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Who’s Who in Canadian Programming – English Specialty Services
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
English Digital – Category 1 and Category 2 Services
English Digital – Category 1 and 2 Services
WFF future up in the air
The cold war between Montreal’s World Film Festival and its financial backers got even colder on Sept. 7 when Telefilm Canada and SODEC invited other, competing fests to apply for the $1 million that is currently earmarked for the WFF.
The call for proposals came one day after the WFF wrapped and just a few weeks after a damning report from both organizations slammed the fest for, among other things, its financial secrecy and poor relations with filmmakers.
Maverick McDonald returns with Love Crimes of Gillian Guess
Iconoclastic director Bruce McDonald is coming to the Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax film festivals with a new feature, The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, and with something to prove.
The drama, produced by Vancouver’s Force Four Entertainment, is loosely based on the sensational 1995 case of a female jurist in B.C. who had an affair with accused killer Peter Gill while serving on his trial.
Going the Distance breaks $1M
For only the second time this year, an English-Canadian film has grossed more than $1 million at the domestic box office, and it did so after only two weeks in theaters.
As of Sept. 7, CHUM’s teen flick Going the Distance, directed by Mark Griffiths (Hardbodies), had grossed $1.3 million and was playing on 60 screens across the country, for a per-screen average of $3,328, up slightly from its opening weekend average.
World Film Festival wraps amid controversy
Montreal: To say a pall hung over the 28th edition of Montreal’s World Film Festival would be an understatement. Dubbed the Existential Festival from day one by local media, the event was reeling from the damning July 27 Telefilm Canada and SODEC report that demanded festival brass open themselves up to great scrutiny and accountability. This was not merely yet another government report that denounced WFF founder and director Serge Losique’s leadership; this time, Telefilm and SODEC spokespeople insisted they meant business, suggesting that unless the World Festival altered course significantly, it stood serious chance of losing the government agencies’ money.
Salter team reborn at Halifax Film Company
Alliance Atlantis Communications’ closure of Halifax-based Salter Street Films didn’t keep Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop down for long. The ex-Salter principals have joined forces again in The Halifax Film Company, which officially launched in May, and according to Donovan, the new production company is emerging in a market of unprecedented opportunity.
‘Buried’ movie wins ratings
Actor Bruce Greenwood took a verbal swipe at CTV during a recent appearance on that net’s Canada AM, accusing the network of under-promoting his latest TV project and of intentionally burying it in a bad timeslot as part of a larger effort to undermine Canadian-made shows.
Newsnet asks CRTC to review licence
CTV wants to be let off its leash, just a little, and is asking federal regulators to change the licence conditions for its 24-hour news channel CTV Newsnet – arguing in an Aug. 26 letter to CRTC secretary general Diane Rheaume that the cable channel should be allowed to drop its ’15-minute wheel’ format of news headlines which, according to CTV news boss Robert Hurst, interferes with the channel’s ability to cover major news stories.
Reitman, Wilby highlight AFF
The 2004 Atlantic Film Festival kicks off nine days in Halifax Sept. 17 with the largest lineup in the festival’s 24-year history, as well as new programs and industry events.
Go north, says Cinefest
The way Tammy Frick sees it, there is a lot of promise in the film scene of northern Ontario, but there is also a great deal of work that needs to be done.
Jump Cuts
Atopia launches distrib arm
Tricks to projecting self-confidence at film festivals… or how I learned to fake it
Allan King is one of Canada’s most highly respected filmmakers, with numerous award-winning documentaries and feature films to his credit including Warrendale, One Night Stand, Silence of the North and Dying at Grace.
Runaway production a fair trade
In the last issue of Playback, I suggested that Telefilm’s mandate of creating a system whereby Canadian films account for 5% of the domestic box office by 2006 was unrealistic.
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