The Vancouver Film School is going into business with entertainment lawyer Jeff Young, who will serve as department head for a new diploma program launching in March that will focus on preparing students for what the school refers to as the ‘new era of the business professional.’

Not only did Les Boys IV hold off a resilient Maurice Richard for four weeks in a row since its opening Dec. 9, but it elbowed out Peter Jackson’s King Kong for top spot on New Year’s weekend in Quebec, taking in $419,732 on 101 screens to reach a total of just over $3 million, according to distributor Christal Films.

Film romance set within the chaos of war (think Gone with the Wind, Casablanca and The English Patient) has always resonated with film audiences drawn in by the fragile human story placed within firing range of inhuman violence.

Although this past year saw the continued evolution of both Kodak and Fujifilm’s motion picture stocks and the emergence of additional DV capture formats such as HDV, the watershed news may just be on the exhibition side.

At the recent Digital Video Expo in Los Angeles this past December, Panasonic unveiled the AG-HVX200, long-awaited big brother to the AG-DVX100, a lightweight SD camera launched three years ago that allowed an affordable way to shoot in true 24p. In addition to shooting HD in various flavors including 1080p, the biggest revelation from the 200 is its use of solid-state technology – similar to digital still cameras – to allow capture directly onto removable cards called P2 (Professional Plug-in).

Few executives have commanded a position of power on par with Cineplex Entertainment president and CEO Ellis Jacob, Playback’s 2005 Person of the Year. His company’s surprising $500-million midsummer acquisition of its larger rival, the Viacom-owned Famous Players, has vaulted the Onex-owned exhibition house into rarefied territory.

August 2004: Cineplex Galaxy president and CEO Ellis Jacob gets wind of the potential sale of Viacom’s Famous Players theater assets. He goes down to meet with Viacom in New York as a representative of parent company Onex Corporation. Viacom says it is considering the sale, but requires two things from a potential buyer: ‘Certainty and cash’

*Excerpted primarily from Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Film, edited by Wyndham Wise and published by the University of Toronto Press, 2001.

Exhibitor Cineplex Entertainment is testing Chicken Little, Disney’s first CG feature toon, in 3D on a modest two screens in Canada, compared to 83 in the U.S.

Cookie Jar goes Boing Boing

Since its creation in 1995, the Quebec funding agency Société de développement des entreprises culturelles has been instrumental in growing Quebec cinema.

While it likely won’t beat Hockey Night in Canada in the ratings, this year’s Gemini Awards on Global Television could position the national TV awards ceremony more in step with Canuck pop culture and help put names to the faces on Canadian primetime.