With the help of more federal dollars, the Canadian Television Fund opened its wallet April 15 to the tune of $131.5 million, to be distributed among Canadian ‘casters through its Broadcaster Performance Envelopes for 2004/05.

The Canadian documentary that skewers corporate (ir)responsibility is doing blockbuster business – Vancouver-made feature The Corporation earned $1,026,000 in Canada over the April 16 weekend, becoming the most successful all-Canadian doc in history.

There’s a lesson to be learned from the meltdown of Mike Bullard – a reason why the respectable audience numbers he drew over the course of six years to CTV and The Comedy Network did not follow him through his short, dark winter at Global. Was it the lackluster guests? Or the lack of a strong lead-in? Were fans turned off by Bullard’s departing spat with CTV or did the stigma of his very un-hip weight-loss commercials finally catch up with him?

After only one week at theaters, Dans une galaxie pres de chez vous, a feature from Montreal’s Zone3 based on its popular Quebec youth TV series, passed the $1-million mark at the box office and now boasts the fifth-highest opening-week gross in Quebec history.

Micheline Charest, cofounder, former chair and co-CEO of scandal-plagued animation house Cinar, suddenly died April 14 while undergoing plastic surgery in Montreal. She was 51.

Quebec producers are teaming up to address some of the province’s most pressing production issues at the Association des Producteurs de Films et de Television du Quebec annual congress, to be held May 4-6 at Hotel Loews Le Concorde in Quebec City.

Las Vegas: Alias, the Toronto-based makers of Maya software for 3D animation and FX, was at NAB2004 within one week of announcing that Accel-KKR, a tech-focused private equity firm, was finalizing a US$57.5 million deal that would back Alias’ separation from parent Silicon Graphics.

Montreal: On April 6, Quebec cultural funder SODEC selected six feature films and four shorts for this year’s first round of funding.

Unlike a university, Innoversity seeks to educate its attendees in a matter of days.

Wham, bam, thank you Sean Cullen, who once again steered a roomful of half-soused writers through their annual awards gala in what must be record time – doling out seven Canadian Screenwriting Awards in just over half an hour on April 19, playing to a packed house at Toronto nightspot This is London.

Simon Chester is a partner in the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw Group. This article was prepared with the assistance of Lisa Parliament.

Laszlo Barna is executive producer of Barna-Alper Productions, and chair of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association.