A monster year for French-Canadian cinema, and for Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares in particular, culminated with a dominant showing at the 24th Annual Genie Awards in Toronto on May 1.

The CRTC is not convinced that TV drama needs more help and is expected to take little or no action to boost production or viewership of English-language series when, later this month, it responds to recommendations made by lobby and industry groups, say sources close to the process.

While documentary production in Canada is still driven primarily by TV presales, it looks like a new model may be on the horizon. Record audiences at Hot Docs 2004 helped to confirm a growing domestic appetite for docs on the big screen.

It’s not every day you see footage of Hamilton, ON – the industrial, glamour-impaired next-door neighbour of Toronto – in competition at Cannes, much less under the direction of foreign arthouse fave Olivier Assayas, who shot several key scenes for his latest, Clean, on the less-than-savoury streets of Steeltown late last year.

Trying to put its financial struggles behind it as quickly as possible with the Banff Television Festival just weeks away, the Banff Television Foundation introduced a new CEO and a new agenda late last month in the hopes of shifting the industry’s focus back to planned silver anniversary celebrations.

The Canadian broadcasting success story continues, according to the CRTC’s annual report of broadcast distribution undertakings.

Rogers Cable scored some quick but questionable points last month when it extended a deal to satellite TV pirates, offering free installation and set-top boxes to anyone shut out by recent security upgrades at DirecTV. The American DTH caster recently stopped service to an early version of its access cards, closing a widely exploited security gap and cutting loose an unknown number of signal pirates in Canada and the U.S. Rogers almost immediately announced that in exchange for the defunct satellite equipment it would sign viewers to its digital cable service. Rogers offers the same deal to legitimate satellite viewers.

Shutting down its Entertainment Group has turned out to be more complicated than expected, and has again forced Alliance Atlantis Communications to delay delivery of its year-end report for fiscal 2003. The Toronto media giant now says the report, previously scheduled for April 5 and, then, April 23, will be out no later than May 17, although it has not set a specific date.

Vancouver: About 75 independent producers attended the exhibition and distribution trade event ShowCanada April 28 to May 2 in Vancouver, pushing year-over-year attendance up 21% and making the 17th annual gathering more than ever Canada’s feature film industry convention.

An unseasonably warm weekend in Montreal may have hurt the box-office take of the highly anticipated Cite-Amerique feature Monica la mitraille, but despite perfect spring weather, the April 30 Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm release grossed $385,419 over its opening weekend.

Two Canadian productions were honored at the April 25 awards ceremony for the seventh Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, a growing event looking to expand its market and industry presence.

Unlike a university, Innoversity seeks to educate its attendees in a matter of days.

Vancouver: The coroner was beaten by the Grim Reaper in the nominations race in the 2004 Leo Awards, which recognize excellence by B.C. residents in the film and television industry.

The most verbose and colorful acceptance speech at the 2004 Genie Awards was given prior to the broadcast by Peter Simpson, chairman and CEO of Norstar Filmed Entertainment, whose production credits include Blown Away, Iron Eagle IV and Regeneration. Upon receiving a Special Genie for his ‘commitment to the production and distribution of films in Canada and his ongoing mentorship of young talents,’ Simpson opened with a promise to ‘leave the Telefilm bashing ’til the end of the speech.’

The Hot Docs festival wrapped 10 days of pitching, parties and a record number of sold-out screenings on May 2, making 2004 the festival’s most successful year to date.