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High loonie raises concern
Producers and studio owners are keeping an eye on the Canadian dollar, which is once again holding at unusually high levels against the U.S. greenback.
VIFF hit by high costs, lack of coverage
Vancouver: At the wrap of the 24th Vancouver International Film Festival, organizer Michael Francis declared to a sold-out Vogue Theatre that ‘this was the most successful festival ever.’
MPD picks up Fireworks library
CanWest Global Communications has unloaded the Canadian rights to the television library of its failed subsidiary Fireworks Entertainment, selling to Motion Picture Distribution LP for an undisclosed amount. The limited partnership essentially acts as the distribution arm of Alliance Atlantis Communications.
Les Voleurs steals box office
Atom Egoyan’s controversial thriller Where the Truth Lies was overshadowed at the Canadian box office over its opening week of Oct. 7, when Les Voleurs d’enfance, a Quebec documentary about abused children, grossed nearly $850,000 – more than double Truth’s take, while playing on fewer screens.
NHL returns with high scores for CBC and TSN
Ending a year of agony for sports fans, the National Hockey League opened its 2005/06 season to record ratings on TSN and CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, demonstrating that the hockey faithful have not gone astray after last year’s season was wiped out by a labor dispute.
Hot Sheet
The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period Oct. 7-13 and television ratings for the period Oct. 10-16.
People
* Catherine Donohue is the new VP of distribution and sales operations for Cookie Jar Entertainment, coming over from CBC, where she was in charge of children’s and youth programming.
Broadcaster convention looks to the future
Broadcast execs will be thinking ahead when they converge on Winnipeg next month for the annual powwow of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which will focus on how new technologies are changing the future of TV and radio.
American Film Market settling into fall schedule
Now in its second year as an autumn event, the American Film Market expects toattract a record 7,000 attendees next month, at least 200 of them from Canada.
Eleventh and fifth nab 15 at 20th Geminis
CTV’s newsroom drama The Eleventh Hour and CBC news magazine the fifth estate received 15 nods each, while Showcase’s popular Trailer Park Boys was not mentioned in the category it won last year, as the 2005 Gemini Awards nominations were announced on Oct. 11 on Global’s Entertainment Tonight Canada.
SRC’s Grande Ourse tops Gemeaux noms list
Montreal: Nominations for the 20th annual Gemeaux Awards for French-language television were unveiled on Oct. 12, with L’Héritière de Grande Ourse, société Radio-Canada’s paranormal mystery program, in the lead with 14 nominations.
Minuit, le soir, Radio-Canada’s drama about the nightlife of an ensemble of adventurous Montrealers, and TVA’s Le Négociateur, a crime drama set in 1970, were a close second, with 11 nominations each.
Producers pitch performance plan to Alberta
Alberta producers hope to double the level of production activity in their region over the next three years with the help of the provincial government.
Telefilm announces New Media Fund winners
Education through entertainment is the theme of the latest decisions at Telefilm Canada, where 25 of 38 projects that received financing by its Canada New Media Fund qualified as edutainment.
Egoyan, Wenders rally behind FNC
Montreal: There was no end in sight for Montreal’s bruising three-way film festival war, with the final fest of the season, the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, opening with a salvo from none other than auteur Atom Egoyan.
Clarkson warns NMFF
Montreal: Wayne Clarkson feels that Telefilm Canada and SODEC were justified in yanking funding from Montreal’s beleaguered World Film Festival, but says that its intended replacement, the New Montreal FilmFest, will have to report on its attendance figures before it will get a second year of funding.
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