The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period March 11-17 and television ratings for the period March 14-20.

Carole Taylor announced her resignation as chair of CBC/Radio-Canada’s board of directors on March 14. She intends to enter provincial politics in her home province of British Columbia, where she will run for office in May. Taylor served as CBC chair for the past four years.

Cuts at Telefilm

Moritz de Hadeln seems to be perfectly and oddly pleased with his new job at the Montreal International Film Festival – a top programming spot that puts the Swiss-born festival vet in the middle of the three-way slap fight that has broken out between MIFF and its cross-town rivals, the World Film Festival and the Festival du Nouveau Cinema.

Some good news for the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma – the fest again got a $200,000 cheque from Telefilm Canada this month and a matching contribution from SODEC. The fest has been consistently backed by both funding agencies. It drew $200,000 from each last year, enjoying a bump from its usual $150,000.

* Andrew Williamson will join Vancouver-based Keatley Film as director of development in June. Previously, he worked in industrial relations and policy at the B.C. branch of the CFTPA and was seconded by the B.C. Ministry of Labour to assist Justice David Tysoe in last year’s labor inquiry into the B.C. film industry.

The Department of Canadian Heritage is preparing to rethink its copro policies, and will meet in the spring with stakeholders to ‘review and refine’ Ottawa’s role in the coproduction process.

Peer-to-peer, Napster-like trading of TV shows is starting to get a toehold in the culture. It’s worth noting now while it’s still just a toe, because the whole foot, and maybe the leg, is going to get a hold within this decade.

Toronto: Emerging from development and financial limbo, newly reformed Noble House Entertainment is gearing up for what looks to be an ambitious production cycle – shooting four to six features over the next 24 months, while at the same time distancing itself from the (Hmm, how to put this delicately?) direct-to-video pedigree of its principals.
The company is led by Damian Lee, a been-around-the-block producer of some 20 films stretching back 20 years, including Captured with Dolph Lundgren, the last of the five Death Wishes, and 1996’s Electra with Shannon Tweed.

Capri in gear for Villeneuve feature

Busy summer for B.C.

Vancouver: On March 16, Vancouver’s Paperny Films sent a cut of the one-hour $250,000 Discovery Health special Thirst for Life to the Canadian Television Fund – hoping that the project would actually get the $50,000 in funding promised from the CTF in 2004.
Like other documentary projects that have fallen under strict scrutiny from the CTF, the Paperny project, about the health benefits of red wine, may not get its funding after all.