An American activist is offering $5,000 for footage or stills of the most recent seal hunt in Canada, alleging that the media were banned. Not so, says Ottawa

Now sans Sopranos, the fall lineup for the Astral movie channel includes the Duchovny-starrer Californication and the reportedly racy Tell Me You Love Me from HBO

Shares in Imax Corp. took a major hit following news on Aug. 9 that a five-month auction process failed to unearth a buyer willing to meet the company’s price.

The Canadian Television Fund is an effective tool for putting high-quality Cancon into primetime, but should establish audience benchmarks that more clearly define its success or failure, according to a recent report from its parent, the Department of Canadian Heritage.

There’s more than one way to slice a Gemini, as illustrated by the fact that this year’s nominees in the nonfiction categories are shared among several coproducing entities. Through it all, the National Film Board emerges as the biggest force in production, while the CBC is unsurprisingly dominant among broadcasters.

CanWest Global Communications has unloaded the Canadian rights to the television library of its failed subsidiary Fireworks Entertainment, selling to Motion Picture Distribution LP for an undisclosed amount. The limited partnership essentially acts as the distribution arm of Alliance Atlantis Communications.

Global Television will produce and air this year’s Gemini Awards on Nov. 19, scooping the annual celebration of Canadian television from its longtime broadcaster, the CBC.
It’s the strongest signal yet that Global, the network once derided as an enemy of Canadian programming, is positioning itself as a Cancon champion. It’s also the latest indication that private casters may be better placed than the CBC to promote such celebrations.

The surging popularity of documentary films has brought slicker and more expensive products onto the market and into fests including the Vancouver International Film Festival, according to Diane Burgess, who programs VIFF’s Canadian Images section.

Kit Hood, a British-born film director and editor and former child actor, co-created the Degrassi concept with Linda Schuyler when the two were a couple back in 1979.

Four years ago, producer Linda Schuyler wasn’t confident that she could saddle up her Degrassi franchise for yet another series, recalls CTV president of programming Susanne Boyce.

John Galway has been named president of Astral Media’s The Harold Greenberg Fund, the Canadian film industry’s largest private funding agency. He takes over on Sept. 6, leaving behind a much more complex job at Telefilm Canada, where he was head of the English-language television sector.

Filmmaker Clement Virgo expects that his new feature, Lie with Me, will stir up at least one debate.

‘Is it porn – is it not porn?’ he says, and then offers his own view. ‘To me, porn doesn’t have a Hitchcockian element in it, which is suspense.’