NewNew Films

Corus lays out Women’s Programming Fund

Ever since I started covering the Canadian production and broadcasting industry, some three years ago, the theme of convergence has been at the forefront of almost every conference and major industry news story we’ve been involved with. While industry players struggled to develop the technology and business plans to implement convergence strategies, I was busy as a Playback staff writer trying to figure out the meaning of this 50-cent word.

The $5-million Canada/U.K. coproduction The War Bride has been chosen among the five top Genie contenders as the best picture of the year by Playback poll respondents.

* Janet Yale, president and CEO of the Canadian Cable Television Association, has been appointed chair of the CTF board of directors.

Paula Parker, VP of programming and production for children’s television at Corus Entertainment, has resigned her position to spend time with her family.

A year-old initiative by ACTRA that opened the door for actors to work on independent films at below scale has swung shut.

Toronto-based adbeast’s online common operating platform for the advertising industry has only been operational for less than a year, but it has already generated quite a buzz amongst post houses.

Certainly the ability to determine your own destiny is an exciting prospect for any professional. But there are advantages and disadvantages to setting out to launch your own company.

Vancouver: With an expected cost-slashing provincial budget announcement just 15 days away, a delegation from British Columbia’s Community Marketing Group will be in Victoria Feb. 4 to ‘suggest’ ways the Liberal government can reduce its interest in the local film industry.

Montreal: Telefilm Canada supported just under 20% of the production and post-production projects submitted to its Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program in 2001/02. The agency received 66 project submissions this year, 49 for production financing and 17 for post-production support, with 13 accepted, mostly in the production financing category. Eighty projects were submitted in 2000/01.

Montreal: The 40-year partnership of John Dunning and Andre Link is unique in the annals of the Canadian film industry. When their company, Cinepix, was launched in 1962, the landscape included little more than CBC, Radio-Canada and the National Film Board.