* The 1995 Toronto International Film Festival Symposium is setting up an industry centre to facilitate pre-sales and serve producers with and without films in the festival.

Plans are to create a space where buyers and prebuyers, producers and distributors can meet in an unofficial market environment.

Symposium director Debbie Nightingale says, this year, the centre will complement the sales office. In the future, they could be incorporated into one space.

‘We want to bring everyone together under one umbrella – it’s a better way to serve the industry,’ Nightingale says.

It’s not confirmed, but Nightingale is hoping to set up a coproduction registry in the centre as well.

Also in the realm of possibilities is a cyberspace pitching platform via the Virtual Film Festival, whereby pitches could be made online to buyers who are not in town for the festival.

Also in Symposium news, director/writer Kenneth Brannagh is this year’s keynote speaker.

* The nfb will launch its World Wide Web site at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Industry Centre. Surfers will be able to browse the nfb database of more than 9,000 film titles and learn about the nfb’s past, present and pending productions.

* The crtc has announced it is licensing CTEQ Television Inc. to become Montreal’s first multilingual tv broadcaster. The licence is for a seven-year period and expires July 31, 2002.

cteq, the country’s second multilingual station, will replace the special broadcast service distributed by Videotron Ltee. and CF Cable TV Inc.

* CF Cable and Rogers Communications have joined Shaw Communications in its upcoming test of the V-chip, increasing the number of households participating to more than 350 from 200.

Broadcasters taking part in the test include CFMT-TV Channel 47, TMN The Movie Network, cbc and Fox 29 WUTV in Ontario, Quatre Saisons, Tele-Metropole, and Super Ecran in Montreal.

Phase two of the test, which began in Edmonton the first six months of this year, began Aug. 21.

* Twenty-five award recipients have been chosen by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association’s (cftpa) national training program’s selection committee to fill a variety of trainee positions, including production manager, associate producer, production accountant, Avid editor and director apprentice.

This marks the second year of the initiative, which began in January, and is the largest placement of on-the-job mentorship/training positions in the Canadian film and tv industry.

* A new Canadian consortium, CWP Partnership, has made application to the crtc for a licence to operate Allegro, a national, multi-channel, digital, audio programming network service throughout Canada.

cwp is 40% owned by Cancom, 40% by Westcom Radio Group, a division of wic, and 20% by Pelmorex Communications, a provider of customized information and entertainment content products and services.

The service would initially provide 16 signals to the distribution marketplace for delivery to the homes of consumers via all possible technologies, including cable and dth.

Allegro, to be distributed via Anik E satellite, will have an average level of Canadian content of 31.25%, and no less that 15% for any one stream.

ExpressVu is the first declared client.

* William F. White Limited, a production rental and sales firm, will donate $1,000 in services to each of the six winners at this year’s 15th annual Atlantic Film Festival (Sept. 22-30).

The financial support will go to the winners of the Moonsail Awards for best direction, cinematography, writing, editing, art direction and sound.

* Cineplex Odeon has annouced its financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30.

Total revenue (in u.s. dollars) for the three-month period ending June 30 was $122,514,000, compared with $117,026,000 for the second quarter of 1994.

During the period, theatre admission revenue increased by 5% to $86,738,000 from $82,712,000. Revenue included $30,347,000 in concession revenue versus $29,258,000 in the same period last year.

The company reported a net loss of $15,147,000, or $0.13 per share.

In 1994’s second quarter, the net loss was reported as $12,492,000 or $0.11 per share.

Included in the loss for the 1995 second quarter is a non-cash charge of $3,290,000 on the sale of 28 theatres to Carmike Cinemas Inc. and a one-time expense of $343,000 related to the aborted proposed merger with Cinemark USA Inc.