Berlin: Though Canadian films had a reduced presence at last month’s 46th International Berlin Film Festival, with no films in competition, the quality was such that we managed to pick up four awards, including two from the children’s jury of the Kinderfilmfest.

Running concurrent with the Feb. 15-26 film festival was the European Film Market, where Francois Macerola, director general of Telefilm Canada, attended meetings with international film producers, funding agencies and film associations.

An initiative that came from meetings with the head of the Association of German Television Producers, Alexander Thies, was an invitation to German filmmakers to attend a coproduction seminar in Canada later this year.

Macerola also met with his Commonwealth counterparts to discuss a possible coproduction fund for the development of scripts. He believes the key to Canada’s success overseas is the presentation of a Canadian culture as defined more broadly.

‘If we want to reach an international market we will have to bring something content-wise, and the only thing that we can bring is our culture or our vision of the world,’ said Macerola.

In Berlin to promote the Montreal market to European companies and agencies, Gilles Beriault of the Montreal International Film, TV and Video Market was also scouting out possible projects in development for the first formal year of The Production Exchange, a forum for international coproduction.

After meetings with European producers, he has 30 projects lined up that could be a match for Canadian coproduction deals.

Beriault will be setting up an Internet address for Canadian proposals to be sent starting in the spring.

On the awards front, Claudia Morgado Escanilla’s Unbound, a film about women and their attitudes towards their breasts, won a Teddy Bear, an International Alliance Of Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals And Organizations award for best short film. The film was premiered to a full house, and after receiving a very enthusiastic reception, Escanilla encouraged the audience to ‘go home and touch your breasts.’

Chinese Chocolate codirectors Yan Chi and Qi Chang had a vigorous debate with the audience after the sold-out screening of the film, their first feature. Long, passionate speeches from the audience in Chinese, German and English either refuted points in the film or gave support to the filmmakers for their portrayal of two lonely Chinese women in a foreign culture.

The International Confederation of Art Cinemas unanimously awarded Chinese Chocolate the International Confederation of Art Cinemas Award.

The Children’s Jury of the Kinderfilmfest awarded a Special Mention to Cinar/Tucker Films’ Bonjour Timothy, a Canadian/New Zealand coproduction by director Wayne Tourell.

An nfb animated film, Overdose, by Claude Cloutier, picked up the Special Mention for short film.

Director Robert Tinnell’s film Kids Of The Round Table was well received by the predominantly children’s audience as they hooted at the slapstick antics.

The audience reaction to the documentary double bill of Anatomy Of Desire and Jim Loves Jack: The James Egan Story was very positive. David Adkin, producer/ director of Jim Loves Jack, gave the festival audience an opportunity to see a film with a distinctly Canadian story – the struggle of a gay couple to get spousal benefits.

Originally rejected by the Berlin Film Festival, Adkin was called at the last minute to be paired with Anatomy Of Desire, directed by Jean-Francois Monette and Peter Boullata.

Adkin worked the market for his next project, a feature-length doc on gay and lesbian comedians called We’re Funny That Way.

Piers Handling, director of the Toronto International Film Festival, found the selection at this year’s festival weak and was at the market looking more for films in production or those just being completed. Handling sees tiff moving towards being more of a ‘festival of premieres’ rather than a best of the world festival circuit, making Berlin’s festival selection less important as a source of films.

Ramona Macdonald of Doomsday Studios signed an agreement with Israeli producer Marek Rozenbaum during the market. This, along with agreements with Chinese officials, allows her film in development, Shanghai, Jerusalem, to move another step closer to production.

Jan Rofekamp, Berlin festival veteran, believes participation and visibility at the Berlin market is necessary in his effort to place the films he is distributing across Europe. Rofekamp’s shift to more documentary product is in reaction to the reality that there is little monetary return from the art house film market.

Rofekamp’s Films Transit catalogue is very international in its content, and though he supports filmmakers in Canada, he says ‘there’s always a conflict between this eternal Canadian content situation and the `internationalness’ of documentaries.’

Alliance’s Charlotte Mickie had a mixed slate of American and Canadian films, with two u.s. films in festival screenings and Canadian films House from director Laurie Lynd, John L’Ecuyer’s Curtis’s Charm and Charles Biname’s Eldorado in market screenings.

The u.s. films did well, with Welcome To My Dollhouse receiving an award and Frisk getting a great deal of festival attention. The Canadian films were seen by some festival programmers who have indicated their interest.