Alliance Atlantis Communications is set to take its broadcast division into the international market and could use its BBC Kids digital channel as the vehicle to get it there.
While the Toronto-based media company has long been a player in international markets through coproductions and its U.K.-based distribution business, Momentum Pictures, the broadcast unit has remained firmly entrenched on Canadian soil.
In an exclusive one-on-one interview with Playback, AAC Chair and CEO Michael MacMillan says that the broadcast unit will likely soon follow suit.

Vancouver: After a dismal first six months in which Vancouver’s production volumes were off by 50% and unemployed film workers sang a song of woe, the outlook is somewhat brighter for the remainder of 2002.
‘Nobody is doing back flips,’ cautions John Juliani, president of the Union of BC Performers, with its 3,000 full members. ‘But business is picking up.’

The market is very small and the potential cost is very high. But Canadian TV broadcasters could be forced to provide free-to-air high-definition signals much sooner than expected, thanks to recent whip-cracking by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
On Aug. 8, the federal regulator voted 3-1 to order U.S. manufacturers to include digital tuners in all new TV sets with screen sizes of 36 inches or greater by 2004. All other TVs must be digital ready by 2007. This is in keeping with the FCC’s plans for the U.S. to abandon all analog TV broadcasting by the end of 2006.

Toronto director Bruce McDonald is in production on a documentary detailing the making of his 2001 drama Picture Claire, which has yet to see release. McDonald hopes the attention garnered by the new film, dubbed Planet Claire, will help kick-start a theatrical release for the original feature, which has sat in limbo ever since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.

As September approaches and most people are dreading the end of summer, I for one am counting down the days. And it’s not just because I’m eight months pregnant and melting in this torturous heat. It’s not even because the long-awaited festival season is finally getting underway. The awful truth is that I just can’t wait for season four of The Sopranos to start.

U.K.-based HIT Entertainment, one of the world’s leading producers and distributors of family programming, has officially opened shop in Toronto.
‘The establishment of this company is a key component of our global strategy,’ states HIT CEO Rob Lawes. ‘It puts us in an optimum position to grow our business in Canada and ensures that our properties are distributed and marketed effectively by Canadians to Canadians.’

ASKED whether licensing conditions should be opened up unilaterally to allow Canadian specialty channels to produce drama, 67.92% of poll respondents voted yes, 32.08% voted no.

Vancouver-based producer Harvey Kahn expects to produce three movies out of his U.S.-based investment fund Front Street Films LLC, not eight, as mentioned in the Aug. 5 story ‘U.S. private kitty purrs for Kahn’s features.’ Budgets for planned productions range from US$1.5 million up to US$5 million and the higher budgets mean fewer productions. Meanwhile, distributor Carole Curb Nemoy is not the wife of actor Leonard Nimoy and is just one of several distributors with whom Kahn works. Apologies for the errors.

Montreal: While there is overwhelming support for CTV’s licence renewal application for Montreal affiliate CFCF-TV, heavyweight industry intervenors are asking the CRTC to oblige CTV to pick up the tab for unfulfilled past benefits promises made by former station owners – notably WIC Television, which promised $7 million in benefits over five years back in 1997.

For Canadian filmmakers, the significance of the Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Atlantic film festivals, about to pass in rapid succession, can not be overstated. Especially for first-time filmmakers, often working with seemingly impossible budgets, the festival season provides an opportunity for recognition and a vital portal into an often hard-to-crack industry.

* Telefilm Canada has announced three management appointments. Sheila de La Varende, director of the European office in Paris, has been appointed to the concurrent position of director, International Development and Promotion, formerly known as the International Relations division. She was previously acting director, International Relations.
Stephane Odesse has been appointed general counsel and Access to Information co-ordinator. A member of the Quebec Bar, he specialized in intellectual property and financing in the private sector prior to joining Telefilm Canada as legal counsel in 1994. Odesse is responsible for co-ordinating matters concerning the Access to Information Act and for directing the Legal Department.
Louise Deslauriers has been promoted to director, Feature Films Business Unit – Quebec, the position she held on an interim basis since Feb. 2002. She was a senior investment analyst with Telefilm for the past four years.

Montreal: The 26th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival is certainly living up to its name, with 406 films from 75 countries, including 248 world premieres, 214 feature films, 33 medium-length films and 159 short films on the program.

Montreal: Hopes are definitely on the high side for two Canadian films selected for official competition in this year’s Montreal World Film Festival.

Montreal: Quebec film and TV producers have a long pioneering history of coproduction with Europe, mostly with France but increasingly with the U.K. And 2002 is no exception.
Among the most active Quebec houses in coproduction are Transfilm, CineGroupe, Cite-Amerique, Cinemaginaire, Max Films, Mediatoon, Pixcom Productions, Muse Entertainment, Tooncan, Galafilm, Park Ex Pictures, Remstar Productions, Equinox Entertainment and Cinar Corp.

The following is a summary of Canadian films and coproductions selected for upcoming festivals: