TV & Film News – ACTRA, DGC and IATSE come together in pre-election “Just Ask” campaign

Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) have come together, asking members to pledge to attend at least one all-candidates meeting or town hall leading up to the federal election and ask a question. The goal of the “Just Ask“ campaign (“Je m’implique” in French) is to get candidates on record on the future of Canada’s $9 billion screen-based production market. Micro-websites justask2019.ca and jemimplique2019.ca feature election backgrounders and sample questions on key issues facing the industry. One of the top questions the site encourages members to pose references the current lack of taxation and regulated Canadian content contributions from foreign digital players like Netflix and Amazon. Candidates will be asked if they’ll “support both legislation and regulation requiring all players that benefit from the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications systems to invest in the creation of original Canadian programming?” Read more here.

Telefilm Canada has issued a revised call for entries for the 92nd Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film Award (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) following outcry over a proposed change in criteria. Each year, Telefilm coordinates the Pan-Canadian Selection Committee to determine which Canadian film will be submitted to the Academy Awards. Last week, the Crown corporation announced updated eligibility criteria, stipulating that to be entered, a film must be represented by an American sales agent/distributor or an international sales agent and have been selected by one of 13 eligible international film festivals. Telefilm said the goal of the changes was to ensure that the Selection Committee puts forth the strongest possible contender in a highly-competitive field. However after hearing from a “combination of different parties from the industry,” a Telefilm representative told Broadcast Dialogue there will be further consultation. Previously, Telefilm has always followed standard Academy criteria. Tuesday, Telefilm issued a revised call for entries saying that it would heed industry calls “to proceed with a more robust consultation with representatives of the industry before adopting new admissibility criteria.” Read more here.

FIN Partners, the co-production/co-financing market, that runs concurrent to the FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival, Sept. 12-14 in Halifax, has announced the line-up of producers and delegates attending from the spotlight regions of the UK, Ireland, and the U.S. Among those producers/projects are Solon Papadopoulos and Roy Boulter: Hurricane Films – England; Chris Patterson: Causeway Pictures – Northern Ireland; Stella Nwimo: Boudica Entertainment – England; Alice Lusher and Catryn Ramasut: Ie Ie Productions Ltd. – Wales; Martin Gooch: Gothic Manor Ltd. – England; Arabella Page Croft: Black Camel Pictures – Scotland; Andrew Freedman and Samantha Corr: Venom Films – Ireland; Claire McCaughley: Treasure Entertainment – Ireland; Trevite Willis: Southern Fried Filmworks – USA; Lisa Black and Scott Lukacs: Garnet Girl – USA. As part of the spotlight focus, Film London is giving two Atlantic Canadian TV drama producers the chance to participate in a familiarization trip to London in December.

Canadian Screen Award nominations open on Aug. 12. Among the category changes this year, new categories have been added to Digital Media (Best Video Game Narrative, Best Children’s Video Game Narrative); and Television (Best Morning Show, Best Stunt Coordination). Several other categories have been eliminated. Read more on the changes for 2020 here.

New York Festivals TV & Film Awards competition is open for entries. For 2020, NYF has launched two new category groups – Sports Programs and Streaming. New categories unveiled include Religion & Philosophy Documentary, Streaming Promotion, Social Good, and Sustainable Development. The 2020 TV & Film Awards gala will take place at the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas on Apr. 21, 2020. The deadline to enter the competition is Oct. 15. Find competition rules and regulations here.

Squid Squad Studio de production numérique (Squid Squad), located on the Gaspé Peninsula, has received a $100,950 repayable loan from Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions to allow the startup to acquire and install VFX production equipment, including computer equipment. The funding will allow Squid Squad to start up its business, which aims to provide local solutions for post-production services, including digital painting, rotoscoping and 3D tracking. Working with students in the 3D animation and image synthesis program at the Matane CEGEP, the project is expected to create 37 jobs over the next three years.

CTV has confirmed fall premiere dates with the 71st Emmy Awards kicking off the 2019/20 season (Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT). Premiere week begins with Chuck Lorre’s next big sitcom, Bob Hearts Abishola (8:30 p.m. ET/PT), and courthouse drama All Rise (9 p.m. ET/PT) on Sept. 23. Mystery thriller EMERGENCE (10 p.m. ET/PT), starring Allison Tolman starts Sept. 24, while Wednesday’s new programming slate kicks-off with Season 2 of The Masked Singer (8 p.m. ET/PT) Sept. 25, followed by action drama Stumptown (10 p.m.ET/PT), starring Cobie Smulders and Michael Ealy. Beginning Oct. 2 ripped-from-the-headlines drama Almost Family (9 p.m. ET/PT) rounds out the new lineup. ETALK will air an exclusive look at upcoming series in ETALK PRESENTS: CTV’s BIG FALL PREVIEW on Monday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. Ahead of the late September premieres, LA’s FINEST, headlined by Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union, will make its debut Friday, Sept. 13 on CTV.

Thunderbird Entertainment Group has struck a Canadian distribution deal with Crave for Punk, a four-part docuseries from Network Entertainment. The series is executive produced by John Varvatos and Iggy Pop, produced by Network’s Derik Murray and directed by Jesse James Miller. It’s slated to premiere on the streaming service in August. Punk debuted on EPIX in the U.S. in March. The series features interviews with pioneers in the American and UK punk rock scenes, including Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd./PiL), Henry Rollins (Black Flag / Rollins Band), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Joan Jett (Runaways /Joan Jett & the Blackhearts), Marky Ramone (Ramones), Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (Blondie), and Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys/Alternative Tentacles), among others.

MEDIAPRO has been appointed as the global consultant to the Global T20 Canada League, the International Cricket Council-sanctioned tournament running through Aug. 11 in Brampton, ON. The three-year global consultancy agreement includes global media rights distribution to be managed by MEDIAPRO Middle East, with the support of MEDIAPRO Asia and MEDIAPRO HQ in Barcelona. MEDIAPRO Canada is providing all audiovisual equipment and technical crew for the 2019 event, while WTVision India is producing TV graphics and managing the big screen and live streaming distribution. Live coverage is being aired worldwide to a potential global audience of over 150 million households by broadcasters including Star Sports in India, the UK’s Premier Sports, Sportsmax (Caribbean), Willow (USA), Sky (New Zealand), Astro Cricket (Malaysia and Brunei), Kwesé Sports (Sub-Saharan Africa). In Canada, coverage is shared by TSN and ATN. MEDIAPRO Canada will cover the 22-match series with a crew comprised of 60 broadcast professionals and cricket experts from around the world, representing 11 different countries.

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