The 2004 Atlantic Film Festival kicks off nine days in Halifax Sept. 17 with the largest lineup in the festival’s 24-year history, as well as new programs and industry events.

The way Tammy Frick sees it, there is a lot of promise in the film scene of northern Ontario, but there is also a great deal of work that needs to be done.

Atopia launches distrib arm

Allan King is one of Canada’s most highly respected filmmakers, with numerous award-winning documentaries and feature films to his credit including Warrendale, One Night Stand, Silence of the North and Dying at Grace.

In the last issue of Playback, I suggested that Telefilm’s mandate of creating a system whereby Canadian films account for 5% of the domestic box office by 2006 was unrealistic.

Vancouver: Keatley Films is cooking up a little promotional innovation as a side dish to its new six-episode CHUM restaurant drama Godiva’s, set in Vancouver.
Depending on what’s on the menu for Canadian drama in 2005, Check, Please is planned as a six-episode talent search that will run concurrently with Godiva’s in January across the CHUM group of stations.

See Spot shoot

Winnipeg: Building on the buzz around Gary Yates’ first feature Seven Times Lucky, which gained considerable attention and a very positive review in Variety after its Sundance premiere, the Montreal director has returned to Manitoba to shoot his second feature, Niagara Motel, a dark comedy about people whose lives crisscross at a rundown motel in Niagara Falls, ON.

Force Four’s Making it Big

‘It felt right to continue our success,’ says Toronto director of photography David Greene of his collaboration with second-time feature director David Weaver on the dark comedy Siblings.

Kodak is offering five-day cinematography workshops for budding filmmakers in Toronto and Vancouver.

Vancouver: This month’s 23rd annual Vancouver International Film Festival may be the last of its kind – or at least the last of its size – with the Vancouver International Film Centre opening for year-round programming business by next spring.