ThinkFilm is rolling the dice with its biggest-ever release while Sony Pictures Classics has Oscar hopes as Norman Jewison’s The Statement opened in theaters on Dec. 12.
The suspense drama, the Toronto-born director/producer’s 24th feature, stars Michael Caine as a Frenchman with a past of abetting Nazis who finds himself on the run from a mysterious assassin. The film, with a reported budget of $27 million, is a copro between Robert Lantos’ Serendipity Point Films, France’s Odessa Films and the U.K.’s Company Pictures.

For the past five years, the prevailing wisdom has been that by 2006/07, U.S. broadcasters would have switched over to digital television, and Canadian ‘casters would follow 18 to 24 months thereafter. But today, the North American Broadcasters Association is pushing that forecast by up to six years.

The folks at the Washington, DC-based National Association of Broadcasters are sure working hard for your registration dollars for NAB2004 in Las Vegas, April 17-22. The organization’s latest initiative is the Individual Creative Excellence Awards, for those in the post and production fields.

Some say your 40s are your best decade, because you have – hopefully – achieved a certain level of success and you proceed with wisdom. Well, the same might be said of Deluxe Toronto, which in March will turn the big four-oh (including its film lab’s previous incarnation as Filmhouse).

Finale launches Nitris suite

The National Association of Broadcasters is the annual powwow of free, over-the-air U.S. ‘casters, but it is just as renowned for its trade show, reputedly the world’s largest electronic audio/video media exhibition. Now, starting with NAB2004 in Las Vegas, the show will give post-production professionals pointers on how to ring those bells and blow those whistles on the newest pieces of gear on display.

A winner-take-all showdown is looming at the CBC between the two unions that currently represent its non-supervising and management employees outside of Quebec and Moncton, NB.

The winners of the best drama and comedy series awards at the 18th annual Gemini Awards were both surprises. One is a first-time winner, the other garnered its sixth such prize.
The Eleventh Hour, the Alliance Atlantis/CTV drama about the goings-on behind the scenes at an investigative news program, usurped the best drama honors from cop show Da Vinci’s Inquest, which won the award the past four years running.

Emmy win Critical

Calibre’s Foolproof F/X

Doug McClement, chief recording engineer at Toronto’s LiveWire Remote Recorders, was part of the team that helped bring the music alive for viewers tuning into the Rolling Stones SARS concert that took place at Downsview Air Force Base on July 30.

The Canadian production industry is an ever-evolving animal, and the Canadian Film Centre likes to keep the makeup of its programs fluid enough to be able to adapt to changes in the biz.