As a new festival season rolls around, look for Canada’s movie directors to start some serious lobbying for what they consider to be their share of the reserved or performance envelope of the Canada Feature Film Fund. Quebec’s French-language directors association…

Casters battle in Ontario…

Further study of the literally hundreds of awards given out at the Promax&BDA 2001 conference in Miami Beach, June 20-23, has revealed more Canadian success. …

Richard Longpre has joined the Vancouver office of law firm Heenan Blaikie as a consultant – and not a lawyer as reported in our June 25 issue – in the field of labor and industrial relations….

Montreal: Four full years into the business, Remstar Corporation principals Maxime and Julian Remillard say their company has successfully navigated through the difficult, cash-intensive start-up period and has entered into a second phase of business development. …

Vancouuver: Carole Taylor, a former broadcaster and civic politician, was named chair of the board of directors for the CBC July 16.
The Vancouverite’s appointment by Prime Minister Jean Chretien marks the first time in the public broadcaster’s 65-year history that the top job has gone to someone from outside Ontario or Quebec. And, in another first, Taylor will run the board from Vancouver. Her appointment is effective immediately.

Montreal: The CRTC has approved Quebecor Media’s acquisition of Groupe TVA’s regulated assets, including Quebec’s leading private-sector broadcaster Reseau TVA, following its May decision approving Quebecor’s takeover of Le Groupe Videotron.
The commission says the approval ‘will only be effective provided a third party not associated with Quebecor or any of its affiliates files an application for authority to acquire TQS,’ and that the CRTC deems the application to be complete and TQS is placed in trust.
Of special interest to the independent production sector, and by a majority vote, the commission has established the value of the acquisition benefits package at $48.9 million, almost $14 million more than the $35 million proposed by Quebecor (based on an acquisition price of $489 million).

Montreal: SGF Tech, a subsidiary of Societe generale de financement du Quebec, has come on board as an equity partner in CineGroupe with an investment of $14 million. SGF, a Quebec government joint-venture capital fund, joins equity partners Lions Gate Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide on the CineGroupe board.
CineGroupe will use the new funds to expand its 3D, live-action and F/X production infrastructure and to develop new business opportunities in the tough international animation marketplace, says Marie-Christine Dufour, the company’s communications VP.

Montreal: On the feature film La Mysterieuse mademoiselle C., director Richard Ciupka is using a lot of extended dolly one-shots to get as much spontaneity out of his very youthful cast as possible….

Montreal: The Quebec minister of finance has announced some important modifications to the refundable film and TV production tax credit, including a requirement that claims related to producer fees and administrative costs, and goods and services are admissible only if they are actually paid out. The new ruling takes effect Sept. 1.

* Noah Segal, VP of international marketing for Lions Gate Films, is resigning his position as of August to launch a feature film production company in Toronto. The new, ‘pure play’ production house will launch in September, with further details expected…

A new Canadian Retrospective and an avant-garde film program, as well as a spotlight on films from the Nordic countries, are among the newest features at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, running Sept. 6-15….