ChumCity Interactive has signed an exclusive one-year Internet distribution deal with upstart Jive Media that promises to give the content provider increased control over proprietary property purveyed on the Internet….

The nominations for the Golden Sheafs, to be awarded at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival (May 24-27), are out and include multi-nominations for some filmmakers, making them odds-on favorites for taking home at least one prize….

The Manitoba Film and Video Production Tax Credit will continue until 2005. The extension of the expiry date, originally set for early 2002, will lend consistency to the provincial industry, says Manitoba Film and Sound’s manager, film programs, Alexa Rosentreter….

Toronto commercial director Jeff Siberry has left Trailer Park Films in favor of the Big Film Company. The attraction between Siberry and his new spot shop was mutual and undeniable. According to Big executive producer Angie Colgoni, once Siberry walked into the Big offices, he wasn’t going to get away.
‘He came in a couple of times and we didn’t want to let him go,’ says Colgoni. ‘We had a couple more meetings with him and there was something about him – we couldn’t let him walk away from the company.’

You thought awards season was over? Not a chance. While Toronto commercial folk pretty themselves up for the Bessies on May 24, residents of Calgary are set to go completely glam once again for their commercial event….

Toronto’s Command Post and Transfer has completed its transaction with Netstar Enterprise’s Dome Productions, acquiring the assets of Dome’s audio and visual post-production business DAVE, also based in Toronto. …

Tapestry Pictures, reborn a year and a half ago with the addition of Heather Godin, is expanding its focus on MOWs and miniseries and heading into the world of performing arts, documentary and feature film.
‘With CBC’s new vertical programming structure and its Thursday night performing arts strand, we’ve been in supply talks with them to develop the strand,’ says Tapestry co-principal Mary Young Leckie.

Once again, the Television Bureau of Canada is gearing up for the annual Bessie Awards honoring excellence in Canadian television advertising. The 38th awards show will be held Thursday, May 24 at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in downtown Toronto.
This year’s judging panel is chaired by Robin Heisey, executive VP, creative director of Harrod & Mirlin FCB, Toronto, and vice-chaired by Rick Kemp, senior VP, executive creative director, J. Walter Thompson, Toronto. The panel includes David Chiavegato (associate creative director at Palmer Jarvis DDB, Toronto), Ian Grais (creative director, Rethink Communications, Vancouver), Cynthia Heyd (VP of broadcast productions at BBDO, Toronto), Richard Nadeau (Bos, Montreal), Jamie Way (Angel Films, Toronto), director Bronwen Hughes and Edie Weiss (Radke Films, Toronto).

In order to glitz up the 2001 Bessie Awards, Toronto’s Spin Productions has undertaken a project that will see the shop working feverishly to create a show-stopping show opening. This is no easy task, especially when working gratis for the Television…

Vancouver: Local director Michael Bafaro and production manager Chris Rudolf have returned to Revelstoke, B.C., to film The Barber.
It’s the first full feature shot in their mountainous hometown. (Big studio feature Double Jeopardy, with Ashley Judd, shot one day in Revelstoke back in 1999.)
Produced as the fifth feature by Vancouver’s Prophecy Entertainment, The Barber stars Malcolm McDowell as an Alaska town coiffeur who moonlights as a veteran serial killer. As an ‘offbeat’ psychological thriller, the story gets into his mind and his ability to lead a double life.

Feature film Max and the Lioness will move production to the Mick Phillips St. Station Casino in Winnipeg June 4-6, the first production ever to do so. A coprod between Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures, Montreal’s Les Film de l’Isle and Moncton’s Transmar Films, the $3.2-million ‘twisted psycho thriller’ follows a couple on the road in a story of complicated relationships that culminates in murder.
The casino scene ‘involves huge stages and thousands of people. It’s an integral scene, a huge part of the film,’ says Shawn Watson, producer for Buffalo Gal. ‘In the film, it’s somewhere near Yellowknife on an aboriginal reserve and no such casino exists. It’s an important part of the film; we meet a central character in the movie in that scene and slowly unfold the drama about to take place in the casino.’

Robin Heisey knows the winners, but good luck getting them out of him.
As the judging chair for this year’s Bessies, Heisey, executive VP and creative director at Harrod & Mirlin FCB, Toronto, is tight-lipped as to which spots have been selected as the best this country had to offer last year.
Regarded as emotionally draining by some and the catalyst for more therapy by others, Heisey sees the chairing job as more fun than any one person has a right to.

Montreal: Bernard Emond’s first feature film La Femme qui boit, a moving portrait of a proud alcoholic woman’s dying recollections, and the France/Canada coproduction Le Pornographe have been retained for official selection in the International Critics’ Week sidebar of this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, May 9-20.
Canadian actor Pascale Bussieres (Un 32 aout sur terre) returns to the festival this year starring alongside Emmanuelle Beart in Catherine Corsini’s La Repetition. A psychological drama about two women who attempt to rebuild a friendship ended 15 years earlier, the film is one of 23 selected for official competition and is a majority France/Canada coproduction from producers Denise Robert and Daniel Louis of Montreal’s Cinemaginaire.

While some broadcasters and production companies have leapt headfirst into the convergence fray, Rhombus Media has until now adopted a more staid approach. But the Toronto-based producer best known for its performing arts programming is now taking iTV baby steps in collaboration with local interactive content provider marblemedia.
Rhombus and marblemedia are working together on Toothpaste, a five-minute operatic short starring Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney and vocalist Barbara Hannigan that will have a life on both TV and the Internet. It may seem a strange type of content for interactivity, but it’s not entirely surprising given Rhombus’s esoteric track record. The majority of funding for the TV end comes from Bravo!FACT, which provides grants for the production of Canadian shorts covering the arts. The plan is for Bravo! to air the short in the fall.

Toronto-based Big Studios has received its second Emmy Award. The Toronto 2D and 3D studio won in the category of outstanding graphic design for its work on ABC’s Super Bowl XXXIV broadcast Jan. 28. The National Sports Emmy Awards were presented…