Building a state-of-the-art studio facility in Regina was a bit of a gamble, but it’s already paying off with a dramatic jump in local production. Meanwhile, Alberta may be looking to build a comparable studio in the Calgary area over the next two years, and the Manitoba government just purchased the province’s only all-season studio.

All of Vancouver’s major studio facilities are booked solid right through summer, a situation few would have anticipated six months ago, when the local production biz was in the middle of what appeared to be a serious slump.

Montreal’s film festival woes continue to send ripples of trouble right across the country, first in Halifax and, more recently, at home, where Claude Chamberlan, director and founder of the Festival du nouveau cinéma Montréal, up and left after more than 30 years with the festival.
Chamberlan’s departure, resulting from a conflict with the festival’s new general director André Lamy, has baffled observers and sent another tremor through the city’s already shaky festival scene.

The 12th annual Hot Docs, April 22 to May 1, marked the Toronto doc fest’s biggest and busiest year to date. Audiences grew, delegate numbers were up and, with documentaries becoming a hotter commodity for broadcasters and theatrical distributors internationally, market events were busier than ever.

Montreal: Producers Josée Mauffette and Jean Bureau have just wrapped on Montreal-based prodco Incendo Productions’ fifteenth MOW. The four-year-old company (formerly JB Media) – owned by Bureau and Stephen Greenberg – is gearing up for a busy production year with four additional MOWs in the works, as well as a one-hour action series, the company’s first international coproduction.

Two of Canada’s most esteemed directors will battle it out for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival as Atom Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies runs against David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. Both were chosen to screen in competition at next month’s fest, along with 18 other features selected from among more than 1,500 submissions.

Hot Docs is celebrating its 12th year with a new look, new industry events and an unusual pair of sports documentaries – one about a triumph, the other a tragedy.

Getting Canadians to watch homegrown films, to say nothing of an awards show for those films, is a struggle. However, the March 21 broadcast of the Genie Awards, hosted by Andrea Martin, attracted more than double the audience it did in 2004, the first year CHUM aired the awards.

Pending Canadian Television Fund approval, the 2005/06 season could see 11 one-hour dramas on Canadian airwaves, including new series such as CTV’s Whistler and Global’s Falcon Beach, as well as returning series such as This is Wonderland on CBC. A twelfth series, Charlie Jade, a new Canada/South Africa copro sci-fi series from CHUM, shot overseas and debuted this month. The three national nets have ordered a total of 221 hours of drama, including four new one-hour series, all evidence that the crisis in Canadian drama could be coming to an end.
Or is it?

The film and video tax credit in Manitoba could now cover more than half a production’s labor expenses.

Phil the Alien, Rob Stefaniuk’s no-budget comedy about the misadventures of an extraterrestrial barfly in northern Ontario, had a respectable first week at the box office, raking in almost $13,000 from four screens.

Carole Taylor announced her resignation as chair of CBC/Radio-Canada’s board of directors on March 14. She intends to enter provincial politics in her home province of British Columbia, where she will run for office in May. Taylor served as CBC chair for the past four years.