CBC’s legendary Mr. Dressup, Ernie Coombs, passed away Sept. 18 after a long and respected career as a children’s entertainer. Coombs, who retired in 1996 after 31 years on the air, including 4,000 episodes of Mr. Dressup, was a favorite performer for generations of Canadian children.

* Susan Bower, former COO at Vision TV’s group of channels, has been appointed to the new position of executive director of policy, research and strategic development.

Montreal: More than 200 works from 41 countries, including 77 feature films, 92 short films and 50 new media creations, are on the program for the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, Oct. 11-21. The festival, codirected by Claude Chamberlan and Luc Bourdon, is dedicated to international auteur cinema and digital and new media productions. Softimage founder Daniel Langlois is chair of the FCMM board.

Montreal: Digital cinema and special effects, electronic gaming and interactive TV are among conference topic highlights at this year’s 8th edition of the Multimedia International Market, which takes place at Montreal’s Place Bonaventure, Oct. 3-5.

Toronto’s untitled is now representing L.A.-based, Montreal-born director Tim Godsall, filling the comedy hole within the roster executive producer James Davis alluded to in last month’s On the Spot.
Godsall, raised in Toronto, joins untitled from T.O. production house Avion Films, where he had been directing for roughly three years. Like many currently in the industry, Godsall came to directing from the agency side. He started as a copywriter for McCann-Erickson 10 years ago, moved on to Doner Schur Peppler and then Geoffrey Roche & Partners. He also ventured to the U.S. to take a job as an associate creative director with Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners in New York.

Halifax-based producer JD MacCulloch says The Baddeck International New Media Festival is on track to run Oct. 11-13, despite the recent troubles in the world and the financial strains felt by many of the companies the festival is marketed to.

If this year’s Gemini Award nomination list is saturated, once again, by Da Vinci’s Inquest, it’s peppered with the name of series showrunner/producer/director Chris Haddock.

Shots & Chasers tracks who shot what during the previous month. Production companies are invited to fax information for this column as frequently as possible to Dave Lazar or Dustin Dinoff at (416) 408-0870. The next deadline for submissions is Wednesday, Oct. 17.

This is a final reminder for all Canadian commercial producers that your Top Spots entries are due in to On The Spot by Oct. 4.

Cogeco, Bell Globemedia buy TQS

The road to directing for Michael Robison went through years of editing. Now the busy Vancouver-based director – credits include episodes of Andromeda, Tracker, Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, First Wave and The Outer Limits – has garnered a nomination for best direction in a dramatic series for an Outer Limits episode, ‘Revival,’ starring Gary Busey. His current project is Mysterious Ways for PAX TV and NBC in the U.S.