Montreal: Flowing bubbly and celebration greeted the on-air launch of four new specialty channels – Historia, Series+, z and Canal Evasion – Monday evening, Jan. 31….

Rams, Titans, Sunshine, Felicia’s Journey – it was a sheer toss up on the evening of Jan. 30, when the majority of the continent was placing bets on the Super Bowl and an elite filmmaking community in Canada gathered at the…

Montreal: Astral Communications shareholders will be asked to approve a change in corporate name to Astral Media at the company’s agm in Montreal, Feb. 24. Astral’s board has already approved the change….

Vancouver: The B.C. Council of Film Unions – which represents the 10,000 members of the technical union IATSE Local 891, camera union IATSE Local 669 and Teamsters Local 155 – has signed its third Master Collective Agreement with Canadian and u.s….

The National Screen Institute, in partnership with Telefilm Canada, has chosen five projects for its 2000 Features First program….

* Cinar Corp. has named Peter Moss to the newly created post of president, Cinar Entertainment, effective March 1. Moss is a former vp programming and production with ytv and at Treehouse tv, and is responsible for Cinar’s entertainment business in…

Montreal-based commercial production house Jet Films and long-form producer Lux Films have banded together to create a new feature film production entity, Go Films….

*Houdini 4.0 unshackled…

*Arthur Christmas special on PBS…

*Rainmaker storms commercial production…

The 10th annual Canadian Institute of Film and Television Industry Conference is scheduled for March 23 and 24 at Le Royal Meridien King Edward Hotel in Toronto….

Montreal: A Motion International board committee has started a search for the replacement of president, ceo and chairman (as named last summer) Guy Crevier, who will resign next month to join newspaper La Presse as president and publisher….