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.

The high-definition explosion many have been bracing for may well be a reality within the next 18 months, and pioneers such as stock footage veteran Paula Lumbard are ready for it.

John Holosko considers himself lucky. The Toronto-based director of photography explains why as he lights the infirmary inside the Tulip spaceship of Starhunter 2300.

Kodak Canada has unveiled Vision2, its latest high-speed color negative film stock, which stands to be a boon for TV series and low-budget feature production as well as low-light shooting in general.

The ad industry let loose their pocketbooks again this year at the 15th Big Night Out in support of the Bereaved Families of Ontario held at the York Event theatre on Nov. 14. It was a sold-out event with more than 750 people in attendance. In one of its most successful years to date, the event helped raise more than $100,000 from live and silent auctions as well as a fashion show hosted by FashionTelevision celeb Jeanne Beker.

In the summer of 2001, in the midst of completing their first feature, the Steve DiMarco-helmed Hurt, Charlotte Bernard Entertainment partners Joel Awerbuck and Bob Banack took it upon themselves to shoot a campaign of spec spots for Rogers Communications and agency MacLaren McCann.
While it might seem an odd move to shift gears so early in the life of a fledgling prodco trying to build momentum in the feature film business, it was, in fact, part of the company’s growth strategy right from the start.
The partners, coming from backgrounds as varied as documentary production and investment banking, did a lot of research before jumping into the game. After looking at a few domestic and U.S.-based companies, they decided to diversify their company’s revenue sources early in the planning stages.

If you get the top talents in one field working under the same roof toward the same goals, business is bound to follow. Toybox and Manta Digital Sound and Picture, both part of Command Post and Transfer Corporation, have lost three of the country’s top colorists to Canada’s first transfer-only boutique, Notch, which opened in Toronto Oct. 25.
Gary Chuntz and Elaine Ford, formerly with Toybox, and Bill Ferwerda, formerly with Manta DSP, are now principals and part-owners at Notch. According to Chuntz, both rooms at their new facility have been booked solid since day one and will be full well into January.

When Toronto’s The Animation House closed in April, founder Bob Fortier swore he’d have another animation studio up and running within six months, and he has done it at AXYZ Edit.
Fortier joined AXYZ as a creative consultant and set up Monkey Business, a 2D animation division at the Toronto editing house. ‘I’m back in business, so to speak,’ says Fortier. ‘AXYZ is just a great place to be. All of the technical and creative support is here; it’s worked out great.’
Fortier has already completed a Kellogg spot and has two more projects for Kraft Foods currently in production, a Post Sugar Crisp spot and an Alphabits spot through Ogilvy & Mather.

Vancouver: Talking geese and gay romantic comedies have the kind of audience appeal that can rescue Canada’s woebegone domestic box office, predicts the man charged with expanding the national cinema’s share of ticket sales.
‘In the past, we may have allowed ourselves to become too preoccupied with auteur filmmaking,’ admits Richard Stursberg, executive director of Telefilm Canada, speaking on the theme of audience development Nov. 13 to members of Vancouver’s branch of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. ‘That resulted in a period when Canadian films won a lot of prizes but not much commercial success. Now, we need to support a range of genres with more comedies, more family movies and kids pictures, more thrillers and more romances.’

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters and Bell ExpressVu have inked an agreement to distribute 20 additional local private TV stations on the DTH service. The proposal, filed with the CRTC on Nov. 12, also calls for Bell ExpressVu to divert 2% of its gross annual revenues, currently about $12 million, from the Canadian Television Fund to an independently administered fund specifically for local and regional programming.
CAB president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell says local TV stations are under a lot of pressure from the proliferation of news, pay and specialty services, digital channels and other new services on the eligibility list. O’Farrell says the agreement follows the precedent set by the CRTC which allows cable companies to divert 2.4% of gross revenues to local cable community channels.