During the last Winter Olympics – as Canada, France and Russia traded accusations over that figure skating scandal – more than a few observers commented that, corrupt judge or not, it is a very imprecise process to rank creative performances, be it twirling on ice to the tune of Lara’s Theme or, say, directing A Beautiful Mind.

Ararat leads the 2003 Genie pack with nine nominations, but conspicuously absent among those noms is achievement in direction for Atom Egoyan. The introspective Toronto filmmaker can console himself, however, in being cited for best motion picture – he coproduced the Alliance Atlantis/Serendipity Point Films drama with Robert Lantos – and best original screenplay.

Coming from the rarefied atmosphere of academia to make your screen debut in an Atom Egoyan movie would be a major adjustment for most.

Anne Wheeler is feeling decidedly done wrong these days.

Director Anne Wheeler’s Suddenly Naked may have proven popular with the Genie jury, but her latest feature, The Edge of Madness (aka A Wilderness Station), is currently languishing under the radar.

With a Directors Guild of Canada statuette, awarded in October for helming Rare Birds, resting in his trophy case and an unprecedented two MOWs premiering Dec. 15 simultaneously in Canada and the U.S., Christmas has come early for Sturla Gunnarsson. Add to that a possible best director Genie win, and we could easily dub 2002 ‘The Year of the Gunnarsson.’

Bollywood/Hollywood has been spotted at, or near, the top of many lists this past fall – from the Toronto International Film Festival, at which it opened the Perspective Canada program; to its impressive opening weekend, besting the per screen average of Men with Brooms at $8,700; to, most recently, five Genie nominations, placing it in the upper ranks of multiple-nominated films such as Ararat, Spider and Savage Messiah.

Quebec-Montreal will surely go down as one of the year’s happy cinematic surprises, both with Quebec audiences and the Genie jurors, who have voted it in as a nominee for best motion picture, achievement in direction, editing and original screenplay.

Critics at the Cahiers du Cinema would brandish their baguettes like battle-axes.

Le Collectionneur is one of Quebec’s biggest box-office successes of 2002 and, as a commercially driven film, marks a departure from Montreal director Jean Beaudin’s traditionally politicized fare. The film has earned Beaudin his third Genie nomination for best director.

Fresh from the success of her multiple-Genie-nominated Bollywood/Hollywood, Toronto-based filmmaker Deepa Mehta rolled cameras earlier this month on a big-screen version of Carol Shield’s bestseller The Republic of Love – one of several literary adaptations in the works for Triptych Media. It’s the story of Tom, a late-night radio talk show host played by the ubiquitous Bruce Greenwood (13 Days, Ararat, Below), and his unlikely pairing with incurable romantic Fay, played by British import Emilia Fox (The Pianist, David Copperfield). Claire Bloom, Jackie Burroughs, Gary Farmer and Fox’s real-life father, Edward Fox, also star.

Vancouver: Perhaps the one West Coast production company not feeling the economic pinch of 2002, Dufferin Gate got an early holiday gift from main customer Showtime. Two of the three pilots shot earlier in the fall have been picked up as series and there is a new MOW on the way, also in the new year.
Earthlings, the tentative title for a one-hour series about the lives of lesbians in West Hollywood, will be 15 hours over the season including the two-hour pilot.

Geoffrey Hopkinson is, there can be little doubt, proud of his collection.

Producers – imagine having access to over 70 years worth of historical NHL footage – what would you most want to get your hands on? Wayne Gretzky’s first game back in Edmonton after being traded, or his final game with the New York Rangers? Maybe Bill Barilko’s OT goal in game five to clinch the 1951 Stanley Cup for the Toronto Maple Leafs? What about Bobby Orr’s first shift in a Boston Bruins uniform as an 18-year-old rookie?

Toronto’s First Light reports a jump in business thanks in part to stock footage giant Getty Images’ recent closings of its Canadian offices. While Getty has made the move to consolidate its various satellite facilities into its Seattle headquarters, the result amounts to another plus in the local market for the likes of First Light.