Canada@Cannes returns

Canada@Cannes is returning to the annual Cannes International Film Festival this year to promote the Canadian production business, with Roger Frappier of Montreal’s Max Films delivering the keynote address.

The international symposium, cofounded by Alison Emilio and Debbie Nightingale, brings Canadians together with producers, financiers and entertainment companies from around the world in an effort to create partnerships in coproduction. The event is being held May 13.

"It’s a combination for people to promote themselves and Canada at the same time," says Nightingale.

In addition to featuring Academy Award-nominated producer Frappier, the program will also present a case study of a successful feature film coproduction, with Steve Zitzerman, partner in the Toronto-based entertainment law firm Goodmans Law, moderating.

Sponsors include the CFTPA, Atlantic Canada Film Partners, Canadian Television Fund, Comweb Group, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Directors Guild of Canada, Goodmans Law, Manitoba Film and Sound, Motion Picture Guarantors, Ontario Media Development Corporation, SaskFilm, Spin Productions and Telefilm Canada.

This year’s Cannes festival runs May 9-20.

-www.festival-cannes.org

Tele-Quebec kills Bad Girls

Senior managers at cultural and educational network Tele-Quebec have cancelled plans to broadcast the InformAction porno documentary Bad Girls. Following an abrupt, last-minute cancellation of a March 6 press screening of the $400,000 film, the network announced the doc would not be broadcast in its present form.

Bad Girls, a coproduction presold to France’s Canal+, examines the new role of women as producers, directors and rights holders in the booming porn industry. The film includes a warning of hard-core and pornographic content.

Bad Girl’s producers have expressed surprise and dismay at Tele-Quebec’s decision, claiming the project was carefully developed with two Tele-Quebec commissioning editors, who approved the program, over an extended period of two years.

Lions Gate joins TSE 300

Lions Gate Entertainment of Vancouver was added to the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 Composite Index at the end of business March 16 and joins other industry notables including Corus Entertainment and Alliance Atlantis Communications.

The TSE 300 tracks changes in Canada’s leading publicly traded companies.

Lions Gate shares traded in the $3.33 range on the TSE March 13. Its year low is $2 and its year high is $6.90.

The company reported revenues of $68.7 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2001 (ended Dec. 31, 2000) and net income of $1.7 million, excluding its non-cash operating loss of $1.7 million in Mandalay Pictures.

-www.lionsgatefilms.com

Rainmaker back in black

A focus on core post-production operations helped Rainmaker Entertainment Group in Vancouver to return to profitability in fiscal 2000 (ended Dec. 31) even though overall revenues were flat compared to fiscal 1999.

The company reported net earnings of $3.2 million ($0.30 per share) on revenue of $24.3 million in fiscal 2000 compared to a loss of $8.7 million ($0.79 per share) on revenue of $24.5 million in fiscal 1999.

Since Sept. 13, 2000, Rainmaker has been buying back and canceling outstanding shares. To date, it has bought back 293,000 shares at an average price of $1.77. The company wants to buy back 5% or 543,000 shares.

On March 13, Rainmaker shares were trading in the $2.02 range. The year high for the stock is $2.05 per share and the year low is $1.03.

-www.rainmaker.com

U.K. tax relief extended

An exerpt from the recently tabled 2001 U.K. budget, specifically in section 48 on film tax relief of the Finance Act, states, "The 100 per cent write-off of production and acquisition expenditure, on completion, for British qualifying films with budgets not exceeding £15 million [$33.7 million] will be extended to cover expenditure incurred to 1 July 2005."

The maintenance of the U.K. production benefits is likely to spur even higher coproduction levels between Canada and the U.K., according to Canadian financing specialists.

-www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2001/

Blue Zone, Chyron form alliance

Vancouver-based Blue Zone, which is involved in Internet broadcasting, has signed a "technology alliance" with television graphics giant Chyron Corporation.

The agreement will see Blue Zone’s MediaBZ interactive software harmonized with Chyron’s Lyric graphics package to create the next level of "real-time interactive television" for broadcasters, say the companies.

Users of the new product will be able to manage their interactive publishing needs and media assets from one central control system.

MediaBZ enables broadcasters and content creators to create enhanced interactive content from any Internet terminal and simultaneously publish it to television, ITV, the Internet, WAP-enabled cell phones and other hand-held digital devices.

Additional advantages of the partnership include joint integration assistance, certified training programs, technical support and consulting services.

-www.bluezone.net

-www.chyron.com

VEAF to honor Harryhausen

The Vancouver Effects & Animation Festival/Digital Media Trade Show 2001 is scheduled for April 4-6 at the Plaza of Nations. The event will spotlight 2D and 3D animation and F/X, gaming, post-production, Internet production and education facilities.

The conference aims to bring together representatives from hardware and software manufacturers, animation and F/X shops, post houses, ad agencies, broadcasters, IT companies, educators and students.

VEAF will screen animation works in the digital and traditional realms as well as highlight recent technological advances.

With the participation of the Santa Monica, CA-based Visual Effects Society, the festival will present F/X innovator Ray Harryhausen with a lifetime achievement award. The 79-year-old Harryhausen has worn many creative hats in his career, which dates from the 1940s to the 1981 feature Clash of the Titans. His photographic and stop-motion animation F/X credits include a slew of ’50s sci-fi flicks including Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and the popular Sinbad films which spanned the ’50s to the ’70s.

Pre-registration for the show is available at the VEAF website.

-www.veaf.com

Bycast, Sympatico hook up

Vancouver Internet broadcaster Bycast Media Systems Canada has formed an early-stage strategic alliance with Sympatico-Lycos to launch a new-generation streaming platform designed to overcome Internet congestion.

The current field test involves Bycast’s proprietary technology to stream CHUM Group Radio Ottawa signals over the Internet to select broadband customers across the country at CD levels of quality.

"Not only do we expect to see significant savings in bandwidth costs," says Daniel Boisvert, senior vice-president, Sympatico-Lycos, "but we can also see significant revenue-generating potential through the use of Bycast’s proprietary targeted ad-insertion technology."

Bycast’s ad-insertion technology allows for the seamless insertion of local, targeted advertising into outgoing streams on a fully personalized basis.

The test will last until the end of May.

-www.sympatico.ca