It seems that every time producers get together, it coincides with an industry crisis of some kind.

Last year, they looked ahead to the CFTPA’s Prime Time conference with the damaging ACTRA strike unresolved. (A deal was resolved just in time for Ottawa to avoid an angry mob.) For the two years before that, producers had to deal with slumping production numbers. In 2004, they were reeling following federal cuts to the Canadian Television Fund.

The upcoming session (Feb. 20-22) will be imbued with its own anxieties. The service sector, especially in Hollywood-reliant B.C., is being decimated by the ongoing WGA strike and an at-par loonie. At least the province’s government is doing its part to try to stop the bleeding, recently announcing increased tax credits matching the recent boost in Ontario.

Meanwhile, those who make homegrown TV can ponder what all this recent consolidation in the broadcast world might mean to future show orders. Oh yes, and anxiety about the CTF will make a return on the heels of a Feb. 4 public hearing, with the CRTC’s final decisions on the fund expected to follow a couple of months later.

But despite all this never-ending volatility, producers can hold their heads high in the halls of the Westin Ottawa this month, because, lo and behold, Cancon is hotter than ever.

The nominee roll at this year’s Oscars bears this out.

All-Canadian production Away from Her is up for best actress for Julie Christie and best adapted screenplay for writer/director Sarah Polley. Viggo Mortensen is up for best actor for the U.K./Canada copro Eastern Promises. There is also plenty of maple leaf pride for best picture nominee Juno, which boasts Montreal-born director Jason Reitman, Halifax star Ellen Page (both of whom are nominated) as well as Brampton, ON’s Michael Cera, and was shot in beautiful B.C., bringing some good news to the hurting province.

Our home and native land also has a 40% chance of again taking home the statuette in the animated short film category, thanks to the Bravo!FACT-funded I Met the Walrus and Madame Tutli-Putli from the NFB, which can quite fairly claim to being the world’s hotbed for experimental toons.

And while it might not get any Oscar noms, a little Ontario dance film called How She Move recently opened on a staggering 1,500-plus screens in North America, taking in $4.2 million in its opening weekend.

Meanwhile, on the small screen, the new year has brought a seemingly unprecedented number of primetime Canadian shows that are attracting solid audiences.

CBC has led the way with the likes of the drama The Border, the comedy Sophie and the reality The Week the Women Went. CTV has brought back the venerable Degrassi: The Next Generation for a new season along with the well-reviewed mini Would Be Kings, while Global has gotten with the program and looks to have landed a genuine hit with The Guard, which surpassed 800,000 for its premier episode. Citytv has launched the period procedural Murdoch Mysteries, which, based on its first episode, has the makings of another winner.

It is worth noting that all of these shows are funded by the CTF, save for The Week the Women Went. (The CTF doesn’t ‘do’ reality.)

Yes, perhaps these shows caught a break by going to air during the WGA strike, when the well of fresh material has dried up for House, Grey’s Anatomy and the rest, but however they have lured eyeballs, these shows now have a good shot of building a strong audience base.

And now comes word that CBS, bereft of fresh content due to the writers situation, has picked up the CTV cop drama series Flashpoint, with plans to air it in primetime this summer.

The accomplishments of Canadian producers in film, TV and new media will be celebrated at Prime Time 2008 with the presentation of the inaugural CFTPA Indie Awards. Although there is a threat of awards overload at this time of year, it’s a move the producers association no doubt purposefully embarked upon just as the Canadian industry finds itself having to justify its raison d’être.

All this could not have come at a better time, as the CRTC ponders what to do with that old CTF. Recall that this review of the fund came as a result of dissension from a couple of contributors who would either blow it up and start a new system from scratch or see such a fund disappear altogether. Their reasoning: that the fund distributes money to shows ‘nobody watches.’

The best defense against that line of thinking is for Canadian producers to demonstrate that they can compete against the best in the world and bring in big audiences at home. And, as recent weeks have shown, they have done exactly that.