A History of Violence took four statues – for best film, director, sound editing and picture editing – at the fifth annual Directors Guild of Canada Awards on Oct. 14 in Toronto, beating out Atom Egoyan’s sexy noir Where the Truth Lies in all but one of its nominated categories.

Despite at one time being hailed the best-ever Canadian film, Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine will get a Quebec-only DVD release of just 2,500 to 3,000 units on Nov. 7 from Christal Films. Marketing will selectively target video shops in la belle province. Special features include A Chairy Tale, a 10-minute short Jutra did with animator Norman McLaren.

It’s no exaggeration that most would-be producers in this country were left out in the cold prior to the emergence of the Canadian Television Fund in 1996.

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Canada’s highest-rated comedy series looks to extend its success into home video with the DVD release of season three on Oct. 3. The three-disc set will be on par with the first two seasons as far as unit volume, says Kerry Kupecz, director of marketing and promotion at Toronto-based Video Services Corporation, which also streets the sophomore year of Gemini comedy series nominee Kenny vs. Spenny on Oct. 24.

Amidst a corporate reshuffling and a slow year in foreign service production in Toronto, post giant Technicolor is relying increasingly on Canadian productions.

A unique graphic transition in the opening sequence of the Michael Douglas feature The Sentinel and the astonishing closing pull-away shot to a Tokyo skyline in the forthcoming Brad Pitt starrer Babel provide only a glimpse of the work that’s come out of Toronto VFX shop Intelligent Creatures.

Starting this year with its 21st annual edition, the Gemini Awards are taking a cue from the Junos, crisscrossing the country in roadshow format. Canada’s national television awards show will host its 2006 final-night gala from the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC on Nov. 4.

Some six months after it played to mixed results in theaters, the Maurice Richard biopic The Rocket debuted on home video Sept. 19 through Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm – with a minimal marketing push in English Canada, but heftier support by TV ads in Quebec.

Across the nine major news categories, the CBC claimed 31 Gemini nominations out of a possible 39 (up from 27 in 2005), including sweeps in best direction, best news magazine segment and best host. CBC’s the fifth estate, with nine noms, has more than double the next-highest broadcaster total – Global’s four noms – while Citytv avoided being shut out for a second straight year with a pair of noms, for newscast and best reportage. CBC’s dominance was largely unaffected by the surprise absence of CTV News.

Back in May, Vancouver’s Emily Carr Institute bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Letters on Walter Murch, the legendary Hollywood editor and sound designer with three Academy Awards to his name. That he would be celebrated in Canada is not so far-fetched – although his parents met in New York, both were born and raised in Toronto, where his father was a well-known artist who studied at the Ontario College of Art.

No one is better positioned to lead the charge in the D-cinema revolution now underway in the U.S. than Christie Digital Systems.