Canadian Film Digest (Dec 1971)

MORELANDLATCHFORD CAPTURES TOP AWARDS A total of 52 awards have been captured by Moreland-Latchford Productions Ltd. of Toronto, in International competition so far this year. At the New York Film Festival, the company’s “EARTH, SUN, MOON, and STARS” and ““KNOW CANADA”, won gold medals, while another series, “SHOP SAFETY” captured a silver medal. Earlier this year, Moreland-Latchford was presented the gold statuette at the Columbus Film Festival for ‘‘Preparing Foods” from their Pioneer Life Series, in addition to five Chris awards for other films from the same series, and two from its series ‘“The Metric System.” At the Atlanta Film Festival the company won first prize, a gold placque, and the special Jury Award for creativity, for its film ‘“The Haunted House.” Moreland-Latchford is the only Canadian educational film company producing all of its films in both English and French for the domestic market, and their films are also available in every other language for the International market. e CHANGES IN M.G.M. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Metro’s Executive Vice-President Douglas Netter has been elected a member of the board to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Barron Hilton. Since the company has adopted a policy of mandatory retirement at age 70, Mr. George L. Killion recently retired as Chairman of the Board and will not stand for re-election as a director. In addition the Board has been reduced from 11 to 9 members, in view of which Mr. Frank E. Conant will not be on the new slate. At a recent meeting Mr. Fred Benninger was elected Chairman of the Board, and the following slate of nominees was proposed for submission to the stockholders at the annual meeting scheduled for December 8th. James D. Aljian, James T. Aubrey Jr., Fred Benninger, William R. Boyd, F. Arnold Daum, Kirk Kerkorian, E. Leo Kolber, Douglas Netter and Walter M. Sharp. 32 WHY NOT A NOBEL PRIZE FOR FILMS? Novelist Irving Wallace an authority and long-time critic of the methods used in determining Nobel Prize winners, criticised the world-renowned Swedish award committee for ignoring motion pictures and related entertainment industry phases of the lively arts. Mr. Wallace has advocated Nobel Prizes for such film luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, Eisenstein, Sir Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, the great French directors and performers, and the Japanese. He lamented the fact that the late Walt Disney, a five-time nominee for a Nobel prize was always passed over. CISCO PIKE NOW IN PAPERBACK A special move paperback edition of Columbia Pictures’ “CISCO PIKE”, based on _ writer-director Bill L. Norton’s screenplay, has been published by Bantam Books to coincide with the National release of the new film starring Gene Hackman and Karen Black, and introducing Kris Kristofferson. A special feature of the paperback is the inclusion of a 16-page insert of photos from the film and introductory notes by author Norton and producer Gerald Ayres. CINEMATION TO RELEASE 12 IN '72 Jerry Gross, president of Cinemation Industries has announced plans to release at least 12 films in the coming year, and added that within the next six months he hopes to add four exchanges and twelve field men. His target is 30 to 40 films a year within the next two years. At the same time as he made the announcement, Mr. Gross levelled a scathing criticism of the majors for their lackadaisical attitude in the area of merchandising their product, also for their diversification into non-related areas. He promised that Cinemation will remain a picture company all the way. UNDER -REPORTING SOON TO BE A HAS-BEEN Universal Pictures and a large insurance company in New York have combined their talents to work out something which will hopefully cure the cancer of under-reporting of boxoffice receipts. This will be in the form of an ‘Exhibitor Indemnity Bond,’ cost of which will be assumed by Universal as a protection not only for themselves but their exhibitor customers as well. This move came in response to the deep concern about this proliferating situation as expressed by exhibitor representatives who attended the recent NATO Board of Directors’ meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. Universal in Canada is doing the same. UNITED FILM ENTERPRISES INC. will act as purchasing agent for Eguiluz Films of Madrid, a Spanish company recently acquired by Mr. Andres V. Gomez in association with Nicholas Wentworth. The new company has already acquired the RKO library of some 720 features in addition to 500 short subjects owned by Kettner Corporation, now UCC Films Inc. JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM a contemporary action thriller, is the story of an American student and a group of young Israelis who try to bring about a peaceful confrontation with their Arab counterparts in an effort to ease tensions in the Middle East. The film will be shot entirely in the Holy Land will include such historic sites as old and new Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, the Dead Sea and the Judaean desert. Starring roles have been awarded to Bruce Davison, Daria Halprin and two of Britain’s top actors, Nicol Williamson and Donald Pleasance. MGM will distribute.