Despite the SARS scare plaguing Toronto in recent weeks, overall public admissions at the sixth annual Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children were up more than 10% from 2002, making 2003 its most successful year to date.

The CBC has formally requested the CRTC to reverse a ban preventing the broadcaster from airing foreign feature films after September.

Carlton sells $1.5M to Canada

* CHUM Television has appointed Ellen Baine VP programming. In her new capacity, Baine will be responsible for supervising programming strategies, acquisitions and planning for CHUM’s broadcast and specialty channels.

Vancouver: B.C. film and television crews worked on all or part of 205 productions in 2002, according to official statistics published by B.C.’s Ministry of Competition, Science and Enterprise May 15. That represents an increase of 4% in overall titles in B.C., but direct spending was $993.6 million, the first time B.C.’s annual production revenues have dropped below $1 billion since 1999, as Playback reported in its May 12 issue.

The finalists for the 2003 Canadian New Media Awards have been announced, and as many as 12 lucky computer jockeys will leave Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre with a Pixel on June 2.

Toronto-based service company MIJO Corporation, which boasts a who’s who in Canadian and U.S. production, broadcast and distribution on its client list, is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Talk to enough people who have similar jobs in similar industries and inevitably, over time, you start to hear the same things over and over again. Hollywood actors always say they signed on to a particular movie ‘because of the script’ and rock bands, when propped in front of a reporter, tend to rattle on about ‘getting back to our old sound.’ Videogame makers promise ‘jaw-dropping’ graphics and ‘white-knuckle’ action with the same clocklike regularity that pro athletes ‘give 110%’ at games and plead ‘not guilty’ when on trial for assault.

It’s ironic that just as conventional broadcasters scramble to woo young adults with a fresh batch of titillating reality programming, marketers are finally realizing the folly of largely ignoring one-third of the population – the massive and lucrative baby boomer segment.

The May 12 issue of Playback incorrectly reported Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares is the first Canadian feature film in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival since Leolo, back in 1992. Arcand’s film is the first Quebec film entered in the festival’s Palme D’Or competition section since 1992.

Peter Moss, EVP programming and development at Corus Entertainment, has spent the last three decades as a student of theatre and television, always seeking the next lesson – and the next big challenge. With Moss slated to receive the Independent Production Fund Outstanding Achievement Award next month from the Alliance for Children and Television, Playback takes this opportunity to examine his enormous contribution to the industry. From his time in theatre in London and Toronto to his executive posts at the CBC, YTV and Cinar, Moss’s career is characterized by its remarkable drive.

1969: Moss graduates from the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal