Vancouver: The B.C. Supreme Court system will determine whether Vancouver filmmaker John Pozer, who directed The Grocer’s Wife, is right to be Kissed off by former business partner and common-law spouse Lynne Stopkewich.

Corus Entertainment has finalized a deal to invest, through its pay-TV outfit Movie Central, in six features from Serendipity Point Films and producer Robert Lantos over the next four years.

Alliance Atlantis Communications dropped the axe on its Entertainment Group this month, cutting 33 of its 183 permanent full-time employees from its offices in L.A. and Toronto, and from Salter Street Films in Halifax. Entertainment Group CEO Peter Sussman has also been recalled from L.A., where he has been based since 1991, and will now work out of Toronto.

The Canadian Television Fund is looking at an immediate $29-million reduction in revenues for the new fiscal year starting April 1. The reduction includes $25 million less in government contributions as announced in the Feb. 18 federal budget and $4 million less from small cable systems operators, who recently received CRTC authorization to redirect the funds to local TV production.

When was the last time you heard a buyer complain that any medium was priced too low? It just ain’t going to happen. It would be like drivers saying the price of gas should go up.

Canada had a strong showing at the 75th Academy Awards, with four Canucks receiving top honors in Hollywood.

The Toronto International Film Festival Group brings more than world premieres, big-name directors and beautiful stars to the city of Toronto; it also brings in the mighty, albeit Canadian, dollar.

The Toronto International Film Festival Group is gearing up for growing audiences as it approaches the sixth year of its international children’s film festival Sprockets, running April 25 to May 4 at Famous Players Canada Square and various workshop locations.

While most programmers strive to pack their lineups with shows that tap into kid psychographics, few go to the lengths that the CBC has to understand the formulas that create a kid connection.

Montreal: The two primary issues to emerge following the tabling of the March 11 Quebec budget are the termination of a five-year program which gave broadcaster affiliates access to the Quebec tax-credit program and the issue of which productions are eligible to be grandfathered under the higher, pre-budget tax-credit rates. Only productions that file with SODEC by April 30 can apply for grandfather status.

CTV scored marketing points early in the war by providing its audio feed, free of charge, to any and all Canadian radio stations. The ‘no strings attached’ deal allowed stations to retransmit the CTV signal during any live breaking news coverage.

After a year and a half on the airwaves, all of the digitals are still operating, but penetration is still below forecast, audiences are still small, and a recent CRTC report confirms that the channels are still bleeding money.