Unlike VisionTV, which is multi-faith, digital channel, Salt + Light Television provides a Catholic-specific take on entertainment, news and information. Its challenge, following a recent staff expansion and move to a larger facility in downtown Toronto, is to establish itself as more than a purveyor of fire and brimstone. Launched last December, the station’s demographic has skewed older, but it is going after younger eyeballs. In fact, 80% of its staff is aged 20 to 35.

The past couple of Gemini Awards ceremonies were marked by grave industry concerns over the future of dramatic programming in this country. But this year, the clouds seem to be breaking somewhat. Could it be there is new optimism in the air?

In a surprising move, Andy Sykes, former VP sales and marketing at Toybox, has left the company, which was purchased earlier this year by Technicolor, for chief rival Deluxe. Sykes is Deluxe’s new VP business development, a role he has been serving since early September, although the shop did not officially announce it until six weeks later.

The dramatic series Fortier and Grande Ourse lead all nominees going into the 19th Prix Gemeaux, celebrating the best in Quebec television. Both shows received 15 noms, as finalists were announced at a press conference in Montreal on Oct. 14 by the Quebec branch of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Toronto post house Magnetic North’s acquisition of rival shop Casablanca is five months old, and the newly formed entity is busily looking to reap the rewards of that consolidation.

With all the takeovers, mergers, bankruptcies and reorgs that have marked the Canadian post-production scene of late, few developments come as a surprise. One exception might be the news that Andy Sykes, VP sales and marketing at Toronto’s Toybox, had jumped ship to main rival Deluxe. The fact that Sykes was a cofounder and VP of Toybox parent company Command Post & Transfer, which Technicolor recently purchased, makes the move especially unexpected.

Box-office-topping sci-fi actioner Resident Evil: Apocalypse, an 80/20 Canada/U.K. copro, not only shot in Toronto, but also gave several Canuck shops the chance to show their stuff on the film’s extensive FX. The likes of Mr. X, C.O.R.E Digital Pictures and Frantic Films contributed towards Canada’s 60% FX quota on the Resident Evil sequel, which has heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) on the run from the evil Umbrella Corp.’s Nemesis creation in Raccoon City, a town of zombies.

The third annual Directors Guild of Canada awards showered more accolades on Les Invasions barbares. The much-lauded feature drama took home prizes for direction of a feature film for Denys Arcand, as well as for team achievement, at the show held Oct. 2 in Toronto.

While the costs of producing 35mm feature films are creeping prohibitively high for many producers, high-definition and other digital video formats have provided a legitimate alternative, while the more economical 16mm and Super 16 formats seem to be making a resurgence.

Iconoclastic director Bruce McDonald is coming to the Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax film festivals with a new feature, The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, and with something to prove.
The drama, produced by Vancouver’s Force Four Entertainment, is loosely based on the sensational 1995 case of a female jurist in B.C. who had an affair with accused killer Peter Gill while serving on his trial.

NFB storms Ottawa fest

Get your rest, stock up on eye drops, throat lozenges, PowerBars and Java beans, get out your celebrity-gawking glasses and put on your best schmooze face – TIFF is coming.
The 29th annual Toronto International Film Festival, which announced its final lineup Aug. 24, gets underway for 10 days starting Sept. 9 with opening-night gala Being Julia, starring Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons and produced by Robert Lantos.