Producers Mike Frislev and Chad Oakes of Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures are not accustomed to profiting from the likes of Hollywood’s most famous madame, but as producers of the recent US$5-million TV movie based on the life of Heidi Fleiss, they were willing to make an exception.

The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Arts’ 60th anniversary in 2003 marked a distinct change in direction for the performers union, as it reorganized to address new challenges facing its 21,000 members in an increasingly uncertain domestic production industry.

In addition to presenting Sonja Smits with its award of excellence (see story, p.19), ACTRA Toronto will also be honoring Canada’s top talent with its 2004 awards for outstanding performance.

Sonja Smits is being presented with ACTRA Toronto’s Award of Excellence at a Feb. 20 ceremony. And while the actor’s impressive volume of work has made her one of Canada’s most recognizable talents, the award also acknowledges her lesser-known role as a passionate activist for indigenous film and television production, which has seen her involved with several ACTRA initiatives.

The traditional recipe for primetime success usually includes good-looking people with exciting careers in some sexy location, not a bunch of nobodys doing nothing in the middle of nowhere. But a local gas station in small-town Saskatchewan is exactly what it took to get more than a million Canadians to tune in to indigenous television.

The final details for establishing an official coproduction treaty between Canada and India, the world’s largest producer of film and television, are being ironed out, with the official treaty expected in the next six months.

While many production companies and post houses working in traditional film and TV struggle to find ways to turn a profit, others are finding success in the large-format realm.

Halifax-based Big Motion Pictures recently finished shooting its latest dramatic series, Snakes & Ladders, for CBC. The six-part series will be broadcast in HD, marking the first drama from CBC to be aired in the increasingly popular digital format.

By the final night of a 27-day shoot, the cast and crew of Don McKellar’s latest feature, Childstar, have been to a different location almost every day, faced gripping cold, freezing rain and a winter wind that made shooting on Toronto’s lakeshore almost impossible. But what could be more fitting for a Canadian film about shooting a Hollywood blockbuster in the Great White North?

‘The Newsroom ain’t what it used to be.’ At least that’s what Globe and Mail critic John Doyle said about CBC’s third take on Ken Finkleman’s TV news satire and the Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings seem to agree. But it was just one of three new big-ticket shows the pubcaster premiered Jan. 12.

It took a move away from the Toronto International Film Festival, and in fact a move away from Canada altogether, to make Noah Cowan the perfect candidate for codirector and eventually director of TIFF.

Norman Jewison’s The Statement brought in $40,000 in the 10 days following its Dec. 12 release on three Toronto screens.