All articles by de.seguin@gmail.com – Page 21
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News
Telefilm Canada overhauls film funding regime
Canada's principal public sector film funder, TelefilmCanada, has announced a much-anticipated overhaul of its methods of investment- and re-investment - in the nation's indigenous production and distributionindustry. The changes affect the $71m (C$81m) Canadian Feature FilmFund (CFFF) as it is applied in both English-lanuage and French-languagesectors in the 2007-2008 allotment.The ...
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Alliance Atlantis puts MPD on the block
Alliance Atlantis Communications has hung a for sale sign onits majority-owned releasing arm, Motion Picture Distribution (MPD). The decision, announced today, to "explore ownershipalternatives" comes after months of speculation and much internal acrimony. InJuly of this year MPD chairman Victor Loewy and two senior MPD executivesabruptly left the company amidst ...
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Cronenberg dominates Directors Guild Of Canada awards
David Cronenberg's AHistory Of Violence was the bigwinner at the 2006 Directors Guild of Canada Awards, winning the prize for allbut one of the feature film categories for which it was eligible, includingOutstanding Achievement in Direction, Team Achievement, Sound Editing andPicture Editing. Phillip Barker won the prizefor Oustanding Achievement in ...
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Bon Cop passes Porky's as biggest ever Canadian hit
Hit comedy Bon Cop BadCop has become the highest-grossingCanadian film of all time, toppling the 1982 release Porky's from the top spot. Directed by Erik Canuel,produced by Kevin Tierney of Montreal's Park Ex Pictures and released acrossCanada by Alliance Atlantis' Motion Picture Distribution, the film notched acumulative gross of $10m ...
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Reviews
Ghosts Of Cite Soleil
Dir.Asger Leth. Denmark/US. 2006. 88min. Although it will prove a maddeningexperience for anyone seeking a traditional documentary approach to the enduring and vexing humanitarian crisis thatis Haiti, Ghosts Of Cite Soleil is anincredibly visceral journey into the meaning of the phrase "life is cheap". Avital melding of hip hop sensibility ...
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Reviews
Ghosts Of Cite Soleil
Dir.Asger Leth. Denmark/US. 2006. 88min. Although it will prove a maddeningexperience for anyone seeking a traditional documentary approach to the enduring and vexing humanitarian crisis thatis Haiti, Ghosts Of Cite Soleil is anincredibly visceral journey into the meaning of the phrase "life is cheap". Avital melding of hip hop sensibility ...
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Reviews
Bunny Chow
Dir:John Barker. South Africa. 2006. 90mins. Ahopeful signal of change in the new South Africa, Bunny Chow is an exuberant hop in the hay, a bonk in the back seatand a flamboyant middle finger to the nation's apartheid past. The title is a referenceto a South African fast-food specialty, a ...
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Alliance Atlantis MPD renews with New Line, retains Loewy
Alliance Atlantis' Motion Picture Distribution announced ithas reached an agreement with New Line Cinema to continue its Canadian outputdeal through December 31, 2008. The company has also settled the legal wrangle with formerchairman Victor Loewy, former CEO Patrice Theroux and former senior counselPaul Laberge. Today's announcements lay to rest months ...
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News
Equinoxe, Milagro in Montreal sign on for Saura's Secrets
Montreal-based productioncompanies Equinoxe Films and Milagro Films have signed on as coproducers ofCarlos Saura Medrano's upcoming psychological thriller Secrets alongside Madrid-based Zebra Producciones, theproduction outfit of Antonio Saura. Saura, who wrote the screenplay, and SauraMedrano are sons of veteran Spanish auteur Carlos Saura. The Euros 3mEnglish-language project is set to ...
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Hot Docs expands 2007 festival to 11 days, adding 25 screening slots
Hot Docs CanadianInternational Documentary Festival will expand its 2007 edition to eleven days,adding approximately 25 slots to its screening slate. The Toronto-based festivaldates will run April 19 to 29, 2007. Film submissions for the event are now open,with an early entry deadline of December 15, 2006 and a late entry ...
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Landscapes, Congorama win top prizes at Atlantic Film Festival
Jennifer Baichwal's ManufacturedLandscapes, a feature documentaryabout environmental landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky, won the prize forBest Canadian Documentary as the 26th Atlantic Film Festival (AFF)wrapped in Halifax this Friday. The film won the Best Canadian Feature prize atToronto earlier in the month.Other major AFF prizewinners were Philippe Falardeau for Congorama, which ...
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Reviews
Amazing Grace
Dir. Michael AptedUK 2006 111mins.A historical drama about the efforts of 18th-centuryBritish parliamentarian William Wilberforce to legislate an end to the slavetrade in Britain, Amazing Grace is aworthy but ultimately flat chronology. It will suffer by comparison with recentUK TV production such as Bleak Houseand Elizabeth I while US theatricalprospects ...
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Reviews
Seraphim Falls
Dir. David Von Ancken. US. 2006 115mins.Had it been made 50 years ago, Seraphim Falls might now be considered aclassic western. But the intervening years have warped and reshaped the genreso many times that an effort like this seems besidethe point. Unlike John Hilcoat's savagely post-modernThe Proposition, which screened atToronto ...
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Mehta's Water gets Canada's vote for Oscar
Deepa Mehta's Water has been selected as Canada's entry for the foreign-languageOscar at the 79th Academy Awards. Starring H.T.J. Sarala, LisaRay, John Abraham and Seema Biswas and produced by David Hamilton, the film wasdistributed in the US by Fox Searchlight Pictures and in Canada by MongrelMedia. Celluloid Dreams was the ...
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Smythe-Bishop appointed senior vp, publicity & promotions, at MPD
SusanSmythe-Bishop has been appointed senior vice president, publicity and promotionat Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution (MPD). A 14-yearveteran in the publicity and promotion offices of the Canadian releasingcompany, Smythe-Bishop will nowoversee all publicity and promotion strategies for all theatrical releases inEnglish Canada. 'Susan hasbeen integral in the growth of ...
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Reviews
Death Of A President
Dir. Gabriel Range. UK. 2006. 93mins.The blurring of reality and fiction takes anintriguing step sideways in Death Of APresident, a mock documentary that posits the assassination of George WBush and the political shockwaves such an event would surely generate. Nosurprise, the film, which world premiered at Toronto and won the ...
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DOAP, Bella, Reprise top TIFF prizes
UK filmmakerGabriel Range's Death Of A President won the FIPRESCI prize while Joachim Trier's Reprise(Norway) won the Diesel Discovery Award as the 31st TorontoInternational Film Festival wrapped here on Saturday. The prizes went to arange of films, many of them debut features. The audienceprize, the People's Choice Award, was asurprise: ...
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Loewy to return to MPD, focusing on New Line product, says report
The dispute between filmdistributor Motion Picture Distribution and its former chairman Victor Loewyhas been resolved, according to a newspaper report in Canada. Citing unnamed sources, theGlobe and Mail newspaper said Loewy had negotiated a return to the MPDexecutive suite which will see him deal exclusively with the output deal withNew ...
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Sarandon, Byrne, Plummer get Emotional
Susan Sarandon, GabrielByrne, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow and Roy Dupuis have signed on asleads in Emotional Arithmeticfrom Montreal-based BBR Productions and Toronto's Triptych Media. Budgeted near$5.8m, the long-gestating project begins production in Quebec's Easterntownships in October. Directed by Paolo Barzmanand adapted by Jefferson Lewis and Barzman from the eponymous ...
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Bachchan to join Abraham in Mehta's next Exclusion
Indian megastar AmitabhBachchan is expected to take the lead role in Deepa Mehta's Exclusion, a$15m historical drama about an ill-fated voyage of emigre Sikhs who soughtrefuge but where rebuffed by Canadian authorities in the early part of the 20thcentury. Bachchan, who is in Torontoto promote Never Say Goodbye,will play Gurdit ...