If you just can’t say no to a movie billed as ‘three stories of yearning and loneliness’ you will surely tune in to The Movie Network and Movie Central in March for Three and a Half, the latest of several downbeat films in the works at Toronto’s Summer Pictures.

Cautious optimism is the mood of the moment, as studios and film commissions plan for 2003.

Internationally recognized performers continued to figure prominently in Canadian feature film coproductions shot in 2002.

Michael Mosca might well be last year’s upstart genius of Canadian distribution. Or just plain lucky.

Distributors that traditionally peddle low-budget films will likely be paying more heed than usual to marketing their product in the wake of the success experienced in 2002 by the $5-million My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

19 Months, a high-definition romantic comedy produced at the Canadian Film Centre, was screened on three occasions at the recent VIFF. I screened it twice and noted variations in presentation that detracted from the hard work and effort invested in the production.

Despite having worked with some big-name Hollywood directors, director of photography Jan Kiesser is still Canadian enough to respect the peer recognition and overall importance of a Genie Award nomination.

Few businesses make a move, or spend so much as a single, devalued Canadian dollar, without the research to back it up. And not just any research – but the kind of down-to-the-molecular-level analysis known only to MBAs and UN weapons inspectors. New products are run past focus groups and checked against buying patterns, education, income, sex and, sometimes, sexual preference. Consumers are polled by phone and cornered in malls by platoons of clipboard-wielding marketers because no CEO, under any circumstances, however daring, wants to lose millions by introducing the next New Coke. Or by passing on the next Seinfeld.
The only exception? Why, Canadian television of course, an industry that, traditionally, has not been big on testing out ideas before they hit the air.

Montreal: The CTV Signature Drama presentation Choice is the story of Dr. Henry Morgentaler, one of the most controversial figures in contemporary Canadian history. Filmed on location over 20 days in Montreal to mid-December, the film chronicles Morgentaler’s stormy personal life amid the struggle to change the country’s abortion laws.
Many admire the still-spry 79-year-old doctor, and on one cold December day of filming, several of the 120 extras on set are lining up to shake his hand.

A DTH/CAB plan to redirect satellite money from the Canadian Television Fund to local TV stations is a subsidy scheme to underwrite the cost of local programming – basically licensed news, current affairs and sports obligations – according to producers.
Canada’s two main production associations, the CFTPA and APFTQ in Quebec, are adopting strong language to oppose any reduction in CTF resources as put forward in current licence amendment applications from DTH services Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice.

Yet more evidence of consolidation in the Canadian distribution sector with news Alliance Atlantis Releasing nationally and Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm in Quebec will handle theatrical and video/DVD release and marketing for all Remstar Distribution films effective in early 2003. Remstar will continue to acquire 10 to 12 films a year. Upcoming Remstar titles to be contracted through AAV include French director Gerard Pire’s Steal and Bob Rafelson’s No Good Deed, co-ventured by Remstar and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Milla Jovovich.

Vancouver: Struggling Peace Arch Entertainment of Vancouver has a new CEO after a stock-swap deal to acquire a Toronto film and television producer.

The CRTC has renewed the licence of CTV station CFCF-TV Montreal until Aug. 31, 2008. In its decision, the commission finds CTV must assume responsibility for unpaid tangible benefits of $800,000, committed by WIC Television when it purchased a controlling interest in CFCF in 1997. CanWest Global Communications acquired the station and related assets in October 1999. CTV took formal control in the fall of 2001.

The Toronto Film Critics Association has chosen Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner as the best Canadian film of 2002.

‘Widespread theft’ of TV signals across Canada costs the cable industry more than $400 million in lost revenue every year, according to a new study from satellite operator Bell ExpressVu.