CBC/Radio-Canada says Friday’s Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony was watched, at least in part, by one in three Canadians on its platforms. The public broadcaster has released Numeris data indicating more than 13.3 million viewers tuned in on CBC and Radio-Canada networks and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet and RDS, with an additional 1.9 million streams on CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital platforms, including CBC Gem, ICI TOU.TV, and accompanying Paris 2024 websites and apps. Total video hours streamed are triple that of the opening of Tokyo 2020, with 775,000 hours streamed. Read more here.
Rogers is the new Presenting Sponsor of the Toronto International Film Festival and the TIFF People’s Choice Awards. The sponsorship will begin by rolling out the red carpet at a VIP event at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto on Sept. 3. Rogers replaces Bell, which had been the festival’s lead sponsor since 1995 and ended its $5 million in annual support at the end of 2023.
TIFF has announced four more Tribute Award recipients, including British filmmaker Mike Leigh, who will be honoured with the TIFF Ebert Director Award; Canadian rising star Durga Chew-Bose, who will be honoured with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award; and French songwriting and composing duo Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol, who will be presented with the TIFF Variety Artisan Award for composing the soundtrack to Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez. They’ll be honoured alongside Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, and David Cronenberg at the TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser Sept. 8, with Sandra Oh serving as Honorary Chair.
Crave original docuseries, The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens, presented by Bell, premieres Sept. 18. The eight-episode, one-hour series is produced by Fair-Play in collaboration with Crave, and offers a rare, inside look at the club during the recent 2023-24 season. The series is available to Crave audiences in English and French, with the English version featuring narration by Canadian media personality George Stroumboulopoulos. The docuseries takes viewers up close with players, coaches, executives, and diehard Habs fans, and tells the behind-the-scenes story of an organization undergoing profound change.
Crave original drama series So Long, Marianne premieres Sept. 27 in both English and French. Debuting days after what would have been the Canadian singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen’s 90th birthday, the eight-part series delves into the legendary love story between Cohen, and Norwegian Marianne Ihlen that inspired countless Cohen songs. The series is co-produced by Montreal’s C3 Media (part of Cineflix Media group). Set in the 1960s, it stars Alex Wolff (A Quiet Place: Day One, Hereditary) and Thea Sofie Loch Næss (The Last Kingdom, Delete Me, A Storm for Christmas).
CBC has announced a second season of unscripted paranormal comedy series Ghosting with Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finland (8×30) from Blue Ant Studios, in association with Luke Hutchie Productions. Currently in production, the new season sees Hutchie (EZRA) and Finlan (Orphan: First Kill, EZRA) take the show on the road, expanding their quest cross-country to explore some of Canada’s most haunted places. Joined by celebrity guests, the amateur ghost-wrangling duo will investigate paranormal activity in Ontario, B.C., Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the Yukon. The new season is slated to premiere winter 2025 on CBC Gem.
Newen Studios – which operates in Canada and France, among other territories – has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Johnson Production Group (JPG). The investment in JPG is part of Newen’s strategy to develop and acquire global IP and allows the group to further strengthen its footprint in the TV movie market. It also follows the majority stake it took in Reel One in 2019. Founding President Timothy O. Johnson will continue to lead JPG, which packages, finances and distributes over 40 movies a year.
CBC has announced the participants of the second year of AccessCBC: A CBC Initiative for Creators with a Disability, that provides pre-development training, mentorship and financing support for deaf and disabled creators. Fifteen participants across seven projects have been selected for the scripted comedy/drama and kids streams, and as part of the unscripted stream, production is underway on four short projects from the CBC Creator Network. A short doc from the first round of AccessCBC has also advanced to a second phase of development.
The Black Screen Office (BSO) and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) have announced the participants selected for the BSO-CMPA Black Producer Accelerator Program, a mentorship initiative pairing emerging producers with established producers at CMPA-member companies. The inaugural cohort includes: Tyler Evans with Conquering Lion Pictures; Devon Ellis-Durity with Dada Ibis Media; Rena Pilgrim with Karma Film; Daniel Husbands with Mahaica Point Media; Chidinma Nwoye with Neshama Entertainment; Silvana Rose Miller with OYA Media Group; Soko Negash with Scarborough Pictures; and Fitch Jean with Wandering Worx.
Canadian Film Centre (CFC) has announced the return of the Black Excellence Speaker Series, which will feature costume designer Antoinette Messam. Devoted to perspectives told by Black creatives in the screen-based industry, CFC Executive Director maxine bailey will moderate the free event taking place Aug. 28 at Cineplex Varsity in Toronto.
Graeme Mathieson and Chris Flanagan’s NFB anthology series Sounds & Pressure: Reggae in a Foreign Land, premieres Aug. 23 on nfb.ca and the NFB streaming platform. Through rare archives, electrifying needle drops and lively interviews, the five-part series takes viewers from Kingston to Kensington Market to see and hear how reggae made roots in Canada against all odds, chronicling the musical and geographical journeys of Nana McLean, Johnny Osbourne, Leroy Sibbles, Jerry Brown and the duo of Roy Panton and Yvonne Harrison.
