Lifetime MOW takes advantage of regional credit

Halifax: Paul Donovan recently completed principal photography on The Conclave, an ambitious MOW that takes place in Rome in 1458, five years after the fall of Constantinople to Islam. The ex-Salter Street principal executive produces with Studio Hamburg Produktion’s Sytze van der Laan.
The historical drama, written by Donovan, is based on a secret diary kept by Pope Pius II. It focuses on a young Spanish cardinal and future pope, Rodrigo Borgia, who lives in Rome at a time when the Spanish suffered considerable violence at the hands of Romans. When his uncle, Pope Calixtus III, dies, Borgia is locked in the Vatican with 18 other men who form the conclave and are charged with selecting the next pope.

Hockey history shoots in New Brunswick

Observers may have a hard time differentiating between this year’s Genie Awards and the Prix Jutra, the Quebec film awards that were handed out Feb. 20 in Montreal.

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Followers of Canadian film scratched their heads when this year’s Genie Award nominees for best actress were announced and Annette Bening’s name was not heard, despite the fact that her film Being Julia is up for best motion picture. At the root of this seeming contradiction is a complicated rule drawn up by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, which runs the awards.

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For its second consecutive airing of the Genie Awards (March 21), CHUM Television is pulling out all the stops to try to make the show an Oscars-style event for Canadian viewers. But how will the broadcaster draw eyeballs when the public is largely unfamiliar with most of the nominated films, the star power is limited and the country’s audience is clearly divided along language lines?

While CHUM will be doing all it can to promote this year’s nominees before and during the awards broadcast, to be emceed by SCTV alum Andrea Martin, the program will also look back on the Genies’ first 25 years.