For Canadian filmmakers, especially those with debut features, the coup of getting into the Toronto International Film Festival can make them forget, if only for a time, the reality of Canadian film: long after the festival wraps, most homegrown movies die an unheralded death at the box office.

Montreal: Members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television – Quebec section don’t necessarily judge programs in the same manner the public does, so audience ratings for this year’s Prix Gemeaux program finalists are only part of the story.
The field in the best drama series category seems especially competitive.
Last season’s top-rated drama, Fortier (Aetios Productions), chronicling the dangerous work of a female anti-crime unit psychologist, is also this year’s most-nominated drama series with 15 Prix Gemeaux nominations. Broadcast on Reseau TVA, Fortier was the only series to draw more than two million viewers last season. The show is scripted by Fabienne Larouche and stars Sophie Lorain and Gilbert Sicotte, each nominated for a Gemeaux.

Following are highlights of this year’s Prix Gemeaux finalist list in selected categories. For the full list of nominees, check out the ACCT website at www.academy.ca.

With new outlets to exhibit their work opening up, the long-term outlook for Canadian short filmmakers has rarely looked brighter. Never before have filmmakers sold their shorts so widely, even if fledgling dot-coms that stream film over the Internet are fewer in number these days.

Vancouver: On Sept. 1, as part of the massive switchover of station affiliations in Vancouver, CKVU 13 returned to its roots as an independent station. This is a temporary measure, until the CRTC approves the $125-million purchase of the station by CHUM Ltd. and paves the way for it to become by fall 2002 The New VU or some such Citytv-branded station like Victoria’s The New VI.
Already the station, formerly owned by Global, is walking and talking like a CHUM station since CHUM is providing much of the fall programming and acts as CKVU’s national sales agent. The bulk of the new schedule will comprise CHUM shows such as FashionTelevision, Star TV, MovieTelevision, Electric Circus, Sex TV, Ed the Sock and The New Music.

Montreal: Jean-Pierre Lefebvre’s new film Le Manuscript Erotique opens as a sensational 35-year-old female publisher/book editor receives a draft of a novel called Le Manuscript Erotique. She secretly takes the manuscript home for the weekend and begins to realize the book’s story is her own, a denial of love and sex because of a bad first marriage.
The narrative mixes realism and fantasy as the lead, played by Lyne Riel, ‘meets up with the characters in the novel,’ says the filmmaker. Sylvie Moreau and Francois Papineau also star.
The film, Lefebvre’s 26th feature, is being shot in digital PAL format over 12 full days through to Sept. 6, mainly in Montreal, using a small six-person crew that includes DOP Robert Vanherweghem. Barbara Easto is the picture editor.

Philippe Falardeau shot his eight-minute short Jean Laliberte for a grand total of $40 in one day. Martine Chartrand shot her 10-minute work over four years for $350,000. The former is a comedy about an entrepreneur’s illusions of grandeur; the latter a poetic journey across the history of African peoples in the Americas.

Vision TV is breaking ground with plans to launch its first-ever, original, homegrown situation comedy series.
Cocreated and coproduced by British arrival Frances-Anne Solomon of Leda Serene Films, who is also directing the 13-part series, and Toronto scribe Vanz Chapman (Drop The Beat), who is heading up the writing team, Our Man is set at a Caribbean storefront church in the heart of downtown Toronto. The primary source of the sitcom’s humor is the ongoing friction between the ambitious but inept Youth Pastor Gooding and his pragmatic, easygoing father-in-law Pastor Stevens, whose lives are further complicated by the offbeat array of eccentrics and misfits who congregate at the church.

Montreal: This year’s inaugural Canadian Retrospective, a showcase for Canadian directors and themes, will spotlight Jean-Pierre Lefebvre. After nearly 40 years of filmmaking, Lefebvre is widely admired as ‘the godfather of independent Canadian cinema,’ particularly among the young and independent-minded.

Montreal, Vancouver: Despite down-to-the-wire efforts by ACTRA and Montreal location authorities on the ground in L.A., 20th Century Fox/New Regency has moved the $92-million action film Daredevil to Vancouver from Montreal.
But before the decision to relocate was final, ACTRA had entered negotiations with Fox, and had decided to accept various terms laid down by Fox and producer Bernie Williams. The Americans had expressed fears shooting Daredevil in Montreal could expose the film to a potential work stoppage by performers in ACTRA as early as mid-January. The studio had sought an ACTRA guarantee filming would not be stopped in the event of an industry-wide strike, and that the production would be subject to the rates and conditions of the current collective agreement, which expires Dec. 31.
According to Stephen Waddell, ACTRA national executive director, Fox could not get out of its obligations to The Bridge Studios in Vancouver, obligations which may have been contracted as late as Aug. 10. ‘I’m disappointed that the production didn’t stay in Montreal,’ says Waddell. ‘It’s unfortunate that the Montreal performers will lose the opportunity and that soundstages will lose the business.’

The CRTC’s licence renewal decision for CTV and Global Television may be a win for the Canadian public but it has caused some concern among the broadcasters.
The decision, which held few surprises, was the result of the commission’s first opportunity to evaluate the private broadcast groups against provisions of the TV Policy.
In the area of priority programming of Canadian content, for which the commission no longer requires a minimum level of expenditure, CTV’s president and COO Trina McQueen says, ‘There are fairly rigorous expectations already in place. We’re just happy there were no additional requirements on that level.’

Intellectual property – how to pay for it, how to protect it online. This hot subject once again generated the most sparks at the Convergence – iTV & Beyond conference, held Aug. 13-14 in Toronto.
Last year, William Craig, president and CEO, iCravetv.com, was the man on the hot seat, while this time it was Farrel Miller, CEO, JumpTV.
Miller defended the initiatives of JumpTV Canada, which seeks to webcast networks available over-the-air in Canada (ABC, CBC, CBS, CTV, Fox, Global and NBC) without their permission.

The CRTC’s senior broadcasting commissioner says that while ‘it’s not a foregone conclusion’ that the regulator will approve the transfer of the Independent Film Channel Canada licence to Alliance Atlantis Communications, a ruling against that transfer would be ‘a severe judgment.’
Andree Wylie, commission vice-chair of broadcasting, said she could not speak to many of the specifics of AAC’s active application to take control of the coveted IFCC licence from Salter Street Films, which AAC bought earlier this year. But she did discuss logistics, some past practice, previous change-of-control cases and the trends in entertainment convergence.

Lately, it’s all about things in inverse proportion. As in, the amount of fear-mongering being done by powerful U.S. studios vis-a-vis the risk of a strike by ACTRA may be in inverse proportion to the actual risk of an actors strike in Canada. (See ‘Strike fears’ story p. 1)

Bullard to host Geminis