All articles by de.seguin@gmail.com – Page 38
-
News
Ontario film censor loses power to cut
An Ontario judge has ruled that the province's film reviewboard does not have the right to require cuts to films submitted forclassification prior to distribution.Overturning a previous judgment, Mr. Justice RussellJuriansz of the Ontario Superior Court said the province's censorship rules runcontrary to the nation's freedom-of-expression statutes.Justice Juriansz said the ...
-
News
Barbarian Invasions sweeps Genies
Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions swept Canada's Genie Awards, winning six major prizes, including best picture and two prizes for Arcand himself, best direction and best original screenplay.Quebecois icon Remy Girard won the best actor prize for his role in The Barbarian Invasions as the bon vivant stricken with terminal ...
-
News
Alliance Atlantis restructures operations
There's about tobe a lot of new business cards printed at Alliance Atlantis. Two years afterintroducing its operating groups of Broadcast, Motion Picture Distribution andEntertainment, the company is re-integrating those groups into a single corporatestructure - all save Motion Picture Distribution, which became a distinctcorporate entity in the autumn ...
-
News
CanWest extinguishes Fireworks
Nearly a year after the departure offounder and CEO Jay Firestone, Fireworks Entertainment is to be shuttered byparent company CanWest Global Communications.Winnipeg-based CanWest announced on Fridaythat the stricken company would cease both television production andacquisition activities and that discussions were underway with "a numberof parties" toward disposing of the catalogue. ...
-
News
Telefilm Canada strikes deal with CAA to boost Canadian films
Telefilm Canada has hired anagent. Canada's public sector film financier has entered an agreement with CreativeArtists Agency (CAA) that could see Hollywood's largest talent agency packagingprojects for production in Canada.According to a leaked memodirected to Canadian producers from Telefilm executive director RichardStursberg, the purpose of the agreement is "to assist ...
-
News
Alliance Atlantis gets Canadian rights to Super Size Me
Alliance Atlantis's OdeonFilms has acquired Canadian rights to Morgan Spurlock's Sundance-prize winning SuperSize Me. The deal was negotiated bySpurlock and Odeon president Bryan Gliserman between Sundance and Austin'sSouth-By-Southwest Festival (SXSW).Odeon vice-president ofmarketing and publicity Mark Slone told ScreenDaily that the film was the idealtheatrical documentary release because of its marketability. ...
-
News
Telefilm Canada greenlights four from Quebec
Canadian public sector filminvestor Telefilm Canada has given the greenlight to four projects from Quebec,including films from Bernard Emond, whose 20h 16 Rue Darling screened in the Critics Week at Cannes 2003, and JeanBeaudin, who is currently wrapping the Canada-France historical epic NewFrance.Emond's project, entitled JeanneEt Francois, tells the story ...
-
News
Cianciotta returns to distribution at Canada's Capri
Gabriella Martinelli's CapriFilms has appointed exhibition and distribution veteran Tony Cianciotta aspresident of its new distribution division, Capri Releasing.The Toronto-based shingleannounced its first release: Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster, for which Cianciotta picked up Canadian rights atBerlin from Films Transit. The documentary, directed by Joe Berlinger and BruceSinofsky, chronicles the ...
-
News
Ritchie Boys gets world premiere at Hot Docs
Christian Bauer'sCanada-Germany coproduction The Ritchie Boys, the story of German Jews who formed an eliteintelligence unit for the US Army during WWII, will make its world premiere atthe 11th Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.The festival, North America'slargest film event devoted to non-fiction fare, will present the worldpremieres of a ...
-
News
Seducing Dr Lewis leads Canada's Genie nods
Jean-Francois Pouliot's Seducing Dr. Lewis grabbed 11 nominations while Denys Arcand's Academy Award winner The Barbarian Invasions earned nine nominations and Robert Lepage's The Far Side Of The Moon earned four nominations for the 2004 Genie Awards.All three Quebec titles were nominated in the Best Motion Picture category, as were ...
-
News
Imax puts 3-D movie to DVD for the first time through Warner
Warner Home Video willrelease the Imax 3D film Space Station on DVD, the first-everImax 3D title to be released in the video domain. The DVD, which will bedistributed in both 2D and 3D capabilities, will go into the domestic market inthe fourth quarter of 2004.However, consumers hoping tosee the 3D ...
-
News
Equinoxe launches production venture
Billy Bob Thornton is in talks to star in Three Bad Men, an $11m Canada-UK co-production backed by Myriad Pictures, Anthony Minghella's and Sydney Pollock's Mirage Enterprises, David Barron and Paul Weiland's UK production outfit Contagious Films and newly-launched Canadian venture Equinoxe Productions.Weiland is set to direct the Peter Straughan-scripted ...
-
News
Meistrich's Film Movement moves into Canada
Larry Meistrich's first-runDVD distribution outfit Film Movement is expanding into the Canadian market,offering its monthly subscription-based service to film buffs north of theborder. Launched in May 2002 by the former Shooting Gallery executive, the NewYork-based company has created a niche for art house and specialty titles thatmight otherwise be passed ...
-
News
Canadian film industry needs a shot in the arm
For Canadian production listings click HEREThe early part of the year is typically the slowest period in the Canadian film industry. Of course "the Canadian film industry" is a vague term at the best of times. These days a cynical observer might ask, "What industry'" In December, Alliance Atlantis completed ...
-
News
Canadian production 'under siege', says report
Competition from off-shore shooting destinations trying to lure US projects is causing concern amongst Canadian producers, according to the annual report issued by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association.Foreign-financed shoots spent US$1.42bn in 2001-2002, nearly 40% of the country's total production volume of US$3.7bn.Although there was an increase of ...
-
Reviews
Love In Thoughts
Dir. Achim von Borries. Germany. 2004. 90 mins.The latest film from Stefan Ardnt's and Tom Tykwer's X Filme creative pool, Love In Thoughts (Was Nuetzt Die Liebe In Gedanken) made its world debut in the Sundance Film Festival's Premiere section. Like a dark fairytale, the film paints an achingly beautiful ...
-
Reviews
Open Water
Dir: Chris Kentis. US. 2004. 79minsBased on a true story about a husband and wife who were accidentally left behind while scuba-diving 18 miles from shore, Open Water, which played in the American Spectrum sidebar at Sundance, is a bargain-basement scary movie that should more than repay its investment. What ...
-
News
Sundance jury passes over audience favourites
If the Sundance FilmFestival has drifted to the mainstream from the margins, no one has told thejuries of the 2004 event. In the keystone Dramatic Competition, the juryawarded its prizes to films that generated little buzz through the course ofthe festival while ignoring the films that caused the greater stir. ...
-
Reviews
The Woodsman
Dir: Nicole Kassel. US. 2004. 85mins.As Capturing The Friedmans made abundantly clear, there is no crime more heinous in the public imagination than paedophilia. So a dramatic feature that has a paedophile as its protagonist would seem to be engaging in taboo for taboo's sake. Which is why The Woodsman, ...
-
News
Max acquires international rights to Lepage's Moon
Montreal-based Max Films hasacquired international rights to Robert Lepage's Far Side Of The Moon (La Face cachee de la lune) from Alliance Atlantis. The film, based onwriter-director-star Lepage's stage piece, will have its international premierein Berlin's Panorama section. Shot on HD, it will screen in 35mm and HD, thefirst time ...