At the fore-Front of Craig’s nets

When Quebec director Lea Pool faced post-production on The Blue Butterfly, her biggest production to date, she turned to Michel Arcand, the editor on most of her previous features, to cut the piece.

The American Cinema Editors organization gave out its annual Eddie Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 15, and a student from Sheridan College out of Oakville, ON was among the winners.

Ottawa: Funding concerns always dominate the conversation when producers get together, but anxieties reached a fever pitch at Prime Time in Ottawa 2004, the annual powwow of the CFTPA and APFTQ, Jan. 28-30.

The Motion Picture Sound Editors organization has announced its 2003 Golden Reel Awards nominations, and several Canucks figure among them.

Private funding will contribute more to the film, TV and new media industries this year than the federal government will to the Canadian Television Fund.

The Canadian news from the Academy Award nominations was better than expected, with Montreal director Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions picking up not only a nom for best foreign-language film, but for Arcand’s original screenplay as well. Meanwhile, Canada/Belgium/ France copro The Triplets of Belleville received noms for best animated feature and best original song.

Cinar Corporation has announced that should the proposed sale of all outstanding shares to an investor group headed by former Nelvana executives Michael Hirsh and Toper Taylor and TD Capital Canadian Private Equity Partners go through, president and CEO Stuart Snyder will leave the company.

Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares may have the Oscar clout, but Jean-Francois Pouliot’s La Grande seduction leads the pack in the recently announced Prix Jutra nominations, the film awards in the movies’ home province of Quebec.

Long before the ubiquitous camcorder, home movies were captured on motion picture film. And now the documentary special Canada’s War: The Lost Colour Archives, covering the World War II era, will surely surprise viewers by showing not only how popular home movies were 60 years ago, but how many of those movies are in glorious color.

Discovery Channel Canada is embarking on its most ambitious project to date with Race to Mars, which will present all the excitement of a manned voyage to the Red Planet in high-definition. The $12-million endeavor, with about one-third of the budget coming from Discovery, encompasses three parts: a four-hour docudrama, a six-hour reality series and a six-hour doc series.

UNQUESTIONABLY, Kodak 35mm stock still rules as the premier format of choice on prestigious motion pictures. The list of 2004 Academy Award-nominated films shot on Kodak includes Cold Mountain, House of Sand and Fog, The Last Samurai and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Recent Canadian productions originated on Kodak include the Lyla Films comedy Camping Sauvage and Being Julia, coproduced by Serendipity Point Films.