,000 people across Canada.

The CSFS launches Jan. 24.

Moving Pictures tour kicks off in B.C.

Moving Pictures: Canadian Films on Tour launches the ninth annual season in Vancouver on Jan. 24 at the Pacific Cinematheque, then moves on to B.C. cities Port Moody, Powell River, Prince George, Kelowna, Cranbrook, Nanaimo, Nelson and Whistler. The tour also stops at Edmonton, Calgary, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Kingston.

Headline features include Last Wedding (Bruce Sweeney), Turning Paige (Robert Cuffley), Lilith on Top (Lynne Stopkewich) and Obaachan’s Garden (Linda Ohama). Digital features in the lineup include Come Together (Jeff Macpherson) and Walk Backwards (Laurie Baranyay).

HGF funds optioning

The Harold Greenberg Fund is pumping an additional $1 million per year into production and development, ostensibly to celebrate its 15th birthday.

The added funding, to be split between a new book-optioning program and for equity investment in family-oriented programming, is being provided by Astral Media to fulfill licence commitments made to the CRTC last year.

The new $300,000 per year book-optioning program, sponsored by The Movie Network, will provide seed money up front for producers to acquire the rights to Canadian literary works.

The additional money, part of a commitment made by Astral following TMN’s licence renewal, brings HGF’s yearly commitment to development to $1.3 million.

The other funding component is $700,000 – or $5 million over seven years – to augment HGF’s multimillion-dollar equity program.

These added funds, tied to Astral’s acquisition of its outstanding 40% interest in Family Channel, will specifically take the form of equity investment for feature film and television productions targeted to children, youth and family audiences.

(For more, see CANLIT, p. 17.)