When the Canadian Independent Film Caucus was first organized by a group of 10 Toronto filmmakers in 1983, there were few television slots devoted to documentaries, no specialty channels and only a handful of film festivals celebrating documentaries in Canada….

Following are this year’s Hot Docs nominees:…

Canada’s conventional broadcasters spent $485 million on Canadian programs last year, a 4% increase over ’97, according to new data from StatsCan….

Montreal: Distributor Alliance Atlantis Releasing says it’s hunting down a brand new demographic, teens and young adults 18 to 25, as it preps for the April 23 launch of David Cronenberg’s near-future science-fiction thriller eXistenZ….

Vancouver: In a surprise announcement this week, Rainmaker Entertainment Group of Vancouver said it is ‘in discussions’ to sell Vancouver-based Pacific Motion Pictures after owning it only nine months….

Vancouver: The week of April 6 was particularly bleak for Minds Eye Pictures of Regina….

French-language independent filmmakers in Quebec are getting a boost from Telefilm Canada’s provincial office: it is setting aside $1 million within its French-language feature film fund envelope for projects with budgets of $1 million or less….

The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters is suggesting a merger between itself and a committee of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association representing television distributors….

*Devine deal…

Montreal: Mels Cite du Cinema president Mel Hoppenheim and partner Michel Trudel, president of film equipment rental firm Locations Michel Trudel, have announced plans to build a 66,000-square-foot studio complex in the industrial Technoparc in south central Montreal. Industry veteran Hoppenheim…

Our admiration and empathy, certainly, go out to the folks at Telefilm who stare down a somewhat ‘existential’ problem at this time of year: $64.5 million in Equity Investment Program requests compared with $24.5 million available to give out to drama…

Montreal: Early word from mip-tv points to several new international partnership agreements with Canadian producers and broadcasters. Cinar Corporation, the Kratt Brothers and pbs have announced a deal to produce new episodes of Zoboomafoo, the popular preschool wildlife series from Martin…