Lee goes for gold

Montreal: Radio-Canada leads the nominations for the upcoming Prix Gemeaux with its cancelled comedy about four drag queens, Cover Girl, topping the list with 12 nods, including best comedy series and two best director noms, for François Bouvier and Louis Choquette. The sitcom by Sphère Média Plus is followed closely by SRC’s nightclub drama Minuit, le soir and its mystery series La Chambre No. 13 with 10 each.

Alliance Atlantis has made its long-awaited move and put its film distribution arm on the block, announcing on Oct. 20 that it had completed a strategic review of its 51%-owned Motion Picture Distribution and given it the green light ‘to explore ownership alternatives.’

Noted documentarian Lindalee Tracey lost her long battle with cancer earlier this month and died at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital just as a long-developing pet project went to camera for CBC.

Trailer Park Boys The Movie was still going strong more than two weeks into its theatrical run – and had grossed $3 million-plus at the box office by the end of the Oct. 20 weekend.

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.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period Oct. 13-19, 2006 and DVD sales in Canada for the period Oct. 2-8, 2006.

For the second time, Adam Beach seems poised to break out in Hollywood. His turn as a troubled U.S. Marine in director Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, which opened Oct. 20, is already generating Oscar buzz, and could see Beach trading his Ottawa digs for the Hollywood Hills.

Vancouver: Mystic Ball, a sports doc by director Greg Hamilton, edged out the competition at the close of the Vancouver International Film Festival on Oct. 13, winning the prize for most popular Canadian feature over heavy contenders Fido, by B.C.-based Andrew Currie, and Away from Her, Sarah Polley’s feature directorial debut.

New CBC shows were slow out of the gate as the end of fall looms and the networks gear up for November sweeps.

Top 20 TV Programs tracks ratings for the top 20 television shows in Canada for the period Oct. 9-15, 2006.

With a major CRTC review on their doorstep and new technologies still on the rise, 2006 is going out as a watershed year for Canada’s private broadcasters, and will see both developments front and center at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention in Vancouver, Nov. 5-7.