With little in the way of industry news unfolding over the holidays while our broadcasting execs, producers et al were vacationing south of the border, despite the poor exchange rate, I’m still thinking about the anti-runaway production issue that inspired at least one U.S. campaigner to make a public parallel between Canada and Osama Bin Laden. The anti-Canada campaign, fully equipped with party-line rhetoric and statistics, couldn’t seem more inappropriately timed, but then propaganda seems to serve its perpetrators best in moments of strife.

Anyway, that’s last year’s news

At the threshold of a fresh year, ripe for a new coproduction renaissance, it’s time to be thinking about forging, not severing, international relationships – for Canada to look beyond its coproduction treaties to cultivate new partnerships that further enhance our synergies with nations as far away as New Zealand and as close to home as the U.S.

With an aim to producing commercially viable films, Canadians are finally looking to get on track with some of the world’s top film producers, including Europe, which in 2001 experienced increased domestic market share to the tune of 18% in the U.K. and a whopping 50% in Germany (see story, p. 1).

And while foreign markets show signs of opening up to product other than blockbuster U.S. studio releases, Canada has to use its strengths and seize its place, declared Sheila de la Varende, director of Telefilm Canada’s European office, at Immersion 2001: Europe, a Telefilm-organized film networking event held in Paris late last year. Canada’s coproduction potential cannot be satisfied with official treaties alone, she said. ‘What we need to do is create a network, streams of communications that enable our producers to work together.’

A recent trade mission to Australia and New Zealand, organized by the OMDC and CFTPA, is an excellent example of this kind of communication (see story, p. 2). Granted we have treaty coproduction arrangements with these countries, but at least five coproduction deals were solidified since the 24 Canadian producers returned home in November. ‘We explained our industry and came to understand their industries, which will make it much easier to do business,’ confirmed mission delegate Kim Todd of Winnipeg-based Original Pictures.

As it stands, we’re still not grabbing more than 2% of our domestic box office on a good day and our coproduction volume in Canada was down slightly for 2001, but much to the dismay of our FTAC neighbors, our world-renowned tax credits, increasingly skilled crews and talent, distinct and adaptable landscapes and, of course, our low dollar simply speak for themselves.

So here’s to new partnerships and films that sell in 2002!