Ottawa: No one can say CBC executive director of network programming Slawko Klymkiw is not a good sport.

Here’s a plan to keep the mood upbeat despite a bad-news year as hundreds of Canadian producers, broadcasters and other industry bigwigs gather for the annual CFTPA conference: Hold the conference in Ottawa in February, throw an opening night cocktail party at the legislature and line delegates up outside for 40 minutes in -30 degree temperatures on windswept Parliament Hill.

Anyone looking for the direction Robert Lantos and Jeff Sackman plan to take their new partnership at Thinkfilm need look no further than Sackman’s previous success at CFP and ultimately Lions Gate, which acquired CFP in 1997.
In fact, one need look no further than Sackman’s present venture at Thinkfilm even before Lantos acquired a 50% stake in the Toronto-based distributor. That’s because Thinkfilm, with an office in New York, was set up to play both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

During some of the slower weeks of the year I find myself looking up and down Playback’s news lineup for something – anything – compelling to put on the front page, and wondering whether I’ll finally have to resort to running a picture of myself in a Speedo after a cold dip just to fill the space.

The client may be Mini, but expect big things from the spot that revived the classic automobile brand in Canada now that awards season is upon us. Start with our own Top Spots.

For as long as anyone can remember, we’ve been reporting on agencies ignoring Canadian directors. Anyone who reads OTS on a regular basis would justifiably develop a theory that there is a crisis afoot.

With Industry Minister Allan Rock officially calling for a review on foreign investment restrictions in the telecom sector late last year, the lines are being drawn for what could prove to be a long, fierce battle within Canada’s media sector.

Before joining Playback, I spent time working as a stringer out of New York for Marketing Magazine and a couple of years writing and editing for Strategy Magazine.

Ararat, Bollywood/Hollywood, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Atanarjuat: Canadian tales told by Canadians. But these represent something more. A paradigm shift, perhaps, in the content and in how we tell our tales? Certainly, these are not variations on Strange Brew or Goin’ Down The Road.

With a Directors Guild of Canada statuette, awarded in October for helming Rare Birds, resting in his trophy case and an unprecedented two MOWs premiering Dec. 15 simultaneously in Canada and the U.S., Christmas has come early for Sturla Gunnarsson. Add to that a possible best director Genie win, and we could easily dub 2002 ‘The Year of the Gunnarsson.’

To borrow from Chapter One, paragraph one, of the Handbook of All-Purpose Cliches in a Post-Recessionary Economy: The year past has been a roller coaster ride. Except in the case of commercial production it’s been an inverted roller coaster: all the exhilaration came when the ride was going up.

Having managed to survive the dot-com meltdown and a lingering advertising recession, Toronto-based adbeast is preparing for its first foray into the U.S. According to head of business development William Cranor, the company hopes to have its first L.A.-based sales agent set up early in the New Year.
Adbeast has grown its client list from 11 in January to more than 35, a roll that includes Bensimon Byrne D’Arcy, Cossette Communication-Marketing, Radke Films, Spy Films and Flashcut.
‘We’re in a really good position here and we’re looking to make our play in the U.S.,’ says Cranor, who adds adbeast’s U.S. rollout is about six months behind due to the economic uncertainties. ‘Everything is predicated on financing,’ he says. ‘We had to hunker down, pull up our boot straps and take care of our Canadian clients.’