In addition to presenting Sonja Smits with its award of excellence (see story, p.19), ACTRA Toronto will also be honoring Canada’s top talent with its 2004 awards for outstanding performance.

Sonja Smits is being presented with ACTRA Toronto’s Award of Excellence at a Feb. 20 ceremony. And while the actor’s impressive volume of work has made her one of Canada’s most recognizable talents, the award also acknowledges her lesser-known role as a passionate activist for indigenous film and television production, which has seen her involved with several ACTRA initiatives.

Private funding will contribute more to the film, TV and new media industries this year than the federal government will to the Canadian Television Fund.

The following is the 2004 edition of Playback’s annual digest of regional funding and investment sources available for Canadian independent film and television program development, production and/or distribution.

Domestic production plateaued in 2002 and 2003 and is likely in the midst of its first marked decline in over a decade, according to the CFTPA/APFTQ’s comprehensive production study Profile 2004.
According to research in the 54-page study, published annually by the CFTPA and APFTQ, production grew by 4% in 2002/03 to $4.93 billion, up from $4.75 billion the previous year.

The top brass at Alliance Atlantis say they knew as far back as 1998 that they would eventually phase out the company’s production arm in favor of broadcasting. But in an exclusive interview with Playback, CEO Michael MacMillan defended AAC’s subsequent purchase of Salter Street Films and other production houses, arguing that, at the time, the company was overexposed in the weakening drama market and seemed to need more comedy, MOWs and documentaries.

Just four months after the splashy launch of Toronto 1 in October, Calgary-based owner Craig Media finds itself in the deep end of the pool and looking for a buyer.
The ambitious broadcaster, according to sources, has failed to meet its revenue targets and as a result is being pressured to sell by its U.S. investor Providence Equity Partners.

The Canadian news from the Academy Award nominations was better than expected, with Montreal director Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions picking up not only a nom for best foreign-language film, but for Arcand’s original screenplay as well. Meanwhile, Canada/Belgium/ France copro The Triplets of Belleville received noms for best animated feature and best original song.

The traditional recipe for primetime success usually includes good-looking people with exciting careers in some sexy location, not a bunch of nobodys doing nothing in the middle of nowhere. But a local gas station in small-town Saskatchewan is exactly what it took to get more than a million Canadians to tune in to indigenous television.

For the 10 days of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the Park City Marriott’s ‘Presidential Suite’ was dubbed the ‘Prime Minister’s Suite’ as Telefilm Canada transformed the space into the first-ever ‘Canada Lounge.’ The cozy space was a welcome refuge from the sub-zero temperatures outdoors, and couldn’t have arrived at a better time for the large delegation of Canadians that descended upon Park City, Utah Jan. 15-25. A whopping 19 Canadian shorts and features were screened – the most Canuck films ever to play the world-renowned festival.

The heirs of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, won a legal victory last month when a judge threw out a $55-million libel lawsuit against them.

Cinar Corporation has announced that should the proposed sale of all outstanding shares to an investor group headed by former Nelvana executives Michael Hirsh and Toper Taylor and TD Capital Canadian Private Equity Partners go through, president and CEO Stuart Snyder will leave the company.

One of the strange things about season one of Puppets Who Kill – apart from, you know, the sight of Al Waxman’s brain in a jar, or of comic Dan Redican putting the homoerotic moves on a stuffed bear – was that, despite the title, the show didn’t have a very high body count. Higher than most puppet shows, sure, plus plenty of sex, black magic and castration. But lacking in actual homicides or puppicides.

Snow business

Vancouver: The Year of the Monkey means a year of concessions for Vancouver’s service production sector, bracing for a 25% downturn in volumes because of the rising Canadian dollar, declining drama volumes and international competition for locations.