As well as a vast, diverse Panorama Canada and strong international film presence, the Montreal World Film Festival is attracting the right kind of people – buyers.

They come to Canadian festivals to see films from around the world. Do they care where they’re programmed? Perhaps Estimated Per-screen $ Average, or Remake Potential categories would be more useful programming designations. Every year there is some debate on whether lumping the Canadian films into the Perspective Canada program of the Toronto International Film Festival ‘ghettoizes’ those productions. Descriptively, it seems a bit odd, especially when the ‘Canadian’ elements are not remotely the films’ focus (some aren’t even shot in Canada).

Which leads to thoughts on the nature of a national cinema. If one says Canadian animation, or Canadian documentaries, while there is a wide range, the labels conjure up a certain screen tradition and sensibility. Canadian dramatic cinema strikes a less cohesive chord. Perhaps, like an accent, you need distance to discern the identifying elements. Or perhaps it’s the fact that there is decreased distance from the international elements. With the volume of coproduction Canada’s producers are engaged in, perhaps the ‘distinctly Canadian’ label is – if not endangered – at least becoming a rarer species, and harder to tag. On the film side, the unifying Canadian thread is the focus on pulling the money together to make the film, rather than having the film make money.

There are notable ‘distinctly Canadian’ tv project exceptions currently in production, such as Salter and Cinar’s Emily series, and The Arrow miniseries for cbc from Tapestry Films, Film Works and John Aaron Productions that recently wrapped. However, a huge slate of u.s.-destined and foreign-partnered international and North American projects are also on the go. Which is a good thing, since the capacity of producers outnumber corresponding windows for Cancon.

Tips on how to cofinance and coproduce Canadian projects that work commercially can be gleaned from this issue’s Quebec and Prairie production reports. Seems every province out there – which doesn’t yet have one – is on the verge of a new tax credit; Prince Edward Island is investing in TV production via Emily, and Newfoundland is awaiting word on a new film commission.

As well as noting Paul Donovan’s principles of indigenous production math, maybe others will absorb by programming osmosis the Atlantic Canada industry’s critical ability to keep ‘the mentality of entitlement’ at bay. Critical, because of the increased reliance on tax credits despite the caution of entertainment lawyers (on a federal tax credit panel at last year’s TIFF symposium) who warned that the new system would enable government to tally how much money was avoiding their coffers – which could lead to a Revenue rethink in terms of the amount of the credit.

Right now Canada is a popular production partner, which is great, but if the loot bags run out, having a fallback – such as a strong i.d. for your own production strengths – would be prudent. Sort of a branding versus loss leader mentality.