Vancouver: Lionsgate Entertainment is closing the gates on its North Vancouver studios, and on March 15 will hand over the keys to B.C. real estate firm Bosa Development for $46.1 million.

CBC News hopes to strike a new note – five new notes, in fact – with 25-54-year-old news viewers across the country, but the early word from media buyers says the new and more youthful approach from the Ceeb’s newsies may already be falling flat.

Whistler, B.C.: The Whistler Film Festival enjoyed a busy four days and drew some 5,000 people to its ski resort hometown last month – on course, say organizers, with their five-year plan to put the fest near the top of the Canuck film circuit.

Vancouver: When the eyes of the world are focused on B.C. during the 2010 Winter Olympics, local film festival organizers want to make sure that there is more to look at than winter sports – and that’s Canadian films.

Vancouver: At the wrap of the 24th Vancouver International Film Festival, organizer Michael Francis declared to a sold-out Vogue Theatre that ‘this was the most successful festival ever.’

Vancouver: Melanie Friesen, producer of the Film and Television Trade Forum at the Vancouver International Film Festival, likens the four-day event to ‘a hothouse of learning and schmoozing’ for Western Canada’s TV and filmmaking community. And adding to the heat, this year, were the revamped master classes.

The Vancouver International Film Festival’s annual Trade Forum promises to bring top industry pros together with up-and-coming filmmaking stars to help celebrate its 20th anniversary, Sept. 28-30 in the new Vancouver International Film Centre.

VIFF’s Canadian Images is renowned as one of the most comprehensive showcases of Canadian films, and the program’s 2005 lineup lives up to that reputation. Canadian Images programmer Diane Burgess has this year culled a total of 96 titles from more than 700 submissions: 28 features (including six docs), eight mid-length docs and 60 shorts.

Quebec’s film industry had another hot summer, and several titles hope to keep the fire going when they screen to an English audience at VIFF. Appearing at the fest are: Jean-Marc Vallée’s summer box-office hit C.R.A.Z.Y., which won best Canadian film at TIFF; Louise Archambault’s family drama Familia, co-winner of best Canadian first feature at Toronto; Sébastien Rose’s award-winning tragicomedy Life with My Father; Bernard Émond’s poignant and haunting award winner La Neuvaine; and Ricardo Trogi’s heartwarming comedy about fatherhood, L’Horloge biologique.

B.C. writer/director Aubrey Nealon thought that Canadian Images programmer Diane Burgess was playing a joke on him when she called to tell him his feature A Simple Curve was opening this year’s program.

Five years ago, Alan Franey had a vision. Frustrated by abysmal office quarters and a lack of screens for non-mainstream movies, the director of the Vancouver International Film Festival decided that a new film center – run by VIFF’s non-profit society – would solve a lot of problems.

Four Canadian feature documentaries are making their world premieres at TIFF 2005, and they are all looking for an international audience. The lineup includes Allan King’s Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (in the Masters program; see sidebar right); Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, from Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen and Jessica Joy-Wise (Midnight Madness); Souvenir of Canada by Robin Neinstein; and Astra Taylor’s Zizek! (Real to Reel).