Toronto prodco Capri Films has launched a new distribution division and appointed Tony Cianciotta as its president.

When Hot Docs was in its infancy more than a decade ago, a key objective, according to one of the festival’s founders, Rudy Buttignol, was engaging the public in documentary film, and, 11 years later, the festival has exceeded expectations in this regard.

No longer associated with science class films on the lifecycle of an amoeba, documentary films are now very much swimming in the mainstream.

Producers, broadcasters and government funding execs agree – docs are hotter than ever. The challenges for producers to secure funding for their projects remain, however, though new sources are materializing.

Cannes, France: After a tough 24 months, producers, broadcasters and distributors are coming to terms with the new reality of the international TV market, a development that lent a feeling of renewal to MIPTV, as companies absent since 2001 returned to the floor of the Palais des Festivals.
Driven partly by depleted broadcaster inventories and a growing hunger among buyers for innovative format programming, plus the continued emergence of the Latin American, Asian and Eastern European markets, MIPTV saw even better numbers than last fall’s MIPCOM, generally considered larger.

Vancouver: The term ’emerging’ talent takes on new meaning when Monika Mitchell is on the set of Robson Arms. The promising young filmmaker is at the helm of episode eight of the new CTV series shooting in Vancouver until May 7, and is five months pregnant.
‘I still consider myself an emerging director,’ she says between takes. Mitchell is on location with Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall) and William B. Davis (The X-Files) at an abandoned old folks home on Boundary Road, far from the West End Vancouver apartments it’s made to look like.

Controversy stormed across the industry this month when a secret deal was revealed between Telefilm Canada and Creative Artists Agency to find stories and absentee Canadian talent for domestic movies. Telefilm exec director Richard Stursberg outlined the plan to the Hollywood mega-agent in a private memo leaked to the press.
‘The relationship with CAA will not be announced publicly until all these arrangements have been put in place,’ writes Stursberg. ‘In the interim, please keep the contents of this letter confidential.’

Another major Canadian post shop is set to be swallowed by a global giant, as Technicolor Creative Services Canada, a subsidiary of France-based Thomson, has entered a pre-acquisition agreement with the publicly traded Command Post and Transfer Corporation.

Sprockets is in gear to pull in young movie lovers for its seventh international film festival for children.

Quebec TV producers are cheering the provincial government’s restoration of tax credits to locally made variety and magazine TV programs. The APFTQ, Quebec’s producers association, is also pleased that Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal government has allocated $11.5 million for SODEC’s 2004/05 budget. SODEC is the provincial funding agency responsible for supporting Quebec TV and film.

After three years on-air, CBC current affairs program Disclosure will not be renewed for a fourth season, marking the second cut to the pubcaster’s current-affairs lineup. In March, CBC announced that this would be the last season for debate-style talk show counterSpin, which has been running for six years.

Pat Ferns will step down as president and CEO of the Banff Television Foundation to assume a ‘more creative role’ in the organization. Sources say Ferns will still be involved at this year’s Banff Television Festival (June 13-17), which celebrates its 25th anniversary this summer. His new title and the name of his successor were not yet announced by press time.

For many Canadians, spring means the end of the regular hockey season and the beginning of the NHL playoffs. This year, with five out of six Canadian teams making it to the first round, hockey fever seems higher than usual, setting the stage for the release of a homegrown film set against the backdrop of the 1972 Canada-USSR hockey series.

Host Alanis Morissette got nearly naked, there were more musical performances than any other year in the Juno’s 33-year history, and it was the most-watched show in Canada on Sunday, April 4. However, the 2004 Juno Awards, broadcast live from Edmonton’s Rexall Place by CTV, drew significantly fewer viewers than last year.

Following last month’s restoration of the Canadian Television Fund, TV stakeholders will convene on April 15 in Ottawa – at the behest of the minister of Canadian heritage – for the next step, changing how the public-private pot ‘o gold operates.