Someone get Deepa Mehta and/or Lisa Ray on the phone — the International Indian Film Academy is bringing its annual awards to Toronto. The IIFA and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Thursday that the 2011 awards will for the first time settle in a North American city, running June 16-19 in Toronto and nearby Mississauga and Brampton. The awards are expected to draw 500 people from Bollywood, some 40,000 other visitors and an international television audience of more than 350 million.

‘Toronto’s large South Asian community and devoted film fans will ensure this event is a rousing success,’ said Mayor David Miller. South Asians are the largest visible minority in the city; roughly 300,000 or 12% of the population.

Another round of cash from Canwest and Hot Docs has landed in the hands of docmakers including Robert Lang and Ed Barreveld. Five projects this week drew completion grants from the joint fund, totalling $222,000. Lang’s Kensington Communications and director Peter Findlay will put their share towards Raw Opium, an ‘intimate and broad-ranging’ look at the drug, while Barreveld’s Storyline Entertainment and director Min Sook Lee have The Real M*A*S*H — which recounts the original stories and people that led to the storied film and TV series. Also funded were: Behind The Scenes at Kinngait Studios from Site Media, Grinder by Border City Productions and A Strange Brew — The End of Addiction from Nomad Films.

Scratch another arthouse theater from the list now that the Carlton Cinemas in Toronto has closed its doors. The Cineplex-owned multiplex shut down on Sunday after 28 years of showing mainly independent and foreign titles. The loss leaves distributors fighting that much harder for screens at the city’s remaining arthouses such as the Cumberland and the Varsity.