New $10-million fund supports new media

Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund announced at Banff its New Development Fund Program, which will provide grants of up to 75% of the costs of development of new media projects, to a maximum of $25,000.

The fund is designed to support the digital independent production sector through two initiatives: New media content development, which will enable producers to take projects from concept to production proposal; and Professional development grants, which support training and educational services organized by industry trade organizations.

The new fund has been made possible by a $10-million endowment committed to the Bell Fund over the next three years, as a result of the BCE/CTV benefits package.

The first deadline for applications is Oct. 1, 2001.

LaPierre goes to senate

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has appointed Laurier LaPierre a member of the senate of Canada. As announced by a teary-eyed Elizabeth McDonald at the CFTPA lunch, at the Banff Television Festival June 13, LaPierre has resigned his positions as chair of Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund.

Also at the CFTPA lunch, the Jack Chisholm Award for lifetime contribution was presented to Sandra MacDonald, whose term as the government film commissioner concluded June 15.

The Chetwynd Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence to Breakthrough Film and Television’s Ira Levy and Peter Williamson.

First Singapore copros

Singapore and Canada have inked the first Canada-Singapore coproduction deals under the Canada-Singapore Audio-Visual Coproduction Agreement, signed in 1998.

The two television documentaries End of an Empire and Among the Disappeared: A Cambodian Odyssey, will be coproduced by Canada’s Four Square Productions and Crest Communications Singapore.

Both docs will be part of an historical series entitled Scarred by History, and will be broadcast on Channel NewsAsia and History Channel before year-end.

End of an Empire is a one-hour doc featuring Alexander Cockburn, a medical volunteer from Canada who worked in Singapore during the Japanese invasion during the Second World War.

Among the Disappeared is a one-hour doc about a Cambodian-born Kodain Ear, who recounts his childhood experience of witnessing the Khmer Rouge atrocities in 1975.

North-South coproduction mission set for fall

The OMDC wants to build on progress made over the past couple of years in north-south coproductions and has announced the Canada-Australia-New Zealand Producers Co-production Mission, set for November 5-17.

The event will take 12 Canadian producers to meetings with industry leaders and producers in Auckland and Wellington in N.Z. and Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. The travelers will also attend the New Zealand Screen Producers Association conference and the Screen Producers Association of Australia conference.

During the CFTPA convention last February, delegates learned in a day-two presentation that in 2000, Australia jumped over Germany to become Canada’s third-largest copro partner.

Short films, big prizes

The Worldwide Short Film Festival handed out more than $40,000 in prizes following its inaugural run under the leadership of the Canadian Film Centre. The centre reports a successful first fest, including a sold-out symposium, and more than 100 registered filmmakers and delegates.

The $25,000 prize for best Canadian short from Sun Life Financial went to Tara Johns of Quebec for Killing Time, with honorable mentions to Henry Lu of Ontario for two films, Fish and Miguel, and to Charles Officer of Ontario for When Morning Comes. The Kodak Award for best live-action short, which provides a digital camera and film stock valued at $5,000, went to Anja Breien of Norway for To See a Boat in Sail. Jonathan Hodgson of the U.K. took the C.O.R.E. Digital Award and $5,000 for best animated short for his film The Man With the Beautiful Eyes.

Honors for best experimental short went to Virgil Widrich, Austria, for Copy Shop. For factual production, Russia’s Andrey Osipov won for best documentary short for Et Cetera, with an honorable mention to Luciano Larabina of Mexico for the film Zapata’s Shoes/Los Zapatos de Zapata.

Wallace Studios, Panavision, Heenan Blaikie and Kodak contributed $14,000 for the Screenplay Giveaway Prize, which Glenn Forbes won for Masterpiece Monday. Meanwhile, Sophie Hargest walked away with the Funding Forum Pitch Prize, which provides her with an industry pass to the Toronto International Film Fest, for her pitch for the non-fiction film Fister’s Dungeon.

The Star Choice Audience Award winner is Dual Citizen, by Christy Garland.

Brooms get Hip

Serendipity Point Films has signed The Tragically Hip to compose the musical score and to add original songs to the Paul Gross film Men With Brooms.

Not only will Brooms get the Hip music, the movie also features a cameo by the band, which appears as a team of curlers competing against director/writer/actor Paul Gross’ team for the fictitious Golden Broom.

Men With Brooms, ‘an outrageously Canadian romance of ice and stone,’ is produced by Robert Lantos *