+ Montreal’s World Film Festival will close with the official film of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the doc The Everlasting Flame. There are 130 world premieres among the films to screen throughout the festival, which runs from Aug. 27 to Sept 7.

+ VisionTV has shortlisted three comedy and drama series for development, chosen from about 270 submissions that the multi-faith channel received in response to a recent call for proposals. The projects are: Local 69 (Hungry Eyes Film & Television), Saint Michael (Shaftesbury Films and Henry Less Productions) and Taking on Water (Soapbox Productions).

+ The CRTC has renewed for one year the licence for SunTV, cutting the station some slack on ethnic and aboriginal programming while upping its requirements for local shows to 14 hours per week from 10. The commission agreed to set aside its requirements for ethnic and aboriginal programming until its licence comes up again in early 2010.

+ Phase 4 Films has picked up the English DVD rights to Flashpoint (Pink Sky Entertainment and Avamar Entertainment), and will release the first season of the CTV/CBS action series on Oct. 13. The start-up distrib was formed earlier this year when Peace Arch Entertainment and its partner ContentFilm spun off their North American home entertainment joint venture. The company also has dibs on season two, due on shelves next year