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Does ‘best practice’ make perfect?
On March 23, Telefilm Canada announced it would implement a set of ‘Best Practices’ for the English-language selective component of the 2009/10 Canada Feature Film Fund investment cycle.
Master of his domain
Many journalists remarked that Quebecor Media owner Pierre Karl Péladeau grinned as Heritage Minister James Moore launched his idea for the Canada Media Fund.
The trouble with metrics
The Canadian media industry needs better systems of measuring and analyzing digital user data if it is ever going to fully exploit emerging platforms. At least that was the consensus at IN 09: The Interactive Exchange, Interactive Ontario’s digital media conference held in Toronto in March. According to the best minds attending, Canada lags far behind the U.S. in this regard.
Andra Sheffer: Digital doyenne
You’d expect someone whose career has revolved around numbers and the administration of stodgy bodies to be, well… rigid. (Hell, her first job was in the bowels of Ottawa’s bureaucracy.) But Andra Sheffer exudes enthusiasm and has a remarkably lithe approach, most recently demonstrated in her role as prime mover in funneling much-needed millions to drama producers.
Atom Egoyan: 25 years of making movies
Over the past quarter century, Atom Egoyan has accomplished something few others have – he has sustained a career making independent feature films that screen around the world. Given the collapsing global market for indie movies, it is a feat even fewer of the younger generation of filmmakers will be able to emulate.
Cronenberg on Egoyan
Their names are often mentioned in the same breath.
A match made in heaven
A filmmaker needs a savvy producer-champion to help navigate the cruel waters of the commercial film industry, and Atom Egoyan is fortunate to have tied his boat to Robert Lantos early in his career.
Wenders and Egoyan pay it forward
There was electricity in the air some 22 years ago when renowned German indie filmmaker Wim Wenders thrust Atom Egoyan into the global spotlight by giving him his $5,000 first prize during the closing press conference at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, where the young cinéaste was ‘discovered.’
A huge reception
After Jonathon Barker left Shaftesbury Films, he and colleague Bob Kerr (co-founder and retired CEO of Imax) started SK Films, a shingle that produces and distributes giant-screen movies. Their latest endeavor, Journey to Mecca, is a story both Barker and Kerr felt particularly passionate about sharing. It tells the story of Ibn Battuta, perhaps the greatest and least-known explorer of all time who, in 1325, did a year-long pilgrimage from Tangier to Mecca.
Straight Up & Down
– Media investment management firm GroupM predicts ad spending in Canada will drop by 2.9%, or $11.6 billion, this year compared to last. (That’s better than the 4.4% drop it predicts for global spending.) The 2008/09 period is a more serious advertising recession in scale and duration than the post-dotcom disruption of 2001, notes Adam Smith, GroupM’s futures director in London.
The Burning Question
Why should AIG and General Motors have all the fun? The networks are bleeding red ink with the best of ’em and, word has it, have gone cap in hand to the feds looking for a handout. Something in the ballpark of $150 million, if you please. Which raises the question: Should Ottawa bail out the private broadcasters?
Everyone’s a Critic: Plaudits for Costello
Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…: Mixed reviews greeted the musically minded talk show when it premiered on U.S.-based Sundance Channel in December (Hollywood Reporter called it ‘tough viewing’), but Canuck critics are decidedly more enthusiastic about the show, hosted by Brit singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, currently airing on CTV.
Multitasking just doesn’t cover Veninger’s Only chores
Filmmaker Ingrid Veninger is hitting the road – film ‘cans’ in hand, enthusiasm to burn, Vancouver or bust – to screen her fest hit Only to ordinary Canadian moviegoers.
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