If Canadian films don’t start to pick up their share of the Canadian box office within the next few years, Robert Lantos, for one, says it’s time to throw in the towel on public funding.
Canada’s biggest and inarguably most successful film producer says he has no reason to believe Canadian films can’t break or at least take 5% of the market share, as set out in the $100-million Canada Feature Film Fund. But, he adds, if they don’t achieve this ‘modest’ goal within the next five years or so, there’s little reason for the Canadian government to continue creating this artificial economy that has, over the past decade, contributed to the decline of quality Canadian moviemaking.
‘It’s a do-or-die time for those involved in making Canadian films,’ he says, pointing to the need for distributors and producers to take on a significantly bigger risk-taking role in the filmmaking, financing and marketing process. ‘I can’t think of any national cinema that doesn’t have at least a 5% share of its domestic box office.’

It has been said that everyone wants something for nothing, and nowhere is that more true than at a film festival. As buyers from home and abroad descend on the Toronto International Film Festival this week, many are reporting that, because of the increasingly harsh and unpredictable world market, they are shopping for increasingly obscure films by increasingly raw directors – hoping to luck out and buy the next breakaway hit-to-be, like Y Tu Mama Tambien or Monsoon Wedding, for a song.
‘As each year passes, there is pressure to be even more selective than the year before,’ says Troy Lum, one of two buyers flying in from Hopscotch Films in Australia, ‘whilst at the same time having to make faster acquisition decisions.’
Hopscotch is shopping for titles that straddle the art house/commercial fence and has already snapped up five TIFF films, including Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Black and White by Aussie Craig Lahiff. But U.S. majors are making life difficult for the upstart boutique, Lum says, by buying more than the usual number of niche films.

The 27th Toronto International Film Festival unspools Sept. 5-14 with a contingent of highly anticipated Canadian films, new screening programs, a return of red carpet glamour and remembrances of 9/11, which ground last year’s events to a halt.

The Rogers Industry Centre has prepared a series of sessions for TIFF 2002 that address issues of creative autonomy, the marketing and distribution of films, as well as evolving technologies and their potential impact. This year’s offerings, open to registered industry members only, reflect the global face of cinema and acknowledge the growing stature of the independent filmmaker.

Montreal: A new CFTPA-commissioned study on Canadian film and television production reveals content production financed without Canadian Television Fund support represents one of the strongest developing sectors in the industry. As a percentage of all Canadian-content production, non-CTF-supported production has increased from about 60% to 71% over the past five years. The study also underlines the vital role non-CTF-supported production has in attracting international investment.
‘The Economic Impact of Non-CTF Certified Canadian Film and Television Production,’ prepared for the CFTPA by PricewaterhouseCoopers, says non-CTF-supported content production accounted for $1.6 billion, or 71%, of the $2.3 billion in Canadian-content production in 2000/01. During the same five-year period, the volume of annual CTF-supported production has essentially remained stable, between $600 million and $700 million – $683 million last year, says the report.

Ararat marks Atom Egoyan’s third consecutive film to open the Toronto International Film Festival. The drama premiered at Cannes – out of competition, by the director’s request – and has stirred up a hornet’s nest of international debate. Written and directed by Egoyan, the film, named after a dormant volcano in Turkey, tells the story of a contemporary director struggling with the production of a movie about the Armenian Genocide.

Lions Gate among Bridge Studios bidders

So it’s that time of year again when media outlets across the land set their sights on the indie film circuit via the Toronto International Film Festival, and in many cases even rally to the cause of Canadian film – an admittedly unsexy subject for the other 11 months of the year, but who’s counting?

Staunchly Canuck filmmaker David Cronenberg supports the idea of regulating the number of domestic productions showing on Canadian screens, as is commonly done around the world.

The Directors Guild of Canada will mark its forthcoming 40th anniversary with a new awards show – handing out trophies for above-par directing, production design and editing among its 3,700 members. DGC president Alan Goluboff and director David Cronenberg laid out plans and announced the nominees for the first annual DGC Awards, to be held at Toronto’s Boulevard Club on Oct. 5 and hosted by former Kids in the Hall star Dave Foley, at a recent press conference.

The Canadian Television Fund has announced Sandra Macdonald as its new president and CEO.

* Alliance Atlantis Communications has announced three promotions within its Broadcast Group.