Telefilm Canada’s recent announcement that it is taking further steps to increase Canadian content, cut administrative costs, and is redirecting funds for marketing and versioning of foreign films is seen by the those in the production and distribution industry as a foreshadowing of more painful cuts to come.

‘With the size of cutbacks that Telefilm is facing, they’ll be making bigger decisions than these,’ says Tom Berry, president of Allegro Films and chairman of the cftpa. ‘This is very painful. Every single program of Telefilm benefits some of our members.’

Telefilm’s executive director Francois Macerola says the agency will save $1.5 million out of its Feature Film Distribution Fund by eliminating versioning of foreign films and $1 million by cutting marketing of foreign films. The $2.5 million will be redirected toward marketing and distribution of Canadian films.

‘We are not happy about cuts, but we recognize that the government has handed the industry a bowl of salt and everyone has to pick up a spoon and dig in,’ says Dan Johnson, president and ceo of the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters.

‘These cuts seriously impact those who rely on those resources to distribute foreign film as a means of giving them the related ability to distribute Canadian films,’ says Johnson.

The announcement also reinforced Telefilm’s position to focus on Canadian content on the production side and give ‘increased prominence’ to high-quality works that obtain eight out of 10 Canadian content points.

‘We have been doing this 99% of the time for the last 10 years,’ says Macerola. ‘But we want to send the message to the government that we are a cultural organization. Also, on the distribution side, we have been a little weak in that area, investing in `eight out of 10′ only 75% of the time.’

Berry disagrees with the direction Telefilm is taking vis-a-vis Canadian content. ‘Most people feel Telefilm has two mandates: cultural development and industrial development. The move to eight-out-of-10 points would seem to mitigate against the industrial development mandate, and I am concerned about that. It will make it harder for the commercial, yet Canadian part of the industry to flourish. I think they need different standards for each mandate. Six out of 10 is appropriate for the commercial, industrial mandate.’

Telefilm also announced the completion of a wide-ranging internal restructuring that began in 1995.

The streamlining results in a production and development branch with integrated core business units, one for television and one for features in each Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The units, each of which includes a head, a distribution expert, a lawyer, a business affairs person, a creative affairs person, among other experts, provide a one-stop wicket for producers and distributors dealing with Telefilm.

Although the new scheme promises to save applicants time, cafde’s Johnson is skeptical. ‘We see this as a structural de-emphasis on distribution and marketing and have a corresponding concern as to whether or not the interests and needs of distribution and export will be dealt with adequately,’ he says. ‘So we will be watching closely to see how this streamlined system responds to distribution and export.’

Under the leadership of national operations director Peter Katadotis, the newly appointed directors of the business units are: in Montreal, Joelle Levie (television) and Myrianne Pavlovic (feature films); in Vancouver, Elizabeth Friesen (tv) and Gretchen Doyle (features); and in Toronto, Karen Franklin (tv). The Toronto feature film director has yet to be named.

In another personnel announcement, Marcel Choquette was named director, multimedia and new technologies and Sheila de La Varende and Olivier Trusson were named associate directors of the Paris bureau.

Telefilm will release a full 1996/97 Action Plan in June.