This industry is full of great lines, and you folks didn’t disappoint us in 2001. Here are a few of our favorite things you’ve told us. Please note this is just for fun, and we acknowledge, quite happily, that all of these quotes have been taken out of context.

The strangest thing about Apple Box Production’s 10th anniversary is that its history spans four decades. Because when you get right down to it, its roots in this industry actually stretch way back to the fall of 1974. Back then it was a mere embryo of a commercial production house called

Toronto’s Chesler/Perlmutter Productions is in production in Toronto on three animal-themed theatrical features. Coproduced with Germany’s Apollo Media and the U.K.’s Grosvenor Park under the banner Animal Tales Productions, the films – Touching Wild Horses, Time of the Wolf and Cybermutt – are budgeted between $4.5 million and $5 million each. As their titles suggest, all three tales involve animals, which the producers feel gives them universal appeal.

Montreal: Somewhere in an isolated border region in 19th century Eastern Europe, village peasants begin an unholy search for two social outcasts falsely accused of murder. The unusual premise sets the scene for Kim Nguyen’s first feature film, Le Marais (The Marsh), an expressionist, art-directed fantasy from Quebec City’s Productions Thalie. Yves Fortin (Un petit vent de panique, Francophonie d’Amerique) is the producer. Francois Leclerc is line producer.
Players include Gregory Hlady, Paul Ahmarani, Gabriel Gascon, Jennifer Morehouse, James Hyndman, Alex Ivanovici, Elyzabeth Walling and Real Bosse.
Leclerc says the production will use a state-of-the-art digital FX and post-production process.

Small businesses in Ontario have just been given an end-of-year gift. These businesses used to face enormous challenges trying to raise money from investors while not falling afoul of provincial securities laws, but that process may now be easier.
Basically, unless it can find an applicable exemption, any business that wants to raise money from investors must prepare a prospectus – a document that provides comprehensive information about a business for potential investors. This is an expensive and time-consuming process, which means it’s not a viable option for most small businesses.
Unfortunately, for many small businesses, finding an applicable exemption can be almost as difficult as issuing a prospectus.

Vancouver: Writer/director Mina Shum is back in the driver’s seat with her third feature Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity. And for the third time, actor Sandra Oh is the lead.
Produced by Raymond Massey (Massey Productions, Vancouver) and Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie (Shaftesbury Films, Toronto) as a B.C./Ontario coproduction, the magic realism story is about Chinese-Canadians who live in Vancouver’s east side.
Mindy, a young girl, uses Feng Shui to help her single mother’s financial and romantic lives, but ends up yielding unexpected results.

Timing, as they say, is everything, and Toronto-based director of photography James Gardner is proof positive. Earlier this month, Gardner assumed camera duties on a spectacular $1-million climactic sequence for the feature Resident Evil, shooting in downtown Toronto.

Kodak news

Convergence has been a shaky mast for Canadian broadcasters to nail their colors to amid a softening economy.

While Y2K turned out to be a record year for the Canadian film and TV industry, with a tally of $4.4 billion in production, a much deflated figure is sure to characterize 2001, a year in which various events south of the border had a jolting impact locally.

Degrassi: The Next Generation

‘I created Kensington, but he created King.’