Challenge is a concept most Canadian filmmakers are familiar with. But not perhaps challenges quite as intense as those experienced by the makers of Genie nominations stand-out Sunshine….

Jeremy Podeswa, producer, writer and director of best motion picture Genie nominee The Five Senses, tells a great story about the first public screening of his film. But first he had to get it there….

Despite placing in Canada’s top 10 films at the box office in the past year, Histoires d’hiver producer Claude Gagnon of Aska Films says he is somewhat disappointed by the film’s performance….

The idea for best motion picture Genie nominee eXistenZ, with its superstar game designer on the run and its interweaving themes of reality and delusion, sprang from Salman Rushdie’s continuing persecution. Nothing to do with Keanu Reeves….

Last winter, the Sundance Film Festival feted the splendor of documentary, as many critics in Park City, Utah, cheered non-fiction films more boisterously than drama. In the last flash of summer, the doc bowed before another major ovation as Catherine Annau’s…

With Quest for the Lost Tribes, Simcha Jacobovici goes where Indiana Jones fears to tread in the name of solving one of ‘the three great mysteries of western civilization,’ he says. The first is the Ark of the Covenant, the second…

After five grueling years of making TOPS & bottoms, a documentary about sadomasochism, filmmaker Cristine Richey is seriously considering a new career in children’s programming, but not before a night at the Genies, where her film is nominated for best feature-length…

The Claude Jutra Award honors excellence in direction of a first feature film. The prize was established in 1993 by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize talented new filmmakers. Following are…

Best Motion Picture…

As the old year ends, so does this format and focus for Commercial Directions. Playback will be re-zigging our spot section with the new year. And as the Sleeman’s ads say, we hope you like it….

‘I want to die on set,’ says the ever candid Players Film Company director/dop Henry Less on the subject of retirement. Less sees no point in ever stopping what he loves to do, and that is to direct and shoot film….

‘Tis the season for a little extra cheer, with many of us imbibing too many cocktails to get into the festive spirit or loosen up at that office party or family function. Sadly, ’tis also the season of increased alcohol-related car…