It’s ironic to watch Canada’s number-one distributor, Alliance Films, compete with many of its former colleagues regrouped in Entertainment One, which itself is battling it out with Maple Pictures to be Canada’s number-two feature-film distributor.

E1’s Seville Pictures is currently taking a bite out of the year’s box-office with the vampire smash Twilight. So it is poised in both English-Canada (via its acquisition of Maximum Films) and the lucrative Quebec market, as well as on the international scene (through its acquisition of Maximum Film International) to challenge for the top. Key players are also crucial to the games, and E1 has landed some of the industry’s best.

E1’S DOMESTIC RELEASING SCORES WITH TWILIGHT

David Reckziegel and Bryan Gliserman
Co-presidents

E1’s Canadian feature-film distribution unit was formed with the August 2007 acquisition of Seville Pictures in Montreal and the July 2008 pickup of Maximum Films in Toronto, with a game plan to become a major player on the Canadian scene.

‘In Canada for the past 15 years or so, Alliance has owned 90% of the indie market – they were so far ahead in the game it was hard to compete,’ says Seville co-founder David Reckziegel, who shares the role of E1 Films co-president with Bryan Gliserman, who most recently worked at Maximum Films and previously spent 14 years as president of Odeon Films.

‘E1 has the capital, Patrice Théroux has the relationships, Seville brought the distribution infrastructure, and Maximum Films has the expertise of Robert Lantos, Bryan Gliserman and Charlotte Mickie,’ explains Reckziegel. ‘It’s a perfect fit.’

In the past year, E1 Films has bolstered its volume by signing output deals with Summit Entertainment and ThinkFilm, acquiring the ThinkFilm library in Canada, and picking up 21 films from bankrupt Christal Films, including Cadavres (the latest Erik Canuel/Patrick Huard flick). It is distributing a wide range of pictures – from small foreign-language films, feature documentaries, Canadian films and American independent product, through to major wide releases.

Gliserman is based in Toronto, while Reckziegel is in Montreal. Both report to Théroux, president of filmed entertainment.

‘We both run the division together, but Bryan has more of an emphasis on theatrical distribution and I focus more on home video, television and international distribution, and the Quebec operation,’ explains Reckziegel.

INTERNATIONAL SALES EXEC KNOWS WORLD MARKETS BACKWARDS

Charlotte Mickie
Executive vice-president, International Film

It’s a tough market on the world film sales front, but Charlotte Mickie, a veteran of this business, is optimistic that E1’s strong slate of films and international presence is an advantage.

‘E1 is a big entity with some weight in the market, and right now heft is good,’ says Mickie, who spent 21 years at Alliance, followed by Paris-based Celluloid Dreams, and then Maximum Films, moving over to E1 with the acquisition of that company.

‘With distribution outlets in the U.K., Canada and the Benelux countries, that immediately gives us an advantage. And we have a great sales and marketing team, and the capacity to do top-notch materials,’ she explains.

E1 has landed three films in competition at Robert Redford’s prestigious Sundance Film Festival, including the Canadian feature Victoria Day, a Toronto movie written and directed by David Bezmozgis a successful Canadian short story writer (often published in journals such as the New Yorker), and Amreeka, an American picture with two Canadian producers (shot in Manitoba), as well as the U.S. film Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti and Emily Watson.

‘Sundance is the showcase festival for independent movies, especially films by young, often first-time talent,’ says Mickie of the famed Utah conflab. ‘The festival has gone back to its roots in the last year, celebrating authenticity and originality over cynical exercises. It’s going to be a great place to introduce these films to the world.’

The Toronto-based EVP reports to E1 Films co-president David Reckziegel in her native Montreal. Mickie’s sales team is in both cities, with VP of international sales Anick Poirier in la belle province and Natalie Kampelmacher in Toronto.

Mickie is acquiring international rights to Canadian as well as non-Canadian films. The current slate includes Atom Egoyan’s Adoration, Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth, Ruba Nadda’s Cairo Time, Vic Sarin’s A Shine of Rainbows, as well as Canada’s foreign-language Oscar contender Necessities of Life from Benoît Pilon and the Katrina documentary Trouble the Water, which has been officially short-listed for an Oscar nom by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The 81st Academy Award nominations will be announced on Jan. 22.