Astral Media will turn 60 years old during the 2005/06 television season, but it is still thinking young with its Teletoon and Family Channel specialties.

No stranger to controversy, the Montreal World Film Festival will screen the world premiere of Karla – the hotly debated feature, formerly known as Deadly – about convicted killer Karla Homolka.

With summer upon us, film fans with a taste for blockbuster escapism have seen their share of cutting-edge special FX, from the glorious to the gruesome, in a number of notable releases. Two of the six films featured below shot in Canada: Fantastic Four in Vancouver and Land of the Dead in Toronto. Both productions kept at least part of their post and FX work in Canada. Director Robert Rodriguez brought his U.S.-shot, FX-heavy film The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lavagirl in 3-D to Montreal’s Hybride, after having recently done so with his April release, Sin City. Mr. & Mrs. Smith had some of its post handled in Toronto. And, in every case, Canadian-made software and systems providers figured in the FX mix, including Alias, Autodesk Media & Entertainment, Softimage, eyeon and Side Effects.

They always said Canadians were laid back, but this is ridiculous. We’ve become the true land of the dead this summer, as zombie films continue to surface across the country.
In Vancouver, Andrew Currie’s feature Fido is in production, while Carl Bessai’s Severed is seeking a distribution partner. CJ Hutchinson’s Denizens of the Dead is posting in Winnipeg, and Elza Kephart’s Montreal-shot Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love is looking to grow an audience through midnight screenings in Toronto.

Film Finances Canada will shut down its Montreal office at the end of July, citing fewer bondable independent film and television productions in Quebec as the reason.

Canada watched less television but more indigenous programming in 2004, according to the CRTC’s recent Broadcast Policy Monitoring Report, which assesses the impact of the regulator’s rules and policies.

The Winnipeg-based National Screen Institute-Canada has selected the participants for its sixth Totally Television program – including Toronto writer David ‘Sudz’ Sutherland and producer Marilyn Gray.

Telefilm Canada and the CBC have teamed up to create a $2-million fund to back feature documentaries. The Theatrical Feature-Length Documentary Program is the first collaboration of its kind between the broadcaster and funding agency, and will support the development, production and completion of full-length docs in 2005/06.

Despite offerings from two of Canadian filmmaking’s most recognizable names – Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg – Deepa Mehta’s Water will open the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.
The controversial new feature about impoverished widows in 1930s India best exemplifies what fest-goers will want to see on opening night, says festival director Piers Handling.

With the announcements of new and bulked-up funding streams for all sorts of programming, a slew of awards given and deals initiated, the 2005 Banff World Television Festival is being heralded a success.

Despite its unenviable 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. summer timeslot and a ratings drop between weeks one and two, CTV’s new half-hour comedy series Robson Arms – about the cohabitants of a Vancouver apartment building – is receiving better than respectable viewership.

According to its 2004 annual report, the Independent Production Fund spent a total of $1.9 million last year, and of that, $1.76 million was allocated to series. The remaining $187,500 went to professional development. In 2003, the IPF was able to spend $2.34 million, with $2.16 million going to series and $217,000 to professional development.