Toronto production company Devine Entertainment has entered into a distribution deal with Utah’s Feature Films for Families.

Devine has been guaranteed a minimum of us$120,000 for distribution of eight of its video titles by Feature Films (although projections go as high as us$400,000), which intends to sell them via direct mail and telemarketing campaigns. Titles will include Devine’s The Inventor’s Specials and the first two installments of The Artists’ Specials, currently running on hbo.

The first installment of said Artists’ Specials, Degas and the Dancer, has won the Humanitas Prize presented by the Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute, in the Children’s Live-Action category. The film, produced as the kick-off to the six-part The Artist’s Specials hbo series, was represented by its screenwriter, Emmy-award winner Heather Conkie. She accepted the award at a ceremony in l.a. on July 9.

Other films being produced by Devine for The Artists’ Series include Mary Cassatt: American Impressionist and Goya: Awakened in a Dream. Winslow Homer: An American Original is set to start filming in Toronto July 26.

Producers David Devine and Richard Mozer are currently in negotiations with networks to bring Degas and the Dancer and the rest of The Artists’ Specials series to Canadian television for the fall.