Who are we, beneath brand names, ethnic designations and man-made addictions, and how do we relate to – or, really, see – our families or broader society? Four Canadian features in TIFF2006’s Contemporary World Cinema program look to digest these universal issues.

The latest offering from Allan King headlines a half-dozen Canadian feature docs making their world premieres at TIFF2006, up from four last year. A total of 10 Canuck feature docs will unspool at the fest.

TIFF2006 will feature a retrospective of the short works of Norman McLaren (above), who created some of the National Film Board’s best-known animated and experimental films. The 76-minute collection – which screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year – will feature the filmmaker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Blinkity Blank, Academy Award winner Neighbours, Le Merle, Hen Hop and others. McLaren died in 1987 at age 72. The program screens on Sept. 8.

The term ‘unofficial’ has recurringly been used to characterize the market at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Emerging Canuck filmmakers will once more enjoy unique exposure to veterans of the film biz in an array of industry events at TIFF2006.

The nine films in TIFF2006’s Canada First! program – a showcase for rookie Canuck feature directors, or those presenting at TIFF for the first time – are driven by misfit characters in false or contrived environments.

A ‘living cinema’ event, an exhibit of lightboxes glowing on black walls, a sequential photo display and a book launch featuring video projections highlight the TIFF2006 Canadian Retrospective on the multifaceted Peter Mettler.

These days it’s par for the course for a feature film to have an accompanying website.

While the Internet is already a well-established platform for movie marketing, exploitation through mobile handsets remains in its infancy. There is not much offered in the way of mobile promotional efforts associated with films screening at TIFF, but the potential of hand-held devices is being explored by the festival itself in a couple of initiatives.

After surpassing the $4.5-million mark at the Quebec box office in record time for a Quebecois film, Bon Cop, Bad Cop is looking for similarly boffo results in English Canada.
The bilingual buddy action flick by director Érik Canuel had, by Aug. 16, brought in a total of $4.7 million and counting, after 14 days.

Alliance Atlantis Communications finally confirmed that it has received a ‘non-binding proposal’ from British firm Marwyn Investments for its troubled Motion Picture Distribution arm, after skirting the issue during conference calls announcing the second-quarter results for both itself and MPD earlier this month.

Next month’s Ottawa International Animation Festival (Sept. 20-24) will feature the premiere of the CG short Vissi d’arte by local director John Mark Seck. The 4:20 toon takes its name and inspiration from an opera by Giacomo Puccini and plays along with 14 other titles in the Canadian Showcase