‘Canadian cinema is a hot property,’ stated Perspective Canada programmer David McIntosh, introducing the 1997 lineup, and Canadian distributors are onside. Of the 20 Perspective Canada features heading into the Toronto International Film Festival, 16 already have a Canadian distributor attached….

The Canadian Film Centre’s Resident Programme has expanded its slate of core training initiatives with the launch of The Editors’ Lab and renewed its $1.8 million Feature Film Project initiative which will produce three low-budget features over the next two years….

From a crop of 283 submissions, composed of 80 features and 203 shorts, a lineup of 20 features and 31 shorts were picked to represent Perspective Canada’s 1997 program….

Busy writer Linda Svendsen is adapting Canadian novelist Jane Urqhart’s Away for The Film Works. Production will begin in early spring ’98 on the four-hour, $10-million miniseries, scheduled to air on the cbc in spring 1999, says Film Works vp Paul…

‘It’s a rough ride,’ cautions Toronto’s Showline Studio president Peter Lukas after 24 years of weathering the highs and lows of the stage rental industry. ‘There’s a lot of turbulence in this business and many studios go down. It’s survival of…

Electropolis Studios, an ambitious venture between Salter Street Productions, Citadel and Cochrane Entertainment, will open its doors in Halifax Nov. 1, vying for work with Imagex’s Cinesite Studios, and other smaller Nova Scotia studios also pushing ahead with expansion plans. The…

California-based Next Wave Films is among the first to register a presence at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, toting a top-up fund exclusively for low-budget independently produced features….

Just over three months into the ctcpf’s 1997/98 fiscal year, the $54.7 million English-language side of the Licence Fee Program is tapped out. The last of the $27.3 million French-language pot is expected to run dry by the end of July….

Hayseed, the first feature from Toronto novelist/scriptwriter Laura Macdonald and variety producer Martha Keh’e is currently in post, thanks to some timely intervention from Salter Street Films….

‘Sorry, we were delayed in the edit, can you turn over the music in a week?’…

Up and running for a mere six months under Gordon Haines’ Combined Media parent company, Mackerel Multimedia has closed its doors for good after a nine-year run. Sister entity, 21-year-old Owl Communications, has laid off its 40-member staff, put its tv…

Industry types hitting the 22nd annual Toronto International Film Festival circuit will find a new contingent of pan-European Association members, a new venue to access a screenplay catalogue, and workshops targeting first-time indie filmmaking added to the Rogers Industry Centre lineup,…