If you want access to the latest information and statistics on the current state of Canada’s drama crisis, you’d better be at Banff. The Canadian Coalition of Audio-visual Unions will present a new study focusing on 10-point, English-language drama on June 13, day two of the 2005 Banff World Television Festival.

Crossover between the interactive and broadcast sectors is ramping up like never before, and so it only makes sense that a congregation of broadcasters is a place where the new media industry should also be.

French-Canadian period drama Le Survenant continues its box-office domination among domestic films. By the end of May, after five weeks on Quebec screens, the Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm release neared $3 million in receipts. Directed by Le Dernier tunnel’s Erik Canuel and starring Jean-Nicolas Verreault, the Vision 4 production adapts a classic Quebec novel about a stranger who shakes up a turn-of-the-century town.

CTV made ratings history on May 20 with its broadcast of the two-hour season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Nearly five million Canadians tuned in to watch ‘Grave Danger,’ the special episode helmed by Quentin Tarantino.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period May 20-26 and television ratings for the period May 23-29.

It might be in bad taste. It might not. Almost no one has seen it. The real question about Deadly – the much-discussed movie about the crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka – is, given the many raw nerves it has touched and its blizzard of bad press, will anyone in Canada actually buy it?

While the Banff World Television Festival may be the place ‘where great television is born,’ panels at this year’s conference will help guide producers about business opportunities here and abroad and prepare them for upcoming shifts in the industry.

More than 240 shorts from over 30 countries will be on display when the 11th Worldwide Short Film Festival kicks off June 14-19 in Toronto.

The CFTPA has elected Ira Levy of Toronto’s Breakthrough Films & Television as its new chairperson. Levy, who takes over from Laszlo Barna, says he is ‘delighted and thrilled’ by the job and that, as chair, he will work to see the Canadian Television Fund reformed.

* David Lazzarato, formerly of Allstream, has replaced Judson Martin as EVP and CFO of Alliance Atlantis Communications. Martin recently stepped down for health reasons.

The aptly named series The Collector was the big winner at this year’s Leo Awards, walking off with 10 trophies for its first season, including those for best dramatic series, best direction, cinematography and nods for best male and female guest performances.

Show business is big with folks out west, according to a new poll that shows resounding support among British Columbians for the provincial film industry.