Larry Kent has run afoul of censors again as his latest film, The Hamster Cage, has been shut out of the Shanghai International Film Festival following a screening by Chinese officials.

Production houses Decode Entertainment of Toronto and The Halifax Film Company have come together under a newly formed umbrella company, DHX Media, which they plan to take public next year.

Gloomy weather, it appears, helped keep Quebecers indoors and in cinemas over the Victoria Day long weekend, which saw the drama Délivrez-moi enjoy a healthy average of $2,587 on 33 screens. This, despite warnings from Quebec box-office tracker Cineac that the province’s receipts are falling behind those of last year.

Just for Laughs Gags, the seven-year-old show spawned by the Montreal comedy festival, has sold six half-hour episodes to ABC in the U.S.

Though short films are a great way to create a calling card, getting them seen is awfully difficult.

Discovery Channel and Montreal’s Galafilm Productions are confident that fascination with the planet Mars and its exploration will translate into not one, but two hit shows.

Montreal – Though the title evokes a children’s story, the feature Les Trois p’tits cochons (Three Little Pigs) deals with adult themes, peering into the lives of three brothers as they drift into extra-marital affairs.

Two reports on the events leading up to the famously failed New Montreal FilmFest have arrived at two dramatically different conclusions – with the Quebec government coming down hard on Telefilm Canada and SODEC for mismanagement, while, in its own report, Telefilm insists it did nothing wrong.

Blood has sticking power at the Canadian box office, if Silent Hill’s track record is any indication. The horror movie, based on the popular video game of the same name, maintained its top spot among Canadian films at the domestic box office, taking in $406,000 on the May 5 weekend, according to its domestic distrib Odeon Films.

Deepa Mehta’s dramatic feature Water is turning into one of the Canadian success stories of the year, following a wave of releases in the U.S. and overseas.
Producer David Hamilton says he is ‘thrilled’ by the response. ‘I’m not surprised, because I think the film is so strong,’ Hamilton says. ‘This is a very audience-friendly film.’

Two new sitcoms are garnering solid ratings, with hopes running high about their futures.

For Derek Elliott, the move made perfect sense. Since 1995, the president and CEO of the Toronto-based Elliott Management Group (EMI) has been managing the Sun Village Resort & Spa in the Dominican Republic, a resort he launched that’s popular with wealthy tourists.