Cinema Canada (Aug 1976)

Marshall expects 200 to 300 films for showings, to run during the day and at special themeevening presentations. Daily programming includes films from Italy (12 features new to North America, complete with stars and directors); the Academy Award-winning Dersu Uzala from Russia; two Czech features; a program of young German cinema; and producers’ conferences and filmcraft workshops and seminars with the likes of George Barrie, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese and a team from the ABC Movie of the Week. The point about film festivals, though, is that usually the films to be shown are not confirmed until the last minute, and so Marshall may be jumping the gun. More news as it happens. CFTA. Later, on November 5, at a luncheon at Toronto’s Hyatt Hotel, the Canadian Film and Television Association will award its annual prizes for nongovernment-made industrial and sponsored films. Dick Smith of Kodak is award chairman, and he announces that plans are to project three finalists in each category, at a location to be set on November 4. Categories include Public Relations, Sales Promotion, Travel and Recreation, Nature and Wildlife, Sports, Educational and Instructional, TV Information, Sponsored Theatrical Shorts, as well as craft awards, for which all entries are eligible. Films must be over three minutes, satisfy CRTC Canadian content rules, and be made after July 1, 1975, in 16 mm, 35 mm, or VTR. September 3 is the deadline, and you can get more information from the CFTA at Suite 512, 55 York Street, Toronto M5J 1S2, or from Mike Smith at Bonded Services International, 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, M5V 1V5. KUDOS. In the kudo division, the National Film Board received several awards at the American Film Festival in New York in June. Evelyn Lambert’s Story of Christmas won a Blue Ribbon in the Religion and Society category; Rupert Glover and Michel Patenaude’s The Light Fantastick won a Blue Ribbon in the Art and Culture category; Michael Scott and Marvin Cannell’s Whistling Smith won a Red Ribbon in the Human Concerns category; Dorothy Todd Henault’s The New Alchemists won a Red Ribbon in the Environment cate gory. Outside the NFB but at the same fest, Tony Douglas won a Red Ribbon for his It’s Not the Going Up That Hurts, It’s the Coming Down. Peter Rowe’s Horse Latitudes was also screened at the fest. Other Canadians at festivals include Second Wind, Action, and Michel Audy’s The House That Prevents One’s Seeing the Town, at the Sydney fest in early June; Peter Allies showing BTO to the MPL Film Seminar in late July at Memphis State University; a presentation of York University second and third-year films at the Ontario Art Gallery in May; and an award for BC’s best at the North West Film and Video Festival in Portland, Oregon, in early August. Coming up is the Third Annual Alberta Film Festival from September 20 to 22; Films of the World, for the Peace of the World, a festival of shorts to be held in Leipzig from November 20 to 27; the Cannes International Amateur Festival from August 28 to September 5; the XVIII International Documentary and Shorts Festival in Bilboa, Spain, from November 29 to December 4. Information on entering any of these foreign events can be obtained from the Film Festivals Bureau, 66 Slater St., Ottawa, Suite 1822. More kudos at the US Industrial Film Festival in Chicago in April, the largest of its kind in the world; in the governmentproduced section of the Medicine and Health category, the NFB’s Smoking/Emphysema: A Fight for Breath was best; in the History and Biography category, commercially produced section, Imperial Oil’s The Great Canadian Energy Saga was best, and in the commercially produced section of the Travel and Geography category, New Horizon Film Productions’ The Gift of Water was best; in the government-produced section of History and Biography, Rendezvous by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Ontario was best. And a Canadian company sponsored the American-made film that won the overall top award: A Walk in the Forest won the Chairman’s Special Award. Besides that typical Canadian move, we have a typical Canadian reaction. Barry Greenwald’s Metamorphosis, the Cannes winner, has now been sold to Australia, New Zealand, England and, of course, to the CBC. Random Notes CCFM. Although much of the basic information about the CCFM Annual General Meeting, held in Toronto in May, was included in Organization News last month, herewith some observations, as well as some information not included in that report. The main impression gained from the meeting was that, unlike last year and before, when student council levels were maintained, this year’s gathering was business first and foremost. Concrete reports on meetings by CCFM reps with provincial government people (Bill Boyle found a positive response in Saskatchewan), concrete political party news (the NDP agreed to bring a film policy up for discussion at the party’s annual meeting in the summer, and that policy would advocate more government control, possibly a CRTC-type body), concrete and objective looks at CCFM goals by executive member Don Wilder, and so on. The presence of various heavies from the broadcasting establishment, such as Colin Watson of Metro Cable Mme. Jeanne Sauvé TV and Moses Znaimer of CITY TV, was suprising. They were there, of course, to gain allies in their pay-TV ambitions; dangling the 15°: of revenue for Canadian production carrot, they got support, although Znaimer remained silent. Some facts out of the meeting, at random: Famous Players and Odeon have signed a written agreement regarding the “quota”’, but it’s watered down; for example, Famous will apply it only in theatres the company owns outright, a great drop in numbers from the total including those they own part of or run as management. BC’s continuing feeling of being in a separate 4 IS NOW AVAILABLE IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR FREE COPY of Canada’s first “updatable and constantly current" photo-resume album of professional performers CALL NOW (4c) 863-1411 TALENT AGENCY LTD 107 Queen St. E. Toronto M5C 1S1 August 1976/9