All articles by de.seguin@gmail.com – Page 39
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Reviews
November
Director: Greg Harrison US. 2004. 78mins.Screening in Dramatic Competition at Sundance, November is a psychological thriller that jolts the brain but has more trouble tugging the heartstrings. Exploring how subjective our memory becomes, particularly in the aftermath of trauma, this low-budget film challenges its audience to sort out fact from ...
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Reviews
Garden State
Dir: Zach Braff. US. 2004. 112mins.Screening in Dramatic Competition at Sundance, Zach Braff's promising first feature has three of the elements that make debut films appealing: a new face, a fresh voice and a distinct way of seeing the world, all embodied in the triple threat that is Braff: director, ...
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Reviews
Seducing Dr Lewis (La Grande Seduction)
Dir. Jean-Francois Pouliot. Canada. 2003. 108mins.Making its US premiere in Sundance's World Cinema programme, Seducing Dr Lewis (La Grande Seduction), which premiered in Director's Fortnight at Cannes last year, has been described as a Quebecois version of The Full Monty. But it's closer in spirit to films such as Waking ...
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Reviews
The Corporation
Dirs: Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott. Canada. 2003. 145mins.This compelling, hugely ambitious documentary will be required viewing for every left-of-centre intellectual and a bore for the other 95% of the movie-going world. Although its marketing attempts to draw parallels with such populist fare as Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine, this film ...
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News
Equinoxe makes Passion play
Montreal-based Equinoxe Films has picked up Canadian rightsin all media to Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ. Produced by Gibson's Icon Productions, the film is scheduledfor a release coincidental with Newmarket Films' wide US release on Feb. 25,2004 - Ash Wednesday according to the Christian calendar. The film, which ...
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News
Third Harry Potter to get simultaneous IMAX release next summer
Harry Potter is heading tothe really big screen. The third installment of Warner Bros' franchise,Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, will be released on Imax screens simultaneous with the conventional theatricalrelease in June 2004.The decision is a vote ofconfidence from Warner Bros, in the wake of successful Imax releases ...
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News
Toronto critics opt for Lost In Translation
Sofia Coppola's Lost InTranslation won three prizes as theToronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) announced its awards for 2003. Thedramatic comedy won best picture, best male performance for Bill Murray, andbest screenplay for Coppola, who shared the prize in that category withCanadian auteur Denys Arcand for The Barbarian Invasions.Peter Jackson was ...
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News
Canada names its ten best films of the year
Films by Guy Maddin, DenysArcand and Robert Lepage as well as a Spanish-Canadian coproduction wereamongst the films judged as the ten best Canadian films of 2003 yesterday.Organised by the TorontoInternational Film Festival Group, the top ten list is intended to celebrateexcellence in Canadian film and present a platform for home-grown ...
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News
Mickie among latest Alliance Atlantis casualties
Veteran sales executiveCharlotte Mickie and Salter Street Films, the Halifax-based production companybehind Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine are the latest victims in Alliance Atlantis'cost-cutting measures. Last week the Torontoentertainment company announced plans to cut nearly half of the positionswithin its Entertainment Group, as its production arm is known. The companyalso ...
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News
Canadian distribution sector posts record revenues in 2001/2
Big jumps in pay-TV and homevideo drove Canadian film distributors and video wholesales to a record $2.28bn(C$3bn) in revenues in 2001-2002 according to data released Monday by StatisticsCanada. Revenues from pre-recordedvideocassettes and DVDs reached$1.14bn in2001/02, their highestlevel ever, driven by a 23% increase in average household expenditures onsoftware. The overall ...
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News
Montreal film fest to fete Adjani
Next year's Montreal World Film Festival will pay tribute to French actress Isabelle Adjani. Making the announcement, MWFF president Serge Losique deemed Ms. Adjani 'an extraordinary artist, an actress who is equally at home in transforming herself into her films' profound and exceptional characters or playing seemingly light roles with ...
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News
Alliance Atlantis makes sweeping cuts in production
Toronto-based entertainmentcompany Alliance Atlantis plans massive cuts to its production arm, cutting upto 60 positions nearly half the division's workforce - and axing the twomost senior production executives, EntertainmentGroup CEO Peter Sussman and Seaton McLean, the group's president for productionand one of the founders of the original company, Atlantis ...
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News
Cowan's in at Toronto, to run festival alone by 2007
The Toronto InternationalFilm Festival has appointed Noah Cowan to the new position of co-director. Theappointment, which was widely anticipated, will see Cowan sharing programmingduties with Piers Handling during a three-year transition period before takingover the festival's reins. Handling will assumefull-time duties as the CEO of the Toronto International Festival Group ...
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News
Adjani to receive special tribute at Montreal Film Festival 2004
Next year'sMontreal World Film Festival will pay tribute to French actress IsabelleAdjani. Making the announcement, MWFF president Serge Losique deemed Ms. Adjani"an extraordinary artist, an actress who is equally at home in transformingherself into her films' profound and exceptional characters or playingseemingly light roles with an expert touch." Despite thisyear's ...
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News
McKellar cranks up Childstar
Principal photography is underway in Toronto for Don McKellar's second film, Childstar through Toronto-based Rhombus Media. Written by McKellar and Michael Goldbach, the comedy features an ensemble cast including McKellar, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mark Rendall Dave Foley, Gil Bellows, Brendan Fehr, Kristin Adams, Peter Paige, Noam Jenkins, Alan Thicke, Eric ...
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News
Toronto's Handling steps aside from programming duties
Piers Handling, thelong-time director of the Toronto International Film Festival, is steppingaside from his main programming duties to concentrate on his other job title,that of CEO of the umbrella Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG).Meanwhile, the organization is entertaining a dozen applications for the job ofco-director of the festival proper; ...
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News
Shoreline swims with Bay Of Love
LA-based Shoreline Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to the Canadian feature, The Bay Of Love And Sorrows. Starring Peter Outerbridge, Jonathan Scarfe, and Elaine Cassidy, directed by Tim Southam and produced by Toronto-based Triptych Media, the film is an adaptation of leading native novelist David Adams Richards, who co-wrote the ...
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News
Canada to increase labour-based tax credit for local production
The Canadian government ismoving to increase the labour-based tax credit available to local film andtelevision producers, a long awaited balancing move following the February 2003increase to the tax credit available to off-shore producers. The changes are expected toaffect Canadian content production and thereby increase Canada's attractivenessas an international co-production partner. ...
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News
Canada boosts tax credits for local producers
The Canadian government is planning to increase the labour-based tax credit available to local film and television producers.The long awaited move follows up an increase to the tax credit available to off-shore producers in February 2003.The changes are designed to boost Canadian production and to increase Canada's attractiveness as an ...
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News
Mambo Italiano becomes 2nd best Canadian performer
Canadian comedy Mambo Italiano has moved into second place among all-time Canadian box office performers, having earned $3.8m (C$5.1m) on release through Equinoxe Films. Its gross surpasses The Art Of War, which earned C$4.5m in 2000 but remains well short of top-placed Porkies, a 1981 release which earned C$11m. Produced ...