All articles by Agnes Poirier – Page 2
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News
New HQ planned for Toronto film festival
The Toronto International Film Festival has plans to construct its own headquarters and cinema. A purpose-built facility can only heighten the profile of the festival, which is widely considered second only to Cannes in terms of importance. It currently does not have its own public screening facilities; moreover, the closure ...
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News
Blockbuster faces Canadian lawsuit over late fees
Dallas-basedvideo rentailer Blockbuster may be facing a class-action suit in Quebec overits late fee policies after a judge granted class status to a group ofBlockbuster customers in the province. Thesuit, which targets the company's late-fee revenues over the past 11years, alleges that Blockbuster's fines are 'abusive' and aviolation of the ...
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Alliance Atlantis cuts 33 jobs, relocates Sussman
Alliance Atlantis is cutting 33 jobs from its production arm and relocating its main Los Angeles-based executive to Toronto. Peter Sussman, CEO of the company's Entertainment Group, who has been in Los Angeles since 1991, will continue to oversee the Los Angeles operation and, according to a release, "manage key ...
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Reviews
Comandante
Dir: Oliver Stone. US. 2003. 99mins.For his first documentary, filmmaker Oliver Stone has chosen, in typically Stone fashion, a controversial subject: Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Commandante provides a fascinating look at the man behind the iconic beard and cigar. But the subject is the only controversial thing about the film. ...
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DreamWorks considering Cinar acquisition
DreamWorks SKG is one of several companies pondering the purchase of troubled Canadian animation house Cinar Corp, according to a report in Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. Citing unnamed sources, the report says the studio is in league with California-based investment firm Triyar Capital and Michael Hirsh, the former CEO ...
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News
More Canadian tax bacon for producers
Hot on the heels of a hike in the federal production labour-based tax credit, the Canadian province of British Columbia has sweetened its own tax credit lure. The British Columbia Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC), which offers an 11% rebate on eligible labour costs in the province, will now include ...
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News
Canada to boost production tax incentive by 45%
Canada's federal government will boost the production tax incentive, which has made it so attractive to foreign producers, by 45%. Thanks to a new federal budget announced yesterday, the Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (FVPSTC) will be increased so that foreign film and television productions will be reimbursed ...
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News
Ararat wins five out of nine at Canada's Genies
Canada's Genie Awards wereevenly distributed across the nominees, with no film dominating the majorprizes which were handed out last night. Atom Egoyan's Ararat, nominated for nine awards, was the leader in thefinal tally, with five statuettes including Best Picture and Best Actress forArsinee Khanjian. Director Atom Egoyan was not nominated ...
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Runaway production down in Canada in 2001/2
Canada is lessattractive to so-called runaway production, with 10% fewer feature filmproduction dollars spent in the country in 2001-2002. According to the annualreport of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA),foreign theatrical location production dropped 10% to C$737m (US$484m). Overallforeign location production, including TV fare, was off only slightly, ...
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Reviews
Owning Mahowny
Dir. Richard Kwietniowski. Can-UK. 2003. 107mins.A low-key character study of an extraordinary man, Owning Mahowny tells the true story of a nebbish Canadian bank employee who embezzled millions from his employers to feed his addiction to gambling. Directed with austerity by Richard Kwietniowski and played by the riveting Philip Seymour ...
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News
Ontario passes Breillat's Fat Girl uncut
Catherine Breillat'scontroversial Fat Girl will bereleased uncut in Ontario, more than a year after its initial rejection by theCanadian province's censors. The film, which has screened uncut in severalother provinces, was waylaid in November 2001 by the Ontario Film Review Board (OFRB),which objected to the depiction of sexual activity by ...
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Reviews
Masked And Anonymous
Dir: Larry Charles. USA. 2003. 120 min.Masked And Anonymous screened at Sundance as a work-in-progress and director Larry Charles has his work cut out for him. A mish-mash of styles, genres and cameo appearances, as it stands it will annoy every constituency it aims to entertain. As a showcase for ...
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News
Trainspotting sequel has problems with E
Other than the original cast's lack of ageing, the sequel to 1996 runaway hit Trainspotting is taking shape, said director Danny Boyle at the Sundance Film Festival.In Park City for the North American debut of UK box-office sensation 28 Days Later, the director said the sequel, based on the novel, ...
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Reviews
It's All About Love
Dir: Thomas Vinterberg. Denmark. 2003. 104 min.Hugely imaginative, conceptually compelling, arresting in its visual panache, It's All About Love can be seen as a millennial fairy tale and Thomas Vinterberg as its latter-day Grimm. He peers into the near-future and sees a wintry dystopia, where the absence of love - ...
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News
Sundance Channel launches US theatrical initiative
TheSundance brand will make its theatrical debut in the US, as The SundanceChannel announced yesterday that it will launch a film series that will seefour features released in at least ten major US markets from August throughNovember 2003. Similar in spirit to the film series launched by now-defunct TheShooting Gallery ...
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News
Canada's Keith Behrman to get Genie Award for best debut film
Canadian filmmaker Keith Behrman will receive the award for best debut feature at the 23rd annual Genie Awards on Feb 13. His film, Flower & Garnet, which debuted in Toronto last year, won Behrman the Vancouver film festival's prize for best emerging western Canadian filmmaker while its screenwriter Nicholas Racz ...
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News
Soft Money - Canada
CanadaCanada's surfeit of tax and subsidy financing has helped to make it one of the most attractive international destinations for foreign productions. But the country's soft money is not as soft as it once was. Denis Seguin reportsIt is not by accident that Canada is the world's leading film production ...
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Alliance Atlantis, Focus Features renew distribution deal
Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis and Universal's boutique outfit Focus Features have agreed to renew their distribution agreement to December 31, 2005. The deal covers all media in Canada and will include such upcoming titles as Neil LaBute's The Shape Of Things, starring Gretchen Mol, Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz, and Frederick Weller, ...
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Toronto critics hail Adaptation
SpikeJonze's Adaptation has beennamed the best film of 2002 by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA), with Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love and Alfonos Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien as runners-up.Adaptation received three other prizes: Nicolas Cage was namedbest actor for his two roles as twin brother screenwriters, Chris Cooper ...
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News
Telefilm Canada tightens funding screws
The number ofCanadian film production companies that can qualify for public box officesubsidies is being dramatically reduced under new guidelines just issued byTelefilm Canada.Canada'sprincipal film funding agency announced yesterday that as many as 15 productioncompanies will be eliminated from next year's roster of those receiving"performance envelope funding" for their English-language ...