Two days before they went public, Laszlo Barna was already using the new CTF guidelines as a rallying cry for increased funding from Ottawa. Speaking to members of ACTRA Toronto on Nov. 15, the producer and CFTPA chair complained bitterly of working conditions in Canada and called for more federal dollars for the Canadian Television Fund.

The latest release from Canuck distributor ThinkFilm has brought in $300,000 at the Canadian box office since opening Oct. 24, not a bad showing considering the film is a three-hour-long version of a story many people have already heard a thousand times.

* Felix (Fil) Fraser of Edmonton has been named to the board of directors of Telefilm Canada.

Sandra Richmond is a partner in the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw Group.

From this seat, it’s too bad our Year in Review had to come in late November. (Don’t ask why. It’s an ad sales thing.)

Regina-based Minds Eye Entertainment has not filed for bankruptcy, as reported in our last issue, but has voluntarily applied for bankruptcy protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in the Court of Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan.

Toronto-based cinematographer Gerald Packer finds himself in court these days, not as a plaintiff, but rather lensing the dramatic series This Is Wonderland, coproduced by Toronto’s Indian Grove Productions and Montreal’s Muse Entertainment for CBC.

There can be little doubt that all the recent news coverage of the Air India trial spurred, in some small way, Toronto 1 and its parent Craig Media to write a cheque for director Srinivas Krishna. Best known for 1996’s Lulu and his 1991 breakthrough Masala, Krishna had for some time been developing a project about the terrorist bombing that sent Air India’s Flight 182 into the Atlantic in June 1985 after departing Toronto, killing 329, most of them Canadians. Early this month he got the nod for a four-hour miniseries, backed by T1’s New Voices Fund.

Vancouver: Busy Vancouver cinematographer Vic Sarin (Margaret’s Museum) is directing and shooting (and producing with partner Tina Pehme) the low-budget Canadian romantic comedy Deluxe Combo Platter in Squamish until Dec. 2.

Reality bit in 2003. Not only did the War in Iraq and the outbreak of SARS affect the way Canadian broadcasters and producers did business this year, but the increasing impact of reality television made itself very clear right at home – as more Canadians watched Ryan Malcolm get elected Canadian Idol than had ever before watched a domestically produced series episode.

The following are the results of a web poll in which Playback asked readers: ‘What was THE industry story of 2003?’

Montreal: It has been a whirlwind, wonderful kind of year for Cinemaginaire producer Denise Robert and life partner, filmmaker Denys Arcand. So good, in fact, that the couple shares the honor of 2003 Playback Person of the Year.