Calgary: Alberta Filmworks principals Jordy Randall, Tom Cox and Doug MacLeod have teamed up with Michael Jacobs of MarVista Entertainment, a U.S.-based distributor of dramatic and children’s television with offices in L.A., Boston and Barcelona, to provide a new boutique distribution option for Canadian producers.

Culture may not have featured prominently in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s victory speech, and Minister of Canadian Heritage Helene Chalifour Scherrer will not be returning to Parliament Hill, but when key cultural issues for the film and television industry do come up, they will be hard for the Liberals to ignore this time around, according to industry insiders.
The Liberals’ minority status in the House of Commons may be the best result for industry groups, many of which were concerned about the fate of the film and television industry under a Conservative government.

While many Canadian producers struggle to find funds to make homegrown television, broadcasters are reaping record gains.

Edmonton: Edmonton-based Panacea Entertainment has just wrapped principal photography on Catching the Chameleon, a one-hour documentary for Craig Media/A-Channel, written by Edmonton’s Scot Morison.
It is the first production from the new prodco, which Josh Miller, Panacea president and a former executive at Minds Eye Pictures, formed last August after Minds Eye closed its Alberta office in summer 2003.

What the Conservative Party didn’t say in their election platform may have helped spark the fire, but what they did say behind closed doors has certainly fueled it.
A leaked Conservative Party document, ‘Policy Briefing Note for Candidates,’ reveals that despite neglecting to take a public stance on culture in the official platform, it would appear that the newly formed party does have some definite plans for Canadian media interests.

Julian, Ricky, Bubbles and the Sunnyvale gang have taken Topsail Entertainment and Trailer Park Productions straight to the top, with the season four finale of Trailer Park Boys coming in as the highest-rated English-Canadian specialty show in five years.

With Ontario producers increasingly critical of their provincial government’s waning support for film and television, Manitoba producers continue to benefit from their government’s growing support.

After overcoming serious financial threats during prep, mystery thriller The River King, a $16-million feature starring Edward Burns (Confidence) and Jennifer Ehle (Sunshine), wrapped eight weeks of principal photography in Halifax May 4, but the U.K./Canada copro still isn’t in the clear. Turns out it isn’t quite British enough.

Last spring, when actresses Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh and Olympia Dukakis arrived on location in South Africa to shoot Thom Fitzgerald’s latest feature 3 Needles, their star power didn’t carry much weight in the remote Xhosa village, where most of the locals had never even seen a television, let alone been to a movie theater.

Production on Fade Out, a feature film written and directed by Michael Christofer (Gia) and starring Billy Bob Thornton, slated to start shooting in Halifax June 28, has been halted after leading lady Kate Beckinsale dropped out.

A new study confirms that licence fees paid by English-Canadian broadcasters are among the lowest in the world.
Through the Looking Glass, an independent study authored by research consultant Kirwan Cox, compares Canadian broadcast licence fees to those in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. – previously unavailable statistical information.

Trudeau: The Prequel, initially intended to be a fall 2003 shoot with Colm Feore in the lead and Jerry Ciccoritti helming both an English- and French-language version, ended up going to camera in Montreal May 16 as an English-only production without either talent.