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Front Page, Industry News
Who’s afraid of Canadian film? We are
Thursday March 08th 2012The Top 10 films at the Canadian box office last year were all foreign, meaning, not from Canada. From Harry Potter and The King’s Speech to Fast Five and Transformers, the big hits largely responsible for our $1-billion box office came from elsewhere.
But that doesn’t mean we’ve failed on the film score as a nation.
Christopher Plummer crowned the list of Canadian Oscar winners for his performance in Beginners, and Philippe Falardeau’s nod for best foreign picture continued a now-two-generation tradition of Quebecois honorees on Hollywood’s big night.
Even the numbers looked good. Ken Scott’s story of a contrite sperm donor in Starbuck pulled in more than $3.5 million here at home, and, early this year, Goon cross-checked the competition and claimed the top spot among Canadians with a $1.2-million weekend opening.
That’s nothing to sneeze at, but as this year’s annual celebration of Canadian film steams closer with Thursday’s broadcast of the Genie Awards – with Andrea Martin and George Stroumboulopoulos hosting the big fat gala at Toronto’s Harbour Castle – it’s clear we’re still suffering from a curious disease: Canadian-filmophobia.
Ask your cubicle mate right now who the nominees are for best Canadian film. Go on, ask her. See what I mean? Most people don’t know who the Genie nominees are, because they don’t care, and they don’t care because they don’t watch the films.
For those who do care, this year’s nominees for best picture are A Dangerous Method, Cafe de Flore, Monsieur Lazhar, Starbuck and The Whistleblower. Three of the five are French-language films, the other two are co-productions featuring international stars such as Rachel Weisz, Michael Fassbender, and Keira Knightley.
Nope, they aren’t Canadian, but they did star in movies that satisfy the policy regulations -and it’s that precise whiff of bureaucratic process that continues to haunt the Canadian film experience, not just for the filmmakers, but for the viewing public who feels domestic cinema is an extension of some government program – which it is.
Telefilm Canada continues to hold the purse strings to the taxpayer pools of cash that keep Canadian film afloat, and that continues to be a good thing, as well as a bad thing.
The good thing is that it affords a small cinematic culture like ours a chance at expression and existence.
Without the approximately $115 million in support, we’d never be able to compete against the Hollywood monolith, given we all speak the same language, and we all live on a continent that keeps us together.
But it can be a bad thing, because, anytime government micro-manages art, you usually end up with bad art – or bad government – and often both.
Quebec has figured out how to make the system work, generating work that resonates, not just with Quebecers, but with audiences around the world.
But English-Canadian cinema continues to struggle. Eclipsed by Hollywood films with huge ad budgets and the ability to saturate the multiplex, Canadian films have a hard time finding screens. Without screens, you can’t generate box office.
It’s a reality, but it’s not a conspiracy. Theatre owners will show anything that generates money at the box office, and if Canadian films make money, they will last.
The problem is, few of them do make money. Sometimes it’s because they’re absolutely awful. Other times, it’s plain old prejudice.
We’re still afraid of what kind of movie we’re going to end up watching. Perhaps scarred by memories of well-intentioned CBC dramas, Canadians fret over their entertainment bang for the buck and tend to play it safe, choosing Hollywood genre over just about everything else.
Audience indifference remains the central and most urgent problem facing Canadian filmmakers, not to mention this year’s producers of the Genies, but there are myriad other challenges for aspiring film types, from slashed arts budgets to reduced broadcast windows for content that isn’t specifically formatted.
The smaller the pool gets, the more competitive it becomes, and, up until now, the private sector hasn’t really been all that keen on dropping huge amounts of coin into the slot machine of the movie business.
The returns are too dicey.
Telefilm announced the creation of a new fund aimed at spurring private donation through tax credits or proportional tax deductions, but that was just last week. Whether or not it will have any impact on the fortunes of our filmmakers remains to be seen.
Right now, as a whole, they aren’t the happiest group.
As veteran Don Shebib pointed out this year as he tried to complete his latest film, a sequel to his classic Goin’ Down the Road: “It’s so f—ing high school.”
Suggesting the English-Canadian community was a tight clique of insiders, Shebib pointed out the recurring characters on the budget announcements, and said he’s learned to operate outside the system. But basically, he says he never felt like he belonged, and he never felt supported in any way.
The sentiment was echoed by a filmmaker emerging 40 years after Goin’ Down the Road. Vancouver-born Jamie Travis made his Sundance debut this year with For a Good Time, Call . . ., a chick-driven comedy that was produced entirely through American sources, and ended up inking a deal with Focus Features.
“You never get the feeling Canadians are actively looking for talent the way Americans do,” he says. “In the States, people are looking for someone to champion. Canadians have a harder time doing that. It goes against our socialist sensibilities.”
Indeed, the lingering problem with Canadian cinema may well be that it’s, well, Canadian.
Source: Montreal Gazette
Front Page, Industry News
Who’s afraid of Canadian film? We are
Thursday March 08th 2012The Top 10 films at the Canadian box office last year were all foreign, meaning, not from Canada. From Harry Potter and The King’s Speech to Fast Five and Transformers, the big hits largely responsible for our $1-billion box office came from elsewhere.
But that doesn’t mean we’ve failed on the film score as a nation.
Christopher Plummer crowned the list of Canadian Oscar winners for his performance in Beginners, and Philippe Falardeau’s nod for best foreign picture continued a now-two-generation tradition of Quebecois honorees on Hollywood’s big night.
Even the numbers looked good. Ken Scott’s story of a contrite sperm donor in Starbuck pulled in more than $3.5 million here at home, and, early this year, Goon cross-checked the competition and claimed the top spot among Canadians with a $1.2-million weekend opening.
That’s nothing to sneeze at, but as this year’s annual celebration of Canadian film steams closer with Thursday’s broadcast of the Genie Awards – with Andrea Martin and George Stroumboulopoulos hosting the big fat gala at Toronto’s Harbour Castle – it’s clear we’re still suffering from a curious disease: Canadian-filmophobia.
Ask your cubicle mate right now who the nominees are for best Canadian film. Go on, ask her. See what I mean? Most people don’t know who the Genie nominees are, because they don’t care, and they don’t care because they don’t watch the films.
For those who do care, this year’s nominees for best picture are A Dangerous Method, Cafe de Flore, Monsieur Lazhar, Starbuck and The Whistleblower. Three of the five are French-language films, the other two are co-productions featuring international stars such as Rachel Weisz, Michael Fassbender, and Keira Knightley.
Nope, they aren’t Canadian, but they did star in movies that satisfy the policy regulations -and it’s that precise whiff of bureaucratic process that continues to haunt the Canadian film experience, not just for the filmmakers, but for the viewing public who feels domestic cinema is an extension of some government program – which it is.
Telefilm Canada continues to hold the purse strings to the taxpayer pools of cash that keep Canadian film afloat, and that continues to be a good thing, as well as a bad thing.
The good thing is that it affords a small cinematic culture like ours a chance at expression and existence.
Without the approximately $115 million in support, we’d never be able to compete against the Hollywood monolith, given we all speak the same language, and we all live on a continent that keeps us together.
But it can be a bad thing, because, anytime government micro-manages art, you usually end up with bad art – or bad government – and often both.
Quebec has figured out how to make the system work, generating work that resonates, not just with Quebecers, but with audiences around the world.
But English-Canadian cinema continues to struggle. Eclipsed by Hollywood films with huge ad budgets and the ability to saturate the multiplex, Canadian films have a hard time finding screens. Without screens, you can’t generate box office.
It’s a reality, but it’s not a conspiracy. Theatre owners will show anything that generates money at the box office, and if Canadian films make money, they will last.
The problem is, few of them do make money. Sometimes it’s because they’re absolutely awful. Other times, it’s plain old prejudice.
We’re still afraid of what kind of movie we’re going to end up watching. Perhaps scarred by memories of well-intentioned CBC dramas, Canadians fret over their entertainment bang for the buck and tend to play it safe, choosing Hollywood genre over just about everything else.
Audience indifference remains the central and most urgent problem facing Canadian filmmakers, not to mention this year’s producers of the Genies, but there are myriad other challenges for aspiring film types, from slashed arts budgets to reduced broadcast windows for content that isn’t specifically formatted.
The smaller the pool gets, the more competitive it becomes, and, up until now, the private sector hasn’t really been all that keen on dropping huge amounts of coin into the slot machine of the movie business.
The returns are too dicey.
Telefilm announced the creation of a new fund aimed at spurring private donation through tax credits or proportional tax deductions, but that was just last week. Whether or not it will have any impact on the fortunes of our filmmakers remains to be seen.
Right now, as a whole, they aren’t the happiest group.
As veteran Don Shebib pointed out this year as he tried to complete his latest film, a sequel to his classic Goin’ Down the Road: “It’s so f—ing high school.”
Suggesting the English-Canadian community was a tight clique of insiders, Shebib pointed out the recurring characters on the budget announcements, and said he’s learned to operate outside the system. But basically, he says he never felt like he belonged, and he never felt supported in any way.
The sentiment was echoed by a filmmaker emerging 40 years after Goin’ Down the Road. Vancouver-born Jamie Travis made his Sundance debut this year with For a Good Time, Call . . ., a chick-driven comedy that was produced entirely through American sources, and ended up inking a deal with Focus Features.
“You never get the feeling Canadians are actively looking for talent the way Americans do,” he says. “In the States, people are looking for someone to champion. Canadians have a harder time doing that. It goes against our socialist sensibilities.”
Indeed, the lingering problem with Canadian cinema may well be that it’s, well, Canadian.
Source: Montreal Gazette
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Front Page, Industry News
Who’s afraid of Canadian film? We are
Thursday March 08th 2012The Top 10 films at the Canadian box office last year were all foreign, meaning, not from Canada. From Harry Potter and The King’s Speech to Fast Five and Transformers, the big hits largely responsible for our $1-billion box office came from elsewhere.
But that doesn’t mean we’ve failed on the film score as a nation.
Christopher Plummer crowned the list of Canadian Oscar winners for his performance in Beginners, and Philippe Falardeau’s nod for best foreign picture continued a now-two-generation tradition of Quebecois honorees on Hollywood’s big night.
Even the numbers looked good. Ken Scott’s story of a contrite sperm donor in Starbuck pulled in more than $3.5 million here at home, and, early this year, Goon cross-checked the competition and claimed the top spot among Canadians with a $1.2-million weekend opening.
That’s nothing to sneeze at, but as this year’s annual celebration of Canadian film steams closer with Thursday’s broadcast of the Genie Awards – with Andrea Martin and George Stroumboulopoulos hosting the big fat gala at Toronto’s Harbour Castle – it’s clear we’re still suffering from a curious disease: Canadian-filmophobia.
Ask your cubicle mate right now who the nominees are for best Canadian film. Go on, ask her. See what I mean? Most people don’t know who the Genie nominees are, because they don’t care, and they don’t care because they don’t watch the films.
For those who do care, this year’s nominees for best picture are A Dangerous Method, Cafe de Flore, Monsieur Lazhar, Starbuck and The Whistleblower. Three of the five are French-language films, the other two are co-productions featuring international stars such as Rachel Weisz, Michael Fassbender, and Keira Knightley.
Nope, they aren’t Canadian, but they did star in movies that satisfy the policy regulations -and it’s that precise whiff of bureaucratic process that continues to haunt the Canadian film experience, not just for the filmmakers, but for the viewing public who feels domestic cinema is an extension of some government program – which it is.
Telefilm Canada continues to hold the purse strings to the taxpayer pools of cash that keep Canadian film afloat, and that continues to be a good thing, as well as a bad thing.
The good thing is that it affords a small cinematic culture like ours a chance at expression and existence.
Without the approximately $115 million in support, we’d never be able to compete against the Hollywood monolith, given we all speak the same language, and we all live on a continent that keeps us together.
But it can be a bad thing, because, anytime government micro-manages art, you usually end up with bad art – or bad government – and often both.
Quebec has figured out how to make the system work, generating work that resonates, not just with Quebecers, but with audiences around the world.
But English-Canadian cinema continues to struggle. Eclipsed by Hollywood films with huge ad budgets and the ability to saturate the multiplex, Canadian films have a hard time finding screens. Without screens, you can’t generate box office.
It’s a reality, but it’s not a conspiracy. Theatre owners will show anything that generates money at the box office, and if Canadian films make money, they will last.
The problem is, few of them do make money. Sometimes it’s because they’re absolutely awful. Other times, it’s plain old prejudice.
We’re still afraid of what kind of movie we’re going to end up watching. Perhaps scarred by memories of well-intentioned CBC dramas, Canadians fret over their entertainment bang for the buck and tend to play it safe, choosing Hollywood genre over just about everything else.
Audience indifference remains the central and most urgent problem facing Canadian filmmakers, not to mention this year’s producers of the Genies, but there are myriad other challenges for aspiring film types, from slashed arts budgets to reduced broadcast windows for content that isn’t specifically formatted.
The smaller the pool gets, the more competitive it becomes, and, up until now, the private sector hasn’t really been all that keen on dropping huge amounts of coin into the slot machine of the movie business.
The returns are too dicey.
Telefilm announced the creation of a new fund aimed at spurring private donation through tax credits or proportional tax deductions, but that was just last week. Whether or not it will have any impact on the fortunes of our filmmakers remains to be seen.
Right now, as a whole, they aren’t the happiest group.
As veteran Don Shebib pointed out this year as he tried to complete his latest film, a sequel to his classic Goin’ Down the Road: “It’s so f—ing high school.”
Suggesting the English-Canadian community was a tight clique of insiders, Shebib pointed out the recurring characters on the budget announcements, and said he’s learned to operate outside the system. But basically, he says he never felt like he belonged, and he never felt supported in any way.
The sentiment was echoed by a filmmaker emerging 40 years after Goin’ Down the Road. Vancouver-born Jamie Travis made his Sundance debut this year with For a Good Time, Call . . ., a chick-driven comedy that was produced entirely through American sources, and ended up inking a deal with Focus Features.
“You never get the feeling Canadians are actively looking for talent the way Americans do,” he says. “In the States, people are looking for someone to champion. Canadians have a harder time doing that. It goes against our socialist sensibilities.”
Indeed, the lingering problem with Canadian cinema may well be that it’s, well, Canadian.
Source: Montreal Gazette
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