Stardom and cell phone calls follow country music star Steve Wilkinson on a fishing trip in the second season (10 x 30) of The Wilkinsons, set to air next month on CMT. The reality series by Henry Less Productions follows the musical family as they settle into their new homestead in rural Belleville, ON

Forty years ago, in an era remembered for Expo ’67, Trudeaumania and the rise of Canadian nationalism, the federal Liberals decided to fund a new organization designed to ‘foster and promote the development of a feature film industry in Canada.’

Wayne Clarkson assumed the role of Telefilm Canada executive director in January 2005, taking over from Richard Stursberg, who bolted to take over as head of CBC TV. Clarkson came in with impressive credentials, as former chief of the Canadian Film Centre, the Ontario Film Development Corporation and the Toronto film festival.

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David Miller and Steven Bray of Poorman’s Productions recently wrapped the drama Amal, the feature directorial debut of Richie Mehta. The film, slated for a fall release, stars Rupinder Nagra as an auto rickshaw driver in India whose hard life takes an unexpected turn. Miller writes here about Telefilm’s encouragement in helping the young production team overcome great challenges to get the film made.

The following 12 features are listed by Telefilm as the most commercially successful it has backed since 2001, when it began tracking such data with the inception of the Canada Feature Film Fund’s 5% box-office target. If you haven’t noticed, all these titles are from Quebec, with Mambo Italiano in English and Bon Cop, Bad Cop bilingual.