TV & Film News – Canadian Heritage extends Short-Term Compensation Fund

Canadian Heritage has announced a second extension of the Short-Term Compensation Fund (STCF) for Canadian audiovisual productions, saying that there is still “a pressing need” for the program as the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve. Now extended through March 31, 2023, Telefilm Canada will continue to provide as much as $150 million in compensation to production companies whose filming has been interrupted or abandoned as a result of a COVID diagnosis or outbreak. Initiated as a temporary emergency measure to address the lack of insurance coverage for the Canadian film and television production industry, Telefilm says since its launch in October 2020, the STCF has received over 851 applications, totalling more than $527.3 million in coverage, representing over $3 billion in production volume. To date, Telefilm says it’s signed agreements to cover 814 camera-ready projects and helped support over 20,000 jobs. Read more here.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has announced the nominees for the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards across 145 film, television, and digital media categories. The inaugural season of CBC series Sort Of leads both the television and overall award nominations with 13, followed by CBC’s Pretty Hard Cases and CTV Sci-Fi Channel’s Wynonna Earp with 11. CBC’s Coroner and Kim’s Convenience, each earned 10 nods. In film, Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson’s Scarborough and Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders top nominations with 11 per film, while Michael McGowan’s All My Puny Sorrows received eight. Bretten Hannam’s Wildhood and Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds | Les oiseaux ivres came away with six nominations apiece. By network, CBC/Radio-Canada received a leading 295 nominations; Bell Media earned 175 nominations; Corus Entertainment garnered 62 nods; and Rogers Sports & Media 19, including 10 for Sportsnet. Find the full list of nominees here and read more here.

Anand Ramayya and the producing trio, Kate Kroll, Rylan Friday and Trevor Mack, are the recipients of the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA) annual Indiescreen Awards. The winners were announced as part of the CMPA’s closing reception for its Prime Time conference. Ramayya (Karma Film) was named the recipient of the $10,000 Established Producer Award, recognizing his career and commitment to the production community. His latest feature film, Donkeyhead, premiered at the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival and was recently acquired by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing. Kate Kroll, Rylan Friday, and Trevor Mack (Portraits From a Fire Productions) were awarded the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, which includes a $5,000 prize, for their filmmaking achievements and potential demonstrated in their early-career work. Their latest film, Portraits From a Fire, screened at several festivals across North America including its official theatrical premiere at VIFF 2021.

Hollywood Suite is once again the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of the Film Independent Spirit Awards, now in its 37th year. Hosted by Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, Pam & Tommy) and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace, Children’s Hospital) the awards will air live from Santa Monica, CA on Sunday, March 6. Find the full list of this year’s nominees, here. Leading up to the awards, Hollywood Suite will screen previous winners, including The Grifters (March 4), Fargo (March 5), Rambling Rose (March 5), Silver Lining Playbook (March 6), and Brokeback Mountain (March 6).

Bell Media says almost half of all Canadians (45%) tuned in to at least part of Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI as the Los Angeles Rams captured the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Audiences peaked at 11.4 million viewers during the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and 50 Cent. The most-watched broadcast since last year’s Super Bowl, the game was carried on CTV, TSN and RDS in Canada, attracting an average audience of 8.1 million viewers, according to preliminary Numeris data. Overall, the broadcast drew 16.9 million unique Canadian viewers, down from the 17.6 million unique Canadian viewers who tuned into Super Bowl LV in 2021. In the U.S., Super Bowl LVI averaged a total audience of 112.3 million viewers on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital platforms and Yahoo Sports, reaching a total of 167 million viewers, the most-watched show in five years. Read more here.

Crave and New Metric Media have announced that Hulu will be the exclusive streaming home to the debut season of SHORESY in the U.S. A spin-off of LETTERKENNY, SHORESY joins its predecessor as a Hulu Original. As previously announced, the six-episode, half-hour hockey comedy sees foul-mouthed, fan favourite character, Shoresy, join a senior AAA hockey team in Sudbury on a quest to never lose again. SHORSEY is set to stream this spring on Crave.

Big Brother Canada premieres its 10th Season Wednesday, March 2 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Hosted by Arisa Cox, who also serves as one of the show’s executive producers, the reality show will air on Global three nights a week including Mondays (Head of Household), Wednesdays (Power of Veto), and Thursdays (Eviction). #BBCAN10 streamers can catch the new season live or on demand with STACKTV and the Global TV App and visit BigBrotherCanada.ca for exclusive content and live feeds. Leading up to the season, ET Canada presents Big Brother Canada All Access Monday, February 28. Season 9 winner Tychon Cater-Newman joins ET Canada’s Sangita Patel as a special guest co-host for the 30-minute special, featuring an exclusive tour of the new #BBCAN10 house.

WildBrain Television has released three new series, premiering Family Day Weekend through the end of March with a free preview across WildBrain’s English network. The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy, starring dynamic drag duo, Fay Slift (JP Kane) and Fluffy Soufflé (Kaleb Robertson), is a cabaret-style show sharing a message of inclusivity. It premieres on Family Jr. Sunday, Feb. 20. Then on Feb. 28, Take Note premieres, a series about a close-knit family who can survive anything, set against the backdrop of a tween reality singing show. It premieres on Family Channel with a double-episode special event. Also on Feb. 28, Ruby and the Well makes its debut on Family Channel, centred around Ruby O’Reilly and her father Daniel who are ready for a fresh start when they arrive in their new hometown of Emerald. After Ruby discovers a magical well, she starts to change the lives of the people of Emerald, wish-by-wish. 

Reel Canada has announced that the ninth annual National Canadian Film Day (NCFD) will take place coast-to-coast on Wednesday, April 20. The event will tentatively see live in-person events hosted where local public health guidelines permit. This year’s spotlight is on Indigenous filmmakers in Canada with “Celebrating Indigenous Voices” to be presented in association with imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival. NCFD is planning a livestream for 15,000+ high school students, in addition to screenings at film festivals, cinemas, libraries, community centres, schools, friendship centres, retirement residences, art galleries, military bases and other venues. If you’d like to host a free NCFD event in your community, learn more here.

The Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) and OYA Black Arts Coalition (OBAC), in partnership with Dark Slope, have announced the 11 founders of Black-owned content creation companies who’ve been selected for the inaugural cohort of Scale Up Immersive, a new accelerator aimed at increasing the capacity of Black content creators and/or producers working in the immersive media space. Selected for the first cohort are: Adrian Bobb, Exocentric Studios (prodco); Chukky Ibe, TRAD (educational organization and digital magazine); Debbie Deer, Debbie Deer Productions (multimedia prodco); Kai Little-White, BP Media (storyteller and creator); Karen McDonald, Upright Media Republic (multidisciplinary artist, creative director); Ladan Mohamed Siad, Fugitive Work (creative technologist, storyteller); Natasha Vasell, Diva Girl Productions (prodco); Neil ‘Logik’ Donaldson & Rasquiz Johnson, Reason With Logik (podcast); Roya DelSol (lens-based artist); Yvano Antonio (filmmaker, photojournalist); and Zach Jama (documentary filmmaker, screenwriter).

End2End Media Group has formed a joint venture with Peacemaker Filmworks and Showmax Events to launch permanent Midsized Volume LED Studio – Peacemaker LED Studios. Located in Burnaby, BC, the studio includes three-sided plus ceiling hi-def 2.8mm Volume LED and onsite technical support. The studio will be capable of using both video plates and Unreal Engine technology.

Blue Ant Media has launched its new FAST channel, Homeful, on the free, ad-supported streaming service, XUMO. Homeful, which features home design TV, real estate, renovations and transformations, is an extension of Blue Ant Media’s existing partnership with Xumo which also includes the Love Nature FAST channel, which launched on the platform in May 2020. The lifestyle channel joins XUMO’s growing roster of more than 200 channels across 12 different genres, currently available to millions of viewers via a multiscreen network of smart TVs, mobile devices and streaming boxes. The company’s growing portfolio of FAST channels includes Love Nature, HauntTV, CrimeTime/TotalCrime, and Homeful. 

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) have struck a new partnership that will allow for the long-term preservation of Survivor statements and other master audiovisual content from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Made possible as a result of the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Innovation Fund, the NFB will use its state-of-the-art equipment to preserve digital audiovisual recordings that have been entrusted to the NCTR. In total, there are approximately 7,000 statements and more than 1,500 hours of content to be preserved as part of the project. The NFB will also create copies for future projects, in addition to lower-resolution copies that can be accessed on the NCTR website.