Distribs overcharged in Ontario

Foreign film distributors in Ontario are checking their records to see whether or not the Ontario Film Review Board owes them money. So far, the board has sent out at least two rebate cheques and more will soon be on the way.

A classification fee discrepancy was discovered in February when Toronto-based Libra Films called the Ministry of Consumer Commercial Relations (which administers the board’s payments) for an estimate on screening a lengthy foreign-language film. When told to send in the $78.75 flat rate, Visnja Cuturic of Libra was mystified because she had been paying a rate of $4.20 per minute of film, and for the four years Libra has been in business, Cuturic had never paid a flat rate.

In the Theatres Act, there are two prices for non-English and non-French films: Section 38, subsection 12 of the Theatres Act reads: ‘For screening film other than film wholly produced in Canada for unlimited exhibition or distribution’ there is a rate currently of $4.20 per minute of film. Subsection 15 of the same section of the Act states: ‘For screening film, other than film wholly produced in Canada where the dialogue is spoken in a language other than English or French’ there is a flat rate of $78.75 per film.

The problem started years ago when many distributors assessed that the first rate applied to subtitled films for unlimited exhibition and the second was for limited release of ‘multicultural’ films.

‘The distributors depend on the board,’ says Cuturic. ‘There are a lot of payments to go out across the country, and with no invoicing or statements in Ontario (distributors pay up front), the onus is on the distributors to make the right payment. The onus is also on the board to make classification fees clear.’

Cuturic’s company has already received its rebate from the board of about $1,500.

c/fp’s Karen Rosenblum says her company received ‘almost $1,200’ in rebates.

‘It is rather disconcerting that this situation has gone overlooked for such an extended period of time,’ says Andy Myers, vice-president of distribution at Norstar Releasing. Dating back to December 1992, Norstar has assessed that only two films had been overbilled.

‘We rely upon the distributor to send the appropriate amount,’ says David Scriven, director of the Theatres Act. ‘My staff was responsible for receiving the monies tendered but they don’t watch the films. The problem stems from a lack of communication between my staff and the board’s staff in identifying the dialogue. Now the dialogue is something (the distributors) must identify on their summary reports.’

Scriven adds the flat-rate exemption for multicultural films will be under review because the exemption has ‘been abused by adult distributors as a way to make it cheaper to get foreign sex films out. We’re not aiming at mainstream distributors. It may be a matter of creating an added exemption.’

To date, the board has not issued a statement to clarify the matter for distributors. Some companies are aware of the problem, others are not. At least one major distribution company knew of the distinction years ago and has been charged the flat rate when appropriate. Comments Myers: ‘Once they uncovered the problem unfortunately there wasn’t some sort of communique.’