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Stephanie Azam’s amazing adventure
‘I want us to have a great industry,’ says Stephanie Azam, the recently appointed head of Telefilm Canada’s English-language feature film productions. Not naïve but certainly enthusiastic, Azam fixes her eyes intently on the goal ahead: 5% of the box office for Canadian film.
Crawford Hawkins: B.C.’s tireless ambassador
A movie poster for the American film Up River hangs on the wall behind Crawford Hawkins’ desk. While the 1980 western isn’t well known to many people, it holds significant meaning for Hawkins, the executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada B.C. District Council.
Another BRIC in the wall
Don’t you just hate acronyms?
It’s bad enough having to decode my kids’ text messages without industry experts bombarding me with terms like ARPU, KGOY, WiMAX, VoIP and MMORG.
iPhone therefore iApp
Mobile ancillaries aren’t what they used to be. Yup, they might actually pay now.
TVO wants POV for The View From Here
Jane Jankovic, commissioning editor of TVO’s POV strand The View From Here, details the state of the Canadian public broadcaster and what type of docs she’s looking for. Jankovic is also supervising producer for the international documentary strand Human Edge and the arts strand Masterworks.
3 things you didn’t know about… Ron Mann
1. I have a collection of Pee Wee Herman action figures.
3 things you didn’t know about… Alanis Obomsawin
1. I do etchings. It’s quite passionate for me. It’s like therapy in terms of what it does to work with my hands for hours and hours making these little lines.
Notes from Gatineau
It’s hearings season in the nation’s capital, and that only means one thing – brinksmanship is again the order of the day.
Ground-breaking kids entertainment academic program launches
In what’s likely an industry first, Toronto-based Centennial College has set up a post-graduate program to train the next generation of kids biz execs. The year-long Children’s Entertainment: Writing, Production and Management course being run from the college’s Centre for Creative Communications is set to welcome its first class of students this September.
Buyers expect fewer sprees in L.A.
Canadian high rollers bound for the L.A. screenings are betting that a bad advertising market will temper prices for new and existing U.S. network series.
Moves & Signings
Moves
Straight Up & Down
+ Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and the Quebec-shot Enter the Void have been tapped for Cannes. The famously troubled Imaginarium, left without a leading man following the death of Heath Ledger, was the last project by producer William Vince. Vince – head of Vancouver’s Infinity Features, which copro’ed the movie with Samuel Hadida of Paris-based Davis Films and Gilliam’s daughter Amy Gilliam – died of cancer last summer, shortly after Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped in for Ledger.
Playback Barometer: Warm & Windy
If Canwest can keep dodging bullets, then clearly anything is possible. Even a new SAG agreement, which is now tantalizingly close to getting Hollywood back on its feet and back in Canada, where it belongs. Hot air will continue to come out of Ottawa in May, however, as network bosses migrate back to the CRTC, looking to spawn new licences.
Living on the edge
Canada’s national treasure keeps reinventing itself. That’s how the National Film Board stays edgy at 70. That’s how it wins countless awards worldwide, including a dozen Oscars.
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