Standing committee parade and primer

The lineup of industry intervenors for the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage’s review of the broadcasting system includes the CFTPA, the Canadian Television Fund and the Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund on Nov. 27. ‘Content’ submissions from Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, Telefilm Canada, CAVCO and the CRTC follow on Nov. 29.

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters and several major BDUs in the Canadian Cable Television Association, including Rogers, Shaw, Videotron and Cogeco, are slated to appear Dec. 11. CAB says its position paper will not be released prior to the presentation.

Hearing dates could be altered by developments in Parliament including the tabling of a new budget by Finance Minister Paul Martin, anticipated in early or mid-December.

Public service broadcasters, including provincial educational networks CPAC and APTN, are scheduled to appear on Jan. 29, 2002.

The standing committee, headed by Liberal MP Clifford Lincoln, intends to take the 18-month hearing process on the road, but that is contingent on permission from the House of Commons.

The CFTPA’s position is posted on its website. A full transcript of the Nov. 8 standing committee proceedings, including comments from and a Q&A session with Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, is posted on the Playback website (www.playbackmag.com).

Financial picture grim for CanWest

CanWest Communications’ profits for the year ended Aug. 31 fell $0.27 a share to $46.6 million from $177.6 million in 2000. Combined revenue, however, doubled to $2.2 billion this year from roughly $1.1 billion last year.

Earnings from CanWest’s conventional television station network were relatively unchanged, with pro forma EBITDA of $222 million on revenue of $681 million reported for 2001, compared with EBITDA of $221 million on revenue of $701 million in 2000.

For the three months ended Aug. 31, CanWest reported a loss of $37 million or $0.21 a share compared with a loss of $16.2 million or $0.11 in the same period last year.

The company says losses in its fourth quarter doubled from the same period last year because of a slowdown in advertising and debt interest charges.

As a result of CanWest’s $3.2-billion acquisition of Hollinger’s newspaper chain a year ago, revenue skyrocketed to $576.1 million in this year’s Q4 compared to $269.9 million last year.

The transaction augmented CanWest’s debt to roughly $4 billion, increasing financing expenses in this year’s Q4 to $95.2 million compared to $16.9 million a year ago.

Street Cents wins Int’l Emmy

Youth consumer series Street Cents picked up the 29th annual International Emmy Award for best children’s and young people program at a Nov. 19 awards ceremony held in New York City.

The only Canadian to bring home one of the six awards, Street Cents, produced by CBC Halifax, aims at helping young consumers make purchasing decisions through comedic skits and advertising parodies.

It recently won its sixth Gemini Award for best children’s or youth series.

The International Emmys were emceed by Hollywood Squares host Tom Bergeron.

Four of the six awards went to British productions: best drama for Dirty Tricks from Carlton TV; best performing arts for Jesus Christ Superstar from Universal Pictures Visual Programming/Really Useful Films; best arts doc for Miles Davis Story from Channel 4; and best popular arts for So Graham Norton, also from Channel 4.

North Korea from the Netherlands’ KRO won for best doc.

Atanarjuat vies for Oscar nom

Zacharias Kunuk’s critically acclaimed feature Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) has been selected as Canada’s official entry to the Academy Awards for best foreign-language film, beating out six others for the honor.

Atanarjuat, coproduced by Igloolik Isuma Productions and the National Film Board’s Aboriginal Filmmaking Program, is the first-ever fully Inuit feature film and the first Canadian film to win the coveted Camera d’Or Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Adapted from an ancient Inuit legend by the late Paul Apak Angilirq, the film tells the story of a small community of nomadic Inuit whose lives are disrupted when an unknown shaman creates rivalries between families.

The $2-million feature starts Natar Ungalaaq in the title role.

Atanarjuat’s producers are Kunuk, cinematographer Norman Cohn and Germaine Wong of the NFB. Sally Bochner is exec producer for the NFB, which handles Canadian distribution. Compass International has foreign.

Oscar nominations will be announced Feb. 12, 2002.

The 74th annual Academy Awards will be presented March 24, 2002 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Proxy battle for Cinar

A group of disgruntled Cinar Corp. shareholders headed by Robert Chapman of Chapman Capital LLC, representing more than 5% of outstanding shares as required by law, has requisitioned Cinar’s directors to convene a shareholders meetings ‘for the purposes of:

1) removing from office by ordinary resolution all of the present directors of the company: pursuant to Section 109 of the Canada Business Corporations Act;

2) filling any and all such vacancies at the special meeting by electing new directors to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders.’

Assuming the requisition is in order, Cinar has 45 days to call a meeting.

A distressed-stock specialist based in Los Angeles, Chapman earlier told Playback his only goal ‘is to maximize shareholder value.’

Combined, Cinar founders and board members Micheline Charest and Ron Weinberg hold 63% of the company’s voting shares. Earlier this month, Cinar reported a Merrill Lynch brokered deal to sell part of the company assets had collapsed. Cinar didn’t name the buyer but it was widely rumored to be U.K.-based Gullane Entertainment PLC.

Ontario restricts Fat Girl

The Ontario Film Review Board has banned the French feature Fat Girl, by director Catherine Breillat (Romance), by refusing to rate the film and therefore preventing it from being theatrically released in the province.

The board cited scenes in the film that contain teenage nudity and sexual interaction, and are demanding roughly 15 minutes of cuts before the film is approved.

Co-distributors Lions Gate Films and New York-based Cowboy Pictures have refused to cut the film, described as a feminist portrayal of two teenage sisters who are awakened to the realities of sexual rites of passage in contemporary society.

‘As part of our appeal, we will point out to the board that the images contained in the film are no more or less graphic than those in Larry Clark’s films Kids and Bully, passed without cuts, or in Sam Mendes’ American Beauty and Adrian Lyne’s Lolita,’ says Cowboy Pictures co-president Noah Cowan.

Fat Girl, which is currently in theatres across the U.S., has been approved by review boards around the world, including Quebec and the U.K.

Telefilm to administer MEP

Canadian Heritage has mandated Telefilm Canada to administer the new Music Entrepreneur Program, a component of the Canada Music Fund. The agency says guidelines and procedures will be announced shortly.

Created within the framework of the Canadian Sound Recording Policy introduced in May, the Music Entrepreneur Program is designed for experienced Canadian companies.