Montreal: Smaller distribution companies in Canada are mounting a militant campaign to ensure they aren’t shut off from enhanced public resources for feature films.

According to Regroupement des Distributeurs Independants de Films du Quebec, plans to reorganize the Telefilm Canada Feature Film Distribution Fund, as expressed in a set of policy directives advanced by the Department of Heritage to Telefilm, will effectively ‘privatize’ half or more of the $11 million in distribution money.

The distribs claim the new distribution policies on the table favor a select group of larger Canadian producers and distributors, companies like Lions Gate, Alliance Atlantis and TVA International which do both.

Louis Dussault, president of K-Films Amerique and a spokesman for the Regroupement, says a distribution ‘performance’ proposal will create ‘privatized’ marketing-distribution envelopes for big companies. He complains the formula put forward by Telefilm in an initial round of industry consultations only considers a film’s total box-office take as an absolute figure instead of box office as a coefficient of the marketing investment.

‘You can spend $500,000 to make $100,000,’ he says, adding a $40,000 marketing investment that yields $100,000 at the box office is obviously a better performance.

The Regroupement distribs, typically smaller operations, also want a cap of $500,000 for any one company’s ‘performance’ envelope ‘so there is some money left for others.’

Dussault says the current set of proposals on the table would lead to a ‘feudal aristocracy,’ obliging smaller distribs to seek funds from larger distribs to complete their marketing budgets.

The Regroupement is also strongly opposed to another proposition which will eliminate a production’s minimum guarantee. Telefilm has been picking up 75% of the mg, but if the practice is scrapped, Dussault says small distribs won’t be able to acquire rights because they can’t afford 100% of the cost. ‘It’s [the mg] essential and the only way for the little distributor to stay competitive,’ he says.

Richard Paradis, president of the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters, says Telefilm is under a lot of pressure to come up with new criteria and policies before April 1.

cafde has proposed a 50-50 split (private and public money) on the minimum guarantee, which should be retained, Paradis says, because it provides some early measure of leverage with producers.

‘But we’ve been told [by Heritage] even if it’s not yet written in stone, the [public contribution] for the minimum guarantee will be zero, with a total amount of about $11 million for marketing. But if there isn’t [a partly publicly funded] minimum guarantee and the distributor has to take 100% out of his pocket, the distributor will have a tendency to go only with projects that he or she is sure have potential in the marketplace,’ says Paradis.

In its proposals to Heritage, cafde had suggested out of a total public resource of $100 million, $10 million be set aside for marketing movies and another $10 million for the acquisition of rights in the form of minimum guarantees.

Paradis says distribs aren’t to blame for the often-poor showing of homegrown movies at the box office. Producers get their projects greenlit by Telefilm, and in the past, he says distribs had been obliged to buy in.

Telefilm says commentary on the issues on its website (www.telefilm.gc.ca) represents only a first round of industry consultation and a second is now underway. The agency wants to develop broad policies that combine selective and performance criteria, the latter to include box-office earnings weighed against elements like Canadian content, prizes and selection for international festivals.

New distribution studies

Heritage’s policy directive ‘From Script to Screen’ sets the following core goals: capturing 5% of the domestic box office, improving the quality of Canadian feature films by raising average production budgets to at least $5 million, and increasing the average marketing budget to at least $500,000. To reach these goals, government invested an additional $15 million in 2000/01 and $50 million more annually, starting April 1 of this year.

A new international comparative study on feature film distribution prepared for Canadian Heritage by Judith McCann & Associates underscores the weak position of Canadian movies in their own market.

The study says 24 Australian-produced films in ’99 captured 3% of Australia’s national box office, while 84 u.k. films distributed in ’98 captured a 14% share of the box office in the u.k. and more than 200 national films produced in France captured 32% of the box office in ’99. Market share for national feature films was 8% in Germany in ’98, 12% in Spain in ’98, 24% in Italy in ’99 and 14% (on the strength of only 18 films) in Denmark in ’98.

Citing various sources including Statistics Canada, a second study from Wall Communications called ‘Analysis of the Feature Film Distribution Sector,’ also prepared for Heritage, indicates there are about 30 big and small Canadian distribution companies, with the top five controlling more than 90% of revenues, as well as seven or eight foreign-controlled operations, namely, the major u.s. studios represented by Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association.

Alliance Atlantis distribution units are reporting revenues of $108 million in calendar 2000. The Wall study says the second largest, Lion Gates Films, reported total distrib revenues of $54.3 million in 1999. *