Playback Fall 2021 by Brunico Communications

® FALL 2021

k c a B e h t to ovies m (maybe ) What does the exhibition recovery plan mean for Canadian film? Blockchain companies reimagine the film financing model Blue Ant celebrates its 10th anniversary

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CONTENTS

FALL 2021

The Canada-France-Belgium co-production Charlotte is just one of the highly anticipated films premiering at the 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

Indie slickers

Block stars

Sweet spot

Our 2020 profile of Canada’s top independent production companies

How NFT and blockchain open up new film financing opportunities

Distributors praise Canadian craftsmanship, highlight what’s selling internationally

Canada’s walk of game 7 Virtual production is ready for its moment in the spotlight

To the max(ine) 16 One-on-one with the Canadian Film Centre’s new executive director

10 Programmer profile Shudder reveals what it’s looking for in its next Canadian horror pick

20 Back to the big screen What will it take to normalize a return to theatres?

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHER, PLAYBACK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL

Jenn Kuzmyk jkuzmyk@brunico.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Liza Sardi lsardi@brunico.com

Believing in film

THE WEATHER SERVICE PREDICTED RAIN ALL WEEK. As we gathered by the fire on the first night of our family camping trip at Lake Simcoe recently, the topic quickly turned to picking the blockbuster movie to head to for shelter from the inevitable downpour. (It was the lesson, along with packing rubber boots, gleaned from the flood of 2014 requiring rescue by the Guardians of the Galaxy.) Clouds appeared overhead at some point every day over Sibbald Point, ON but they blew away on the summer breeze through the August sky. So each evening we continued the debate until, on the final dry night, discussion turned not to what we wanted to see but to the rich programming that had sustained us over the pandemic. What series, I posited, would you pay to see on the big screen? Suddenly the list of suggestions grew. From anything from the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale for cousin Audrey to specific space dogfight episodes of The Expanse for my hubby Alex. (Both are shot in Ontario, btw.) Uncle Ian was all in for Stranger Things. If there is such a thing as campfire wisdom, it came to me that at a time when theatres are scrambling to incentivize audiences, the one-nightonly TV crossover could be a two-way street. As you’ll read in our feature on the post-pandemic exhibition space, pages 18-21, “the only way to get people used to going back to the movies is to offer them product they’re going to respond to.” Funny thing. When we got home from camping, we ended up at the movies. Happy anniversary to Playback Forgive me if I take a little time to toot our own horn. Thirty-five years ago, we found ourselves at a fairly dynamic time in the film/TV/tech landscape. The Oprah Winfrey Show launched, IBM unveiled of the first laptop computer – the PC Convertible, and Denys Arcand and Rene Malo’s Le Declin de I’empire americain took home the international critics’ award at Cannes. They had secured the richest U.S.Canadian sales deal of the day (reportedly $500,000). On Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1986, Playback published its first magazine and has grown its reputation as

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the country’s preeminent broadcast and production journal of record. Our inaugural fall issue – which we still call our annual TIFF edition – came out shortly after the 11th annual Festival of Festivals. It was an exciting time for the film industry. The federal government had recently unveiled the $33 million feature fund. Calls for Canadian ownership and control of distribution were put front and centre by the ‘86 Film Industry Task Force report Canadian Cinema - A Solid Base. A revision to the Broadcast Act was in the works, but temporarily stalled. Sadly, some of the issues of that day are familiar – particularly the struggles of undercapitalized production companies, facing financing challenges and searching for distribution and exhibition opportunities for their Canadian stories. Supporting indie filmmaking Now that we’ve hit middle age, our team is leaning into a new direction to support the independent film industry. On Nov. 9 and 10, we’re launching our first Playback Film Summit. Our inaugural event will serve as a conference and marketplace focused on accelerating the industry from script to screen. Over two days, it will foster new business partnerships, ignite future film projects, and provide a critically needed platform for conversations about the future of Canadian independent cinema on the global stage. In addition to high-end keynotes, topical panel discussions and relevant case studies, delegates will have access to exclusive meeting opportunities with a direct line to distributors, studios, streamers, agents, investors, funders and media companies from Canada and around the world. Supporting indie filmmaking begins at home, I would argue. And in the words of Ted Lasso – my campfire pick for the big-screen – that also describes my thoughts for the industry: “I believe in Believe.” Liza Sardi Editor-in-chief & content director, Playback & Banff World Media Festival

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jordan Pinto jp.pinto@brunico.com STAFF WRITER

Kelly Townsend ktownsend@brunico.com CONTRIBUTORS

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Playback is published by Brunico Communications Ltd., 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 (416) 408-2300; FAX: (416) 408-0870 Web address: www.playbackonline.ca Editorial e-mail: lsardi@brunico.com Sales e-mail: sales@brunico.com Sales FAX: (416) 408-0870 © 2021 Brunico Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Playback PO BOX 369 Beeton ON, L0G 1A0 U.S. Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: Playback PO BOX 1103, Niagara Falls NY, 14304 playbackcustomercare@brunico.com Canada Post Agreement No. 40050265. ISSN: 0836-2114 Printed in Canada.

How to solve a compounding problem? The perennial shortage of production accountants was made worse by the competition for resources, but new opportunities are emerging that can balance greater industry arrears. BY AMBER DOWLING

IF YOU’VE COUNTED THE STAGGERING NUMBER OF JOB POSTINGS FOR PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANTS LATELY, IT’S NO COINCIDENCE. There’s been a global shortage for the past few years, according to the Director’s Guild of Canada, which oversees all provincial union production accountants, except in B.C. With the increase in competing streaming services and networks, demand for experienced candidates has grown exponentially. In a field where it’s necessary to learn through experience, that has created a major gap. “To grow the workforce, we have to bring people in at the entry level, and hope that the quick learners are elevated through the ranks, learning more and more every step of the way,” says Victoria Harding, executive director of DGC Ontario. An accounting background isn’t needed, as even those with a designation still need on-the-job time to understand production, says Sasha Boersma, a contract professor who teaches production accounting as part of Toronto’s Centennial College business of television and film postgraduate certificate. “You could have a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting, but still really struggle in production accounting for film and TV,” she says. According to the program’s coordinator, Jeannette Loakman, each year students interested in production

accounting are snapped up before even reaching union status under the DGC because so many productions and companies need the skill. In 2014, DGC Ontario had 215 members in their accounting caucus, but as of their spring statistics review there are 488 – more than double. To close the gap, both Loakman and Boersma believe more on-the-job initiatives are required. Internally they are looking at introducing a micro-credential for film and TV bookkeeping to help with the demand for entrylevel positions. They also hope to eventually work with more organizations such as the DGC for future student opportunities, noting that smaller budgets and busier schedules make it hard for consistent mentorship programs. It’s also worth noting that film production workers are freelancers, and work is never guaranteed, which can be off-putting to those looking for stability. Still, there’s hope. Workshops have begun popping up across the industry, such as Women in Film & Television - Toronto offering a three-day course giving in-depth and practical information. “The best way to learn this business is to be a production accountant, if you know what things cost you can only go up from there,” says Joe Chianese, SVP of production incentives at Entertainment Partners in Los Angeles, CA. The CPA, who holds a BBA in accounting, Masters in tax and an MBA, goes so far as to say: “If I was starting my career today, I wouldn’t even go to college.”

SPRING 2021

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YOU KNOW WHO MAKES THE SHOWS YOU LOVE? CANADA’S INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS. Let’s build on our industry’s success by keeping the content we make — the stories we tell — proudly independent and truly Canadian.

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Stage 6 is equipped with a ceiling made of four modular sections capable of moving independently or together for more flexibility when it comes to lighting.

The game changer Virtual production is the latest filmmaking tech making buzz in the industry, and Canadian companies are making it a cost-effective reality for indie filmmakers.

B Y K E L LY T O W N S E N D

THE WORLD OF VIRTUAL PRODUCTION HAS ARRIVED IN CANADA. The technology, best known for the dazzling effects of The Mandalorian, renders real-time digital environments – from an exotic alien planet to a bustling street – on LED screens as a backdrop rather than a green screen. While it seems like the kind of cutting-edge technology reserved for Hollywood blockbusters, Canadian companies are already providing cost effective solutions to make virtual production accessible for mid- and low-budget projects. Toronto-based studio Immersion Room and William F. White International’s (WFW) recently opened Stage 6 locations are among them. Immersion Room, which opens in Q4 2021, was founded by VFX veteran Mike Boers to “democratize” the technology necessary for virtual production. Matthew Nayman, head of studio operations, tells Playback that the company has found cost-effective solutions for some of the most expensive aspects, such as sourcing LED panels directly from Chinese manufacturers, making the cost of leasing Immersion Room on par with green-screen virtual production stages in Toronto. The company also has an in-house VFX team that has spent the last two years developing their own software engine, which is purpose-built for filmmakers and VFX artists. The majority of digital environments are rendered using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, initially designed for video games and re-purposed for film, which Nayman says can still be used at their location. WFW’s Stage 6, meanwhile, benefits from the company’s $30 million partnership with VFX company Pixomondo (PXO). Rick Perotto, VP, business development, says WFW provides the bulk of the hardware required while PXO supplies the technicians and the software,

with other partners including Brompton Technology, Epic Games, Lenovo, NVIDIA and ROE Visual. PXO is also spearheading education around virtual production technology, led by head of studio Mahmoud Rahnama. The companies are bringing directors, producers, cinematographers, set designers and art directors who need to get up to speed for upcoming productions, as well as future technicians who’ll run the virtual production stage, according to Edward Hanrahan, director of virtual production at WFW. “There’s no time for them to be testing on a shoot day,” he says. “We really want to get them confident with all these moving pieces so that they can get back to making films.” Located at Toronto’s Port Lands in the Studio City development, Stage 6 is designated for short-term rentals. Since it opened this summer, WFW has received interest from commercial productions and TV series for days or weeks-long rentals, according to Perotto. Hanrahan says one cost barrier that is “plummeting” are the digital environments themselves. Every day new 3D renderings of global environments are made publicly available, he says, from downtown Los Angeles to Mount Everest. Even in cases where a filmmaker will need to pay a licensing fee, it’s likely cheaper than the travel cost for a week-long location shoot. For indie producers, it offers access to locations they may not be able to afford otherwise. Nayman adds that the technology can even substitute for locations with costly permits, such as museums or public transit locations. “If a filmmaker needs to shoot on a subway and can’t afford [the cost], we have pre-built photorealistic subway car models that we can pull up that you can shoot on, which cost much, much less than building one from scratch,” he says. FA L L 2 0 2 1

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Producing a dramatic comeback

How the industry remained resilient during COVID-wrecked 2020. By Jordan Pinto

Many assumed that 2020 would be a writeoff when the pandemic swept across North America, shuttering film sets and sowing unprecedented chaos. Shows were indefinitely paused or cancelled altogether, deals fell apart, network revenues took a drubbing and even the brightest minds in the industry were at a loss over how to safely produce content in a socially distanced environment. For large parts of last year, getting back on track seemed like an insurmountable task. But the Canadian screen industry was able to make sense of the chaos, with many companies posting production levels comparable to prior years, and some even exceeding their historical averages as shown by the findings from Playback’s Indie Report, a pulse-taking snapshot of an entirely unconventional year, ahead of the next official Indie List which will call for input in the spring,. Of course, it’s untrue to say 2020 was a stellar year; some companies were unable to shoot anything, and the overall production volume for the Canadian production sector was down. What is accurate is that many of Canada’s top production companies weathered the storm and engineered a dramatic comeback in the second half of the year. Among the noticeable trends is that some larger kidsfocused production companies made significant gains. Sinking Ship Entertainment handled $38.2 million in production spending, up from $26.3 million the prior year, as its live-action business flourished. Meanwhile, marblemedia made even steeper gains, jumping to $41.5 million, from $20.4 million in 2019, a stunning increase made possible by the continued growth of its unscripted business and the production of its interconnected family sitcoms, The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker. Guru Studio also hit $34.1 million in production spending, up from $28.6 million the year prior, as its animation business grew through the pandemic, while kids-entertainment juggernaut 9 Story Media Group racked up $131.8 million, compared with $150 million the prior year. Sat atop this year’s chart is Boat Rocker Media, which has put its foot to the floor on its North American strategy in recent years, racking up $248.6 million in production spending across its global operation. After going public earlier this year, raising around $170 million in the process, that investment looks set to increase in future years.

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Entertainment One, a regular fixture on the Indie List, is not present this year after having been absorbed into the Hasbro entertainment group after a stunning $4.9-billion acquisition which closed less than four months prior to the onset of the pandemic in North America. Scripted powerhouses Shaftesbury and SEVEN24 Films posted impressive totals once again, made all the more impressive given the never-ending succession of curveballs lobbed their way. Muse Entertainment hit $66.6 million, and continued to invest heavily in development with more than $2.5 million invested in that area. The Montreal company also handled an enormous $127.2 million in service work. Film-focused companies also managed to regroup and turn in strong performances in 2020. After its formation in 2013, Elevation focused on distribution in the first three years of its existence, before branching into service production and later producing its own IP. That directional shift appears to be paying off now, with the company generating $15 million in production spending. Meanwhile, Regina’s Minds Eye Entertainment hit $10.2 million and Scythia Films posted $2 million, with the latter also handling $10 million in service production. Factual-focused production companies such as Cream Productions and Alibi Entertainment also had solid years, with Cream handling $22 million in production spending and Alibi $9 million, while Winnipeg-based Farpoint Films clocked $7.9 million with projects including the second season of Ice Vikings, in addition to handling $10 million in service production. Meanwhile, fellow Winnipeg-based company Eagle Vision continued to generate significant production activity through a combination of documentary, unscripted and TV projects, namely the final season of Burden of Truth. For as long as there has been an independent Canadian production industry, people have been forecasting its demise. In 2020, once again, the domestic screen sector proved that an economic catastrophe – even one as unthinkable as a months-long, industry-wide production shutdown – could be weathered with ingenuity, hard work and collaboration. With the worst of the pandemic hopefully in the rearview mirror, the Canadian production industry will look to build in 2021 and the years ahead, potentially with the help of new legislation that would bring more money into the domestic funding system.

Total (Production+ Development)

Total Production Budget

Total Development Budget

Service Production Budget 87,265,034

Feature Production Budget

Boat Rocker Media

249,453,409

248,603,409

850,000

9 Story Media Group

132,600,000

131,800,000

800,000

Sphere Media

92,325,000

92,000,000

325,000

Shaftesbury

86,608,381

86,199,145

409,236

SEVEN24 Films

74,706,000

74,206,000

500,000

Muse Entertainment

69,169,060

66,648,204

2,520,856

127,162,764

Thunderbird Entertainment

55,300,000

55,000,000

300,000

77,000,000

Blue Ant Media

44,900,000

44,000,000

900,000

1,200,000

500,000

marblemedia

42,452,923

41,450,000

1,002,923

Sinking Ship Entertainment

38,200,000

38,000,000

200,000

Guru Studio

34,651,000

34,170,000

481,000

Nomadic Pictures

32,150,000

32,000,000

150,000

Eagle Vision

23,817,521

23,167,521

650,000

13,000,000

1,531,233

Cream Productions

22,400,000

22,000,000

400,000

Portfolio Entertainment

21,388,000

21,213,000

175,000

Elevation Pictures

15,050,000

15,000,000

50,000

15,000,000

Minds Eye Entertainment

10,500,000

10,200,000

300,000

10,200,000

Lark Productions

10,363,540

9,450,000

913,540

Alibi Entertainment

9,500,000

9,000,000

500,000

JoBro Productions

9,450,000

9,400,000

50,000

Farpoint Films

8,130,000

7,925,000

205,000

Arcadia Entertainment

6,375,000

6,350,000

25,000

Buck Productions

5,932,376

5,182,983

94,776

Carte Blanche Films

5,418,177

5,217,381

200,796

TLN Studios

5,315,561

5,183,644

131,917

Omnifilm Entertainment

5,017,863

4,455,195

562,668

16,933,433

Antica Productions

3,000,000

2,750,000

250,000

500,000

Scythia Films

2,200,000

2,000,000

200,000

10,000,000

8,100,000

423,000

9,450,000

10,000,000

654,617

12,000,000

* All values are denoted in Canadian dollars **After Entertainment One, which frequently topped the Indie Report, was acquired by Hasbro, the company stopped breaking down its overall production spending. It has therefore been removed from the list.

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Slasher: Flesh and Blood is the fourth season of the horror anthology series, which previously ran on Super Channel and Netflix.

Shudder PROGRAMMER PROFILE B Y K E L LY T O W N S E N D

It’s no surprise that the birthplace of horror auteur David Cronenberg has a long history of producing some of the genre’s best. It’s a legacy that horror-focused streamer Shudder aims to build on. The U.S.-based platform, owned by AMC Networks, has acquired a raft of Canadian horror titles since its international launch in Canada and the U.K. in 2016. Its Shudder originals include Madeleine SimsFewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s Violation (DM Films), Cody Calahan’s Vicious Fun (Black Fawn Films), Elza Kephart’s Slaxx (EMA Films) and Amelia Moses’s Bleed With Me (True Sweetheart Films). Shudder also revived the horror series Slasher (Shaaftesbury), with its fourth season Flesh and Blood premiering on the platform in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand on Aug. 12 and on Hollywood Suite in Canada this fall. Head of programming Sam Zimmerman spoke with Playback about what the streamer is looking for in its next Canadian picks, from classic horror trope twists to genre-bending visionaries.

Playback: It’s been five years since Shudder landed in Canada. How has the streamer’s overall programming strategy changed or evolved since then? Sam Zimmerman Sam Zimmerman: The idea was always to represent the genre itself, Head of programming the breadth and the depth of it, and all of the things that horror can Shudder be – from very pure, lean and suspenseful to artful and incredibly profound to even shocking and disturbing. We did that in the form of what you might consider older films or even contemporary indie films. Then, as we grew, our focus has shifted to acquisitions, originals and exclusives. From there [we’re] building out our own titles – we’re acquiring finished films to then coming in even earlier as a producer – to be a home for original, daring and exciting new horror in all of its forms.

How has Shudder’s niche programming strategy within the horror genre helped it stand out in the market? I grew up a horror fan and I understand the broad spectrum of who loves this genre. In some ways the genre is a niche and in some ways it’s also one of the broadest forms of entertainment out there and one of the oldest forms of storytelling. The different [types] of people who love the genre is so wide. We are a focused service and we live within the genre, but the genre is a deep place, so I think there is something for everyone. It allows us to play in a really cool, really expansive spectrum.

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Some of Shudder’s most recent Canadian originals on the film slide are comedy horror films like Slaxx and Vicious Fun and psychological horror Violation. How do those titles speak to the type of content Shudder is looking for when it comes to original films? It comes down to that spectrum and saying, ‘what is the best version or the best idea of every type of art?’ Slaxx is a great example. You explain it to someone and say, ‘Hey, this is a movie about a pair of killer jeans.’ Immediately someone might conjure something really outlandish and silly, but it also has really heavy scenes and an amazing point to make. It’s a great monster movie because you start off gleefully laughing at a pair of jeans killing people, and then you get to the end and – like any great monster movie – you go, ‘oh, no, these jeans had a point. I really believe in what these jeans were doing.’ Then you see something like Violation and you’re just devastated in the best way, and you’re seeing filmmakers like Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli be absolutely fearless and unrestrained in how they want to express themselves. Then in the spectrum between those wildly disparate movies there is Bleed With Me, our new season of Slasher, [Kurtis David Harder’s] Spiral (Digital Interference) or [Steven Kostanski’s] Psycho Goreman. They all are, to me, the best versions of their various sub-genres and represent all of the best ways that horror can be exciting, fresh, new and satisfying. It can be a really cathartic, visceral experience, or it can be a really fun night or it can be a very classically scary, dark and stormy night in – or something like [Jeff Barnaby’s] Blood Quantum, which can kind of do it all. It’s a gory, splattery zombie movie, and a very aggressive, angry film about Indigenous rights and Indigenous history in Canada.

You’ve had a major presence at the genre-focused Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. How has that helped you develop relationships with local producers here? Fantasia is a great example because it’s such a significant genre festival and one of the best out there. Until COVID hit it often had the Frontières market running concurrently, so you were meeting with filmmakers who had films in the festival and you were also meeting producers and filmmakers who were developing projects in the market. Slaxx came directly out of the Frontières market and I met that team there years ago when they pitched.

Production for Slaxx took place in Montreal in 2019.

Are you looking to increase the number of titles you’re commissioning out of Canada? I think so. We’re looking to acquire and commission titles that are made within all the territories that Shudder is available, whether it’s the U.S. and Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. We know that Canada has a really rich legacy of genre that dates back years, but it’s also continuously bringing us new and exciting visions. [We want to] bring those films in and show them to the Canadian audience and our members across the world.

On the TV front, Shudder is about to release the revived Slasher for the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. How did that come together? We feel really grateful we got to be a part of a new season of Slasher. It came together simply because the series was looking for a new home and in many ways we felt we were perfect. What [creator] Aaron Martin has done with the series is something that honours the slasher sub-genre while also subverting it and making it more stylish, heavy thematically and delicious in a lot of ways. Flesh and Blood is all of the best things about Slasher. It is suspenseful and gory, it has a lot to say about family dynamics, and then we got David Cronenberg to act in it, which is kind of the most incredible aspect of it all. One of the masters of horror and the godfather of Canadian horror, if you will, blessing it with his presence has been a really exciting thing.

Are there any trends within the horror genre at the moment that particularly excite you as a programmer? What’s really exciting to me is a lack of trends. Distribution is so wide at the moment because we have streamers like ourselves who represent horror from the micro-budget scale up to a more polished traditional indie budget spectrum to studios releasing films on VOD. I don’t think there’s one type of horror that’s dominating.

What else can you share about what you’re currently looking for when it comes to pitches? It sounds very general to say, but what we’re looking for is new visions on traditional horror. How are you honouring that while taking us someplace new? Is it perspective, is it a filmmaker from an underrepresented group? Is it just a completely new subversion or satire? We want things that are satisfying and identifiable within the genre, but take us somewhere we’ve never been before. fa l l 2 0 2 1

Execs behind recently launched Canadian blockchain-based ﬁnance models say the time is now to innovate and seek alternative ways to bring producers and investors together. BY JORDAN PINTO

FOR DECADES, PRODUCERS AND FILMMAKERS HAVE TRIED, MOSTLY IN VAIN, TO FIND WAYS TO BRING MORE PRIVATE INVESTMENT INTO THE CANADIAN FILM INDUSTRY where access to federal and provincial funding is stretched to its breaking point. The math no longer makes sense, according to many in the Canadian film sector, as a growing pool of applicants attempt to tap into Telefilm’s annual budget, which has remained at around $100 million for the past two decades. Of course, this is not a new problem, and some organizations and companies have sought ways to bring more private capital into the arena of Canadian film. Indeed, Telefilm looked to diversify its own financing sources with the launch of its Talent Fund in 2012, a private donation fund designed to solicit philanthropic donations from corporations and individuals with the goal of supporting first feature films. Since its inception, the Talent Fund has raised more than $17 million. For the most part, however, finding net-new streams of funding has eluded producers and filmmakers operating within the Canadian film sector, prompting a number of industry veterans to seek alternate methods of financing projects.

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This desire to innovate has resulted in the launch of a pair of new entities – BlockFilm and Mogul Productions – which have garnered attention in 2021 with ambitious business plans that aim to connect producers directly with fans and potential investors. It’s loosely akin to crowdfunding, but with the potential to source far more investment – and with far more rigorous security and transparency mechanisms in place. The end goal is similar, though: to kickstart and accelerate the speed at which films can be financed, produced and released. Toronto-based startup BlockFilm, led by co-CEOs Suzette Couture and Pauline Couture, is a platform designed to showcase projects to investors and fans. It uses blockchain technology, but projects are financed using fiat currency as opposed to cryptocurrency. In July, the platform, which was funded in part by the Canada Media Fund, attracted attention when it obtained an exemption order from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), enabling it to launch what it calls “tokenized” production financing opportunities, which will allow producers to issue their own regulated financial instruments in the form of security tokens that can be used to fund screen-based projects. The platform uses TokenFunder – which claims to be Canada’s first regulated digital securities issuance and trading platform – and issues three types of security tokens: revenue share in the project itself; equity in the project; and debt financing. By the end of 2022, BlockFilm says it aims to raise a whopping $175 million for its projects (there are currently around 50 in the pipeline). It hopes to raise $19.1 million within six months for its first 11 projects. Among the projects showcased on BlockFilm is coming-of-age period drama Bear Season, produced by J. Todd Harris (The Trial of the Chicago 7), which is seeking around US$10.5 million. Currently attached to the project are Luke Evans, Jacob Tremblay and Olga

Kurylenko. Another is Us in 9 Months, a feature project from Mary Young Leckie (Solo Productions), who is also a co-founder of BlockFilm. Other co-founders in the venture include Charlotte Mickie (Celluloid Dreams), Damon D’Oliveira (Conquering Lion Pictures) and Wendy Bernfeld (Rights Stuff BV), while BlockFilm’s advisory team includes Martin Katz, entertainment lawyer David Zitzerman, former Bell Media exec Corrie Coe, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band director Daniel Roher and Redcloud Studios head Jennifer Podemski. The time has come for Canadian producers to find alternative, sustainable ways of financing their content, says Leckie. “We have a huge base of talent in this country that can’t be exploited because of the limitations of funding,” she tells Playback. Leckie was a producer on the 2016 feature film Maudie, the highest-grossing English-language film of that year. But completing the financing was challenging – and costly. Needing $1.25 million in gap financing to complete the film’s $7.5 million budget, the producers paid $250,000 in legal fees and 18% interest in order to secure the loan. None of that money ended up on the screen, she notes. War stories like Leckie’s aren’t uncommon in the world of film – but the experience has solidified her belief that producers must collaborate to find new ways to finance content. While BlockFilm’s goal is to work with films that already have other sources of financing in place, Leckie says her ultimate ambition is to create a system whereby it is possible for producers and filmmakers with track records of solid returns on investment to get their work financed entirely using private capital and tax credits. “I personally would love to be able to liberate myself completely from the government sources of equity, because it is getting increasingly difficult to access,” says Leckie. She adds that the next step for BlockFilm 13

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is to make the investment community understand the opportunity, so that the idea can take root. Also looking to disrupt the world of traditional film financing is Mogul. The company’s mission is to connect projects, fans and financiers via its decentralized film financing (defifi) platform, which aims to offer investment opportunities to regular investors, as opposed to only high-net-worth individuals. Thus far, the platform has garnered around 50,000 sign-ups and generated US$10 million in sales for its access passes, according to its co-chair of film financing, Gorav Seth. Access passes allow fans to financially support projects using an in-app currency called STARS tokens. Fans vote on the films they want to be greenlit, and participate in key decisions regarding aspects of the production. After receiving more than 500 submissions, Mogul held its first vote between Aug. 5-19, with STARS token holders being asked to vote on three films: horror flick Devilreaux and thrillers Terminal Station and MR-9. The winner was Terminal Station, which received 75% of the vote. In order to be eligible to participate in Mogul’s showcases, projects need to have 50% of their total financing in place, feature an A-list star, be commercially appealing and have directors and producers on board. Projects that advance to the voting stage are selected by an internal team. The Mogul platform caters primarily to movies with budgets less than $10 million. Like BlockFilm, Mogul also boasts a recognizable roster of advisors, including DCTV president David Cormican, actor Lyriq Bent and the newest addition, former Bell Media executive Mike Cosentino, who will support the company’s growth through his recently launched media, content and consulting banner CosMediaInc. Mogul co-chair Seth has worked both within the film industry and in finance as an investment banker and venture capitalist, working on Bay Street for 12 years helping private and public companies raise money for mergers and acquisitions. Of Mogul, he says he sees it like a “proof of concept for the film and crypto community, because we’re trying to marry very different industries. What we want to do is help validate the business model for both sides. People are skeptical – is this real? Do you actually have capital? What’s this fake internet money? I can tell them, it’s very real,” he says. 14

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An advantage of going to fans and investors first, says Seth, is that it will allow Mogul to reverse engineer its projects so that audiences are asked the question “what do you, as a consumer of content, want to see?” before the wheels of development, financing and production begin rolling. “Usually when they make a movie, there’s no testing done, there’s no consumer research from the independent producer’s point of view. They get a script, think it’s good, make it, and afterwards they’ll get test audiences to see how it resonates, and later edit it and perhaps cut or reshoot some scenes. But that feedback loop is after the fact. Here, you’re able to do all that before the film is made.” Seth adds that “the beauty about cryto is that there’s a network effect in the blockchain and crypto world, so independent creatives and filmmakers get to tap into this global community.” Both Mogul and BlockFilm are dipping their toes into the world of non-fungible tokens – more commonly known by the acronym NFT – too. (An NFT is a one-of-a-kind digital asset that is easily traded on the blockchain.) Mogul is soon to launch a dedicated NFT platform, on the heels of a successful entry into the nascent space. The company recently did an NFT drop for Marvel and DC Comics artist Rob Prior, who painted a Wolf of Wall Streetinspired picture and later burned it. The live stream was viewed by 500,000 users and the NFT sold for almost $200,000 when it was auctioned on the Mogul platform. The words ‘blockchain’ and ‘NFT’ are becoming increasingly common in TV-industry parlance, and in August musician and DJ Steve Aoki and Seth Green’s Stoopid Buddy Stoodios also made TV headlines when they launched the animated series Dominion X via NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway. While, to many, NFTs are fascinating and confusing in equal measure, Mogul’s Seth is bullish on the growth of the market. The fine art world has, to date, been the most lucrative for NFTs, but film industry watchers believe the opportunities for posters, video clips and other film-related content or memorabilia could create interesting new revenue streams for filmmakers. “It’s going to be very beneficial for creatives. It’s another way for them to connect directly with fans, help monetize on projects, and can give them revenue streams that might not have been accessible before,” says Seth.

MOVING CANADIAN FILM ONTO THE BLOCKCHAIN? While the use of cryptocurrencies to finance Canadian film will be interesting to observe in the coming years, Mark Slone, president of Photon Films (formerly Pacific Northwest Pictures), says he’s equally interested in the integration of blockchain technology into everyday processes. “Every project has so many partners with financial interests. You’ve got the investors themselves, Telefilm, guilds, unions, distributors, and of course the banks too. Blockchain is a great way for all these parties, and all of their interests, to become very fluid and easy to manage,” he says. “I feel like there will be a point where the whole production-cycle process moves to a blockchain-like environment. It’s only logical,” says Slone, who is not affiliated with either Mogul or BlockFilm. David Zitzerman, partner and head of the Entertainment Law Group at Goodmans LLP, is also optimistic about the intersection of Canadian film and blockchain technology. “Suddenly it opens up new possibilities for financing, and tracking investments and performance,” he says. In a perennially difficult financing climate for Canadian films, Zitzerman, who sits on BlockFilm’s advisory team, says he’s optimistic about the companies

creating new avenues for filmmakers and producers to connect directly with investors via the internet and attract investment in a way that hasn’t been possible before. Only time will tell whether these new funding models will become commonplace in financing plans for Canadian films. But to many in the film industry, these new models represent an interesting new proposition for bringing Canadian stories to audiences at home and abroad. “You can now go out to the world and say ‘I’m doing a film about the environment. How many of you are environmentalists and support green initiatives? Here’s your opportunity to invest in this film directly,’” says Zitzerman. It’s an example of the film industry taking advantage of technological advancements to find new mechanisms for financing production, he says. “If crowdfunding works, then why wouldn’t this work? If you think about it, people were crowdfunding movies from fans who gave them money for T-shirts. If they were raising $30,000 from people for T-shirts, you would think there’s a market of people who are like ‘I would put $10,000 into that movie. I’m not going to put $100,000 in but I would put $10,000 in. And I could lose my money, but I like the story, support the principle and want to be a part of it.’ There’s a lot of people like that and up until now they’ve had no ability to invest like that.” 15

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One-on-one with

maxine bailey

The Canadian Film Centre’s new executive director talks soul searching, the responsibility of her new role and ambitions for a new iteration of the organization. BY JORDAN PINTO

THE CANADIAN FILM CENTRE (CFC) MADE WAVES IN APRIL with the appointment of maxine bailey as its new executive director, replacing long-time head Slawko Klymkiw. With the announcement, social media was awash with messages of congratulations and cheers, with the emphatic sentiment being that the CFC picked the right person. Before joining the CFC, bailey – whose name is stylized without capital letters – spent 18 years working at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), most recently as its VP of advancement, before departing at the end of 2018. And following a two-year break in which she sat on juries for film and literary awards, the veteran exec returned this spring reinvigorated and determined to effect change across the Canadian screen sector. In one of the first interviews since her appointment, bailey spoke with Playback about bringing an equity-focused lens to her role, her goal to reshape the CFC, and projects she’s working on outside the organization.

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Why was this role right for you, and why was now the right time?

When I left TIFF, I did some soul searching. I figured that when I went back to work, I wanted to be leading an organization where I had the autonomy to help impact or change the storytelling in Canada. My background has always been about trying to bring equity to situations, so I felt that if I was in charge of something, I could do that. In my previous life I was a storyteller, a creator and I used to be in theatre. But I’m also a businesswoman, so I thought “how can I take all these great skills I learned at TIFF and bring them to another part of the arts world?”

What is your big-picture vision for the CFC? How do you plan to evolve the organization’s community impact?

I came into the CFC with some great ideas, or so I thought. However in talking to the board, staff and alumni, they also have great ideas for what we should do. My job as executive director is to take all these ideas in a big funnel and then distill them into three or four things that focus on what the CFC’s future could be. A really important part of the plan is to demystify the CFC, because I think if you stop 20 people on the street and ask them what the CFC was, is, or could be, you would get a myriad of answers. So we have to get better at telling our story. We have to do a lot more work by inviting various communities to the table, including systemically excluded groups who might not have been part of the previous versions of the inner circle at the CFC. I’m trying to make CFC more accessible to all Canadian storytellers. If someone has a story to tell, I want them to know the CFC is here to help them tell it. I also want to find out from our various levels of alumni what they are looking for. We serve a number of groups and I want to do justice to all those people. Ultimately, what I want to do is to tell everybody who we are, where we are, what we do, how we’re going to do it – and how we can work together.

One of your main responsibilities will be to manage CFC’s ﬁnancial health. In the current climate, what do you see as the keys to achieving this?

Firstly, it was hiring new fundraisers. I was able to hire E.J. Alon [as executive lead, creative impact, revenue], so that’s a coup for us. I’ve worked with him in the past and I’m thrilled he said yes. He’s focused, smart, knows how to raise money, and is a good manager. The other thing that’s a big focus for me is diversifying our revenue sources, and donor base – that’s the fun part, because there are more and more people [from diverse backgrounds] who have money and like the arts. How can we not connect those dots, and bring them a bit closer to us? They’re looking for organizations they want to champion, so I want to be front and centre and hopefully they’ll want to support the CFC.

Are there any other things you have on the go?

I’m also working as a story consultant for a new TV series, and I’m working on a film script.

Is there anything you can say about the TV series at this stage?

I don’t think I can tell you yet. I’m very excited about it though. All I can say is that it was based on a book I read a few years ago.

And what about the ﬁlm script?

In my previous life, when I was in theatre, I wrote a script in the ’90s with a friend of mine, Sharon Lewis. We’re revisiting that script, updating it, and we’re having the best time writing together. We wrote all through COVID. It’s a really interesting process, writing when you can’t be in the same room. We just received some impressive notes, and we think we’re close – we’ve got about two or three more writing sessions, then we get to send it out.

What do you think is critical to the future success of the Canadian ﬁlm sector?

We know that the film industry needs to broaden its engagement with diverse communities. If you walk onto most film sets, [the lack of diversity] will be quite obvious. Up until now, I think there have been singular voices telling Canadian stories. I’m very interested in how I can help shift that, because equity, diversity and inclusion is my jam. I’m also very cognizant, based on some of the young people in my life, that we’ve got a whole new generation coming up and they’re addicted to their phones, their screens, games and all of that storytelling. I’ve got my daughter sending me TikToks, and the storytelling in these short little film clips is amazing. How do we get some of those people to tell stories? Another thing I’m pondering is this: when I started looking at CFC alumni, I noticed that a lot of people who have come through the Centre are all now based in the U.S. In my mind, we have this Canadian creative brain drain. That’s great and I’m very happy for them, but now we need to figure out how we get some of them to come back and share some of their knowledge, or actually create – once every couple of years – a project here. I’m interested in connecting those dots. A long time ago I read – and I don’t have a citation for this – that Colin Farrell used to insist that he have one project a year that was done in Ireland. He felt it was very important. I’d love to have that kind of equivalent, and I’d love if CFC could be the middle person there, working with our alumni. It’s not just our alumni though. I believe in celebrating all Canadian talent. There’s something fascinating about being at the CFC, especially at this time, and helping discover new voices and celebrate talent. And there’s a weight to it, too, right? The changes I make at the CFC are going to be very important to the film industry. If not in this very moment, in our future storytellers.

Do you feel the weight of responsibility from the industry?

Yes, I do. I’m a woman. I’m a woman of colour, a Black woman. I feel there are a number of communities looking to me for change, especially at this time. I also have the responsibility my parents raised me with – that if you’re going to do something, you do it well. So I have my own [feeling] of “I’ve got to get this right, I’ve got to make some serious change,” as well as the responsibility I feel to various communities. The welcome I received online when the announcement went out was fantastic. But it was also like, “OK, there are a lot of people watching.” I’ve had a lot of interaction with some racialized alumni who have said they’re watching. I know that with every move I make, I might get a congratulatory email, or I might hear “you could have gone deeper, you could have done more.” More than anything, I’m happy to be here and to represent my various communities. I want to do a damn good job and have some fun while making some change. This interview has been edited for clarity FA L L 2 02 1

Shoot, not again! The release of the 25th James Bond film No Time To Die has been delayed six times, according to reports. The latest news is that Daniel Craig’s final appearance as 007 will hit theatres in early October.

The return to movie theatres has seen Cineplex leaning on blockbusters, while indie exhibitors and distributors look to draw audiences away from streamers and over to the art house. BY MARK DILLON

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THE JULY 16 WEEKEND WAS CIRCLED IN RED ON MOVIE EXHIBITORS’ CALENDARS. That’s when Ontario and Manitoba joined the other provinces in allowing the reopening of cinemas that had been shut down since as far back as October. It was then a scramble to salvage what remained of the summer box office. That Friday night was important enough that Ellis Jacob, president and CEO of dominant theatre chain Cineplex, showed up at his Varsity facility in downtown Toronto to watch the flow of patrons and encourage management and staff. Early signs indicated what the industry had hoped: people want to go back to the movies. Cineplex reported nearly half a million ticketbuyers visiting its theatres across Canada that weekend, its busiest since January 2020 – two months before COVID-19 fears shut its doors for the first time. No doubt that strong performance can be attributed to pentup demand and Hollywood blockbusters Black Widow, F9: The Fast Saga and Space Jam: A New Legacy. In mid-August Cineplex said around two million customers had gone through its doors since the nationwide reopening, representing an estimated 55% of 2019 numbers. Historical levels were unreachable given provincial seating restrictions, as in Ontario, where the limit at reopening was 50% capacity per room and up to 1,000 patrons per establishment. But in practice maximum capacity was even less for Cineplex, which sold reserved groups of seats only, blocking off surrounding seats for safety. “One thousand and 50% sound good on paper, but if you’re physically distancing you’re really restricted to about 25%,” Jacob tells Playback.

Despite Cineplex’s safety precautions that also included enhanced cleaning and staff self-health attestations, there were sure to be bumps along the road, and it announced positive COVID-19 tests for staff members at its Ancaster, ON and Kelowna, BC locations. The theatre chain will take good news where it can find it. The pandemic scuttled its $2.8 billion sale to the U.K.’s Cineworld, resulting in lawsuits back and forth and a court date scheduled for September. It responded to the revenue loss with a $57 million leaseback of its Toronto headquarters and $250 million in second lien secured notes. Jacob says he will look for more ways to monetize real estate similar to his current deal to rent out space to Ryerson University. Amidst rising Delta variant concerns, Cineplex looked to entice customers with the August rollout of its CineClub subscription program, which for $10/month provides a monthly movie ticket plus further ticket and concession discounts. Calgary-based Landmark Cinemas, the nation’s second-biggest chain, has come out with its similar Extras subscription offering. Meanwhile, Jacob hoped to hit 80% of 2019 box office returns with his fall slate, believing the 2020 production shutdown hasn’t dented supply since there was “a long period of time with no product [in theatres]. Some movies were streamed but a lot of the big ones were kept for the theatrical experience.” Case in point, the James Bond film No Time to Die had been scheduled for an April 2020 release but is now eyeing this Oct. 8, while Top Gun: Maverick has shifted from June 2020 to this Nov. 19. To compensate for seating limits, Cineplex has spread top-performing movies on more screens than usual within the same location. While that sounds like it could squeeze out smaller-scale fare – which describes pretty much all Canadian productions – Jacob insists that as restrictions loosen, he expects Cineplex will broaden the types of movies it runs. “I’m a believer in playing Canadian movies and Indigenous movies,” he says. “We have to play them in theatres in which they’re going to perform. We do the same with Bollywood, Filipino and Chinese movies, which our Scene loyalty program allows us to do because we know demographically where these individuals are and how we can attract them. The big challenge is marketing, which [is up to] distributors.” The summer’s highest-profile Canadian/Indigenous release – playing on 15 Cineplex screens – was Beans, a drama inspired by director Tracey Deer’s childhood experiences during the 1990 Oka Crisis. The Quebec production opened in la belle province on July 2 in 14 locations in its original English version along with French subtitled and dubbed versions. Quebec theatres reopened Feb. 26 at 50% capacity with a curfew in place and no allowance to sell concessions. As of late June the only restrictions remaining were a 1.5 -metre distance between seated groups and masks mandatory everywhere except in seats. FA L L 2 02 1

With all of Canada open and awareness created by the Quebec release, distributor Mongrel Media opened Beans July 23 in 10 cities in the rest of Canada and in four more locations the following weekend. As of early August it had amassed $127,000 in box office. Tom Alexander, Mongrel’s director of theatrical releasing, is happy with that but feels studio releases are at more of an advantage than usual. “Moviegoers have more of a ‘must-see’ attitude for the bigger titles,” he says. “They’re thinking, ‘We’re not going to go to the movies that often [right now], so we’ll see something big.’ It’s going to take time for that to normalize.” While not the optimal time to release any film in theatres, Mongrel wanted to take advantage of the buzz around Beans. Indigenous issues are central in the national dialogue, and since its TIFF debut last fall, the film has ridden a wave of buzz and award wins, including the Canadian Screen Award for best picture. “The only way to get people used to going back to the movies is to offer them product they’re going to respond to,” Alexander says. “We have to keep supporting exhibition. We wanted to get Beans out this year as planned so we could make some kind of impact.” In Quebec, local French-language productions have been major drivers in the return to theatres. When cinemas were allowed to open last year from July to September and Hollywood studios were withholding product, local films including Mafia Inc. and Mon cirque à moi were drawing crowds, to the tune of more than $1.35 million and $700,000 in box office, respectively. F9 signalled a large-scale return to Quebec cinemas during the recent reopening, but local films continue to pull their weight, with family comedy La guide de la famille parfaite – which blew past the $1.5 million mark in its first four weeks – Sam, and the documentary La parfaite victime all weekly top-ten performers. This is cause for cautious optimism, and the provincial government softened the blow of months of lockdown by announcing $4.6 million in funding assistance last December, followed by an additional $3.9 million unveiled 20

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in May. Cineplex did not qualify for these funds since it is not incorporated in Quebec. Telefilm has provided assistance to the national exhibition industry in several phases: first in the form of $968,000 as part of the general Telefilm Relief Fund announced in May 2020, followed two months later by a $1.76 million commitment, and then, unveiled this summer, $16 million more to be distributed over two years along with $9 million earmarked for promotional initiatives to get Canadians back to cinemas. While the government assistance has been a great help, it doesn’t make up for all the lost revenue, says Éric Bouchard, co-president of exhibitor group Association des proprietaires de cinémas du Québec (APCQ). And now there is anxiety about the federal wage subsidy, rent subsidy and Lockdown Support programs coming to a close Oct. 23. “We’re not currently bringing in 100% of our [traditional] revenues and I don’t think we will get to that point before the subsidies end,” says Bouchard, also coowner of Cinéma Saint-Eustache and Cinéma Carrefour du nord cinemas in Saint-Jérôme.

Fans are flocking to La guide de la famille parfaite in Quebec cinemas, and inspiring hope within the to the Canadian independent film industry.

FilmRise acquired Tracey Deer’s Beans at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, and it’s riding a wave of momentum in limited release.

to book that title,” even though the film had been on Cineplex screens since the latest reopening and is available for free to Amazon Prime Video subscribers. Nothing has come of NICE’s petition and Cineplex has denied the allegation, insisting distributors decide where they open films. The Rio has succeeded in getting new product from streamers, such as the Disney+ music documentary Summer of Soul, which it screened daily for two weeks – the level of commitment Disney’s Searchlight Pictures demanded – in a bid to convince viewers that seeing it in a public venue with a big screen and big sound is optimal. That could prove a major hurdle, as moviegoers have gotten into the habit of streaming new films at home and renting through premium video-on-demand (PVOD). But while viewers returned to theatres for summer spectacle – even though Disney has made Black Widow and Jungle Cruise simultaneously available on PVOD – some see a place for smaller dramas as well. Distributor Elevation Pictures has certainly enjoyed the upside of PVOD, particularly with Academy Award nominees Minari and The Father, which most cinephiles would have had to rent at home if they wanted to see them before the April 25 Oscars, as theatres in most provinces remained closed. Elevation co-president Noah Segal says the films have performed “extraordinarily well” on PVOD – and that’s with a far less expensive marketing The Father, starring Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins, has grossed campaign than they would have had for a theatrical more than $20 million globally. release. Still, he believes this type of movie will Photo by Sean Gleason continue to have a place on movie screens. “The intimacy of those films might connote that you would want to see them on a small screen,” Segal In January, when theatres were closed, the facility says. “But the streamers have discovered that comedy, temporarily rebranded as the Rio Sports Bar – as bars and action and genre fare is what audiences really want to see restaurants were allowed to open – and projected games on Netflix and Disney+.” on its screen. It could not charge admission, but made Bearing that out is Zack Snyder’s big-budget zombie money selling snacks and alcohol, which it has done since flick Army of the Dead, which Netflix says was at least acquiring its liquor licence in 2012. partially watched by 75 million viewers in its first four Although believing movie exhibitors were being weeks after debuting in May. Specific to Canada, Zack discriminated against by the B.C. government, the Rio did Snyder’s Justice League became Crave’s most-streamed what it had to do to keep going. title ever after launching in March. “It provided our staff with something to do, “Streamers would much rather have Justice League neighbourhood people got to enjoy sports, and it qualified than The Father,” Segal says. “Sometimes they aren’t us for Circuit Breaker funding,” says Rachel Fox, the going to see the value proposition of certain films. So Rio’s senior programmer, referring to the provincial distributors might be looking for a certain number from relief initiative that awarded grants of $10,000 to small the streamers, not get it, and have to release another businesses with more than five employees including way. That means people who want to see unique, quality liquor and food serving premises, for which the Rio was movies will have to do so at the arthouse.” the rare movie theatre that qualified. That time-tested approach might still be the winning Fox says she is less concerned about people coming strategy for indie films, he adds, since theatrical back to theatres than she is about having to continue “continues to drive value across the entire chain, competing with Cineplex. The Rio belongs to the including transactional, licensing, airlines, hotels Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE), and DVDs. A movie that performs better theatrically which last year submitted a complaint to the Competition performs better on ancillaries. It creates interest and Bureau alleging that Cineplex pressures distributors to fervor. We want as many mediums and windows grant it exclusivity for new releases, shutting out indies. as possible to show our movies, so even though it’s She says she would have liked to have scheduled expensive, we want theatrical to come back.” Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II, but “is 100% unable Informing the public about the status of reopening remains a challenge. “We’ve been open since Feb. 26, but we still get people asking, ‘Are you open? Do you sell popcorn? Can we take off our mask in our seats?’” Bouchard says. “People have concerns about public places and want to know the rules.” Distributors and exhibitors collaborated on an ad campaign and a couple of websites (On se voit au cinéma and Aime ton cinéma) that outline safety protocols and promote Quebec titles. Meanwhile, B.C. reopened on June 15 with 50 customers permitted per room, and then in July that opened up to 50% capacity. Vancouver’s independent Rio Theatre, which has one screen and 420 seats, returned to its offerings of cinema classics, cult favourites, recent Oscar nominees and documentaries.

“

We want as many mediums and windows as possible to show our movies, so even though it’s expensive, we want theatrical to come back. Noah Segal,

co-president, Elevation Pictures

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k c o t s g n i Tak

As Teleﬁlm continues to evolve its programs for a more equitable system, when will Canadian ﬁlm take on a different face? B Y K E L LY T O W N S E N D

THE PAST YEAR HAS SEEN SOME OF THE LARGEST SCREEN INDUSTRY FUNDING INSTITUTIONS, including the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada, push to address persistent inequities within their infrastructure and support projects that broaden Canadian cultural legacy. Will that mean a change in the films financed and produced in Canada within the next few years? Only time will tell, say experienced racialized producers who believe the Canadian funding system must be overhauled to remove systemic barriers facing underrepresented groups. Prompted by a mandate to change and significant industry outcry, including an open letter signed by over 500 individuals and organizations, Telefilm made a few monumental shifts in the last year, including the permanent suspension of its Success Index launched in 2010 and the Fast Track stream launched in 2013. The latter program automatically provided funding to a select group of established producers with a track record of successful feature films. This move was lauded by many in the industry, but drew the ire of some of the producers that it benefitted. More recently, the federal funding agency made a commitment to provide a framework for diverse language films to become eligible under its program guidelines. The organization is currently in the process of updating its program guidelines following the launch of its seven-point Equity and Representation Action Plan in July 2020 and a pan-Canadian consultation process. It has also changed the way projects are selected, introducing an advisory committee comprised of a diverse array of internal and external representatives to make recommendations for the Theatrical Documentary and Production programs, as well as for the Development program. (Talent to Watch has already used a committee for its decision making). 22

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“It’s about being able to provide more predictability, more flexibility, and also to develop and evolve it as we go,” Christa Dickenson, executive director and CEO of Telefilm Canada, tells Playback. She adds that for this year’s funding decisions, the organization brought in 36 diverse, external committee members and they will change year over year. “We can’t have a solution that’s perfect for everybody. It’s about being as forward thinking as possible in these times.” Following the 2020 decision to automatically approve all Development program applications and double the budget – resulting in 607 projects earning a total of $11.6 million – Telefilm has introduced the Prequalified Stream, which gives 125 eligible companies automatic development funding in three tiers of $25,000, $50,000 or Christa Dickenson, $75,000. Companies are measured executive director and CEO, Telefilm Canada using a performance ratio which compares total revenue of a film in relation to its budget. The ratio differs from the Success Index, which weighed commercial success with cultural access at international film festivals. Dickenson estimates the impact of the automatic development funding decision will surface within the next two to three years, acknowledging that a sharp increase in production funding applications may result in significantly more rejections than the average year. Jennifer Holness, president of Hungry Eyes Media, says Telefilm’s past tendency to value European film festivals

has served as a barrier for Black filmmakers, which she says historically have been far less likely to program content starring Black actors. However, she credits Dickenson as a catalyst for change within the organization. “A lot of the people in positions of decision-making power did not want to change the system, and here’s the difference: I think Christa does want to change the system,” says Holness. Telefilm says it has expanded its list of eligible film festivals for the Development Program following consultations, with 40% of the eligible international festivals for the Selective stream located outside of Europe, and 300 festivals eligible in the Black and people of colour stream. Telefilm also provides an Jennifer Holness annual $100,000 investment to the filmmaker and president, Hungry Eyes Media Black Screen Office. Holness says she had a positive experience on her first feature Love, Sex and Eating the Bones (2003), directed by producing partner Sudz Sutherland, but despite the success of that film, securing financing for the pair’s second feature Home Again (2012) was, they feel, more difficult than it should have been. “You’re supposed to get some more support by the industry itself as a whole, but also by Telefilm,” says Sutherland, calling the institution back then “a hostile environment.” He believes the film, which told the story of three Jamaican-born individuals who are deported from where they’ve been raised in Canada, the U.S. and England, could not access higher levels of funding because it didn’t feature recognizable white actors. Holness concurs. “We couldn’t get any sales attention on the film. International markets were not really helpful to us at all. It’s a Black story; it’s about criminality and it’s filtered in a perspective that is not a white gaze, right? So, as a result, we were having real difficulty. “We set up a meeting [with Telefilm] and were told that it is not a national film, it is an Ontario film, and Sophie Okonedo [in talks to star at the time] was not a big enough actor,” says Holness, noting that at that point Okonedo had earned an Oscar nomination for her work in Hotel Rwanda. Telefilm declined to comment specifically on Home Again. The film, which initially had a budget of $4 million, eventually went to camera in Trinidad with a smaller wallet of $2.6 million, with about $350,000 coming from Telefilm. It starred U.S. actress Tatyana Ali (The Young and the Restless, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), as well as Scarborough, ON’s Stephan James (The Book of Negroes, If Beale Street Could Talk) in his first feature film role. Holness says she ended up severely reducing her producer fee to get the film made. “This is why the BSO (Black Screen Office) and other organizations like it are so important, because that was the kind of stuff that was allowable and no one batted an eye,” says Holness. While Sutherland says Telefilm’s decisions around the Fast Track program, in particular, is “a good first step”, he feels it only scratches the surface when it comes to making a truly equitable system.

Dickenson says one critical success within Telefilm so far is with its support for Indigenous films. In the last fiscal year, the agency provided $5 million to Indigenous-led films within its Production, Theatrical Documentary and Talent to Watch in addition to the $4 million allocated within the Indigenous stream. Telefilm is also currently developing a framework for diverse language film under its various program guidelines, one of the recommendations from its consultation. Only films in English, French and Indigenous languages are currently eligible for funding, though Dickenson says exceptions have been made in the past. Telefilm noticed a rise in applications of films featuring other languages in the last fiscal year. “When you see a spike like that you realize the trend has changed; it’s about meeting those expectations,” she says, adding that Telefilm’s diversity and inclusion working group has formed a subcommittee dedicated to guiding a new framework for the fall. Another key challenge is that Telefilm is not currently able to collect intersectional data with categories for demographics such as South Asian or Latin American. “We’re prepared for it,” notes Dickenson. “It’s a matter of us being authorized [by the treasury board] to do so.” Telefilm also continues to include a theatrical release as part of its eligibility requirements for higher-budget projects ($3.5 million for English, $2.5 million for French) submitted to the Production program. “Telefilm is committed to theatres in Canada and will continue to support theatres as a cornerstone of the national feature film ecosystem,” said a Telefilm spokesperson, adding that “further flexibilities may be made in the future.” That is in spite of waning exhibition opportunities for Canadian films and a shrinking number of theatregoers. Statistics from a consumer habit survey commissioned by Telefilm reveal that while 78% of Canadians often or sometimes watch films, less than half (41%) said they routinely went to the movie theatre before the pandemic. It should be noted that Telefilm currently has an active role in the recovery of Canadian cinemas. It has been allocated $35 million to support exhibitors over the next few years Sudz Sutherland through its Theatrical Exhibition program filmmaker and and the Promotion program. vice president, Hungry Eyes Media Sutherland expects the industry won’t truly see the results until about 10 years from now, when up-and-coming filmmakers starting out now will be able to get the support they need to successfully produce their second or third features. “It’s about the new filmmaking voices that are coming in, like Alicia K. Harris,” he says of the Scarborough filmmaker whose student thesis film Love Stinks (2016) was picked up by CBC’s Gem, while her follow-up short Pick won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short in 2020. “What’s her first feature going to do? How’s that going to perform; not just in Canada, but globally? And then [what will be] the distance between her first feature and her second feature? That’s how we’ll tell.” FA L L 2 02 1

There’s no easy sell, but distributors are ﬁnding the sweet spot for ready made ﬁlm and look forward to a developing surge. BY ANDY FRY

Tracey Deer’s Beans is drawing praise for using the festival scene as a marketing strategy.

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COVID-19’S IMPACT MEANS THAT 2021 IS UNLIKELY TO BE REMEMBERED AS A BANNER YEAR for Canadian movies in terms of festival plaudits or commercial breakouts. But despite the disruption, there have been important developments, says Rene Bourdages, VP cultural portfolio management at government-backed funding agency Telefilm: “A key issue for Telefilm has been how to reflect Canada’s national conversation around representation and parity. In terms of our investment in domestic production, that means greater emphasis on audience engagement, cultural resonance and supporting stories from underrepresented filmmakers.” While this makes sense on home soil, it raises questions about the export potential of Canadian films. In response, Bourdages says: “Our priority is to give everyone a chance to get their projects made, but people around the world are interested in these stories like never before. I think what we are witnessing in Canada is reflected in cultural trends that are occurring in many other territories.” One area that seemingly supports this contention is Indigenous film-making, which receives $4 million a year in ring-fenced funding from Telefilm. Recent titles that have popped beyond Canadian borders include Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum and Tracey Deer’s critically acclaimed Beans. The latter, about a young Mohawk girl forced to grow up fast during the 1990 Oka Crisis, was an Official Selection at Berlinale 2021. “It’s a timely story that tackles some compelling universal themes,” says Anick Poirier, co-founder of WaZabi Films, which handles the

Brain Freeze demonstrates Canada’s mastery of the sci-fi fantasy genre.

movie’s sales excluding Canada. Echoing Bourdages’ observation, her partner Lorne Price adds: “Our feeling is that Beans aligns with the diverse voices we are hearing around the world, movements like BLM, standing up for what is right.” There is no easy sell for any films right now, says Poirier, “and that’s true everywhere – not just Canada. There’s such a backlog of films that theatres aren’t taking your movie unless they absolutely have to.” Nevertheless, Beans was licensed to FilmRise in the U.S. “and they did a great job at festivals,” says Poirier. “They hosted a lot of Q&As with Tracy Deer, which really added to the authenticity of the experience.” FilmRise also runs a streaming platform, which CEO Danny Fisher says is a good fit for the film: “Beans is a perfect addition to our library showcasing important stories from underrepresented populations.” Further endorsement for the international appeal of Indigenous-themed movies comes from Belgium-based sales agent BFF, which snapped up Caroline Monnet’s Bootlegger in Cannes. And TIFF 2021 will see the premiere of Bretten Hannam’s long-awaited Wildhood, a film which explores gender identity through the lenses of Indigenous culture and mythology. Buyer response should provide a further indication as to the level of international interest in this category. Continuing with the representative drive, 2021 has also seen Canada’s industry draw strength from diversity. Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy tells the story of two gay teens discovering their sexuality amid the Sri Lankan civil war in the 1980s. Picked up by Ava DuVernay’s sales arm Array, the film streamed on Netflix in the U.S., U.K. and New Zealand. Explaining what attracted Array to the film, company president Tilane Jones noted how Funny Boy “builds on Mehta’s provocative canon of work as a filmmaker. [Her] singular vision invites film lovers to delve deep into themes of identity, acceptance and family, while she shares the majesty and turmoil of Sri Lanka during this time in history.” Coming down the line is Jonathan Keijser’s Peace by Chocolate, the true story of a Nova Scotia-based family

that set up a chocolate business after settling in Canada as Syrian refugees. Supported by Telefilm’s Talent to Watch program, international sales are being handled by UTA Independent Film Group. Also on the horizon is Donkeyhead, Agam Darshi’s quirky introspection on the lives and loves of Indo-Canadians. Produced in Saskatchewan this year, worldwide rights on this project were open at time of writing. Genre is enjoying a resurgence, since Canada has demonstrated prowess in sci-fi and fantasy prodution. “We just opened Montreal’s Fantasia with our baby zombie film Brain Freeze,” says WaZabi’s Poirier. “It’s a hilarious film that has been picked up in Asia, the U.K. and U.S., among others.” U.S. rights have gone to Cinedigm, which owns streaming channels and distributes to OTT third parties. Blood Quantum secured carriage on AMC’s Shudder while vampire flick Kicking Blood was featured in the Frontières Buyers Showcase, a collaboration between Cannes’ Marché du Film and Fantasia. Coming up is another Indigenous/sci-fi hybrid, Night Raiders. Directed by Danis Goulet, the Canada-New Zealand coproduction debuted at Berlinale and was picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films for the U.S. Still on genre, Netflix acquired an upcoming sequel to Code 8 – a 2019 film that generated sales of $5 million across international and VOD (Telefilm

Canada/Ireland copro The Nest taps the star power of Jude Law and Carrie Coon.

figures). Equally exciting is upcoming sci-fi thriller Infinity Pool, directed by Brandon Cronenberg and starring Alexander Skarsgård. Set up as a CanadaHungary-Croatia coproduction, the film starts shooting in September and will be released in the U.S. by Neon. While Canadian ‘genre’ is clearly more commercial than the art house films referenced above, it inevitably runs up against the might of the Hollywood studio system. FA L L 2 02 1

2022

Canadian Screen Awards. Call for Entries.

Michael Greyeyes 2021 Canadian Screen Award Winner Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Photography by George Pimentel

The Canadian Academy is accepting entries for the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards in television, digital media, and fi l m . E n t r i e s w i l l b e a c c e p t e d f r o m S e p t e m b e r 1 t o O c t o b e r 4, 2021, with an early-bird deadline of September 20, for reduced entry fees. To l e a r n m o r e , v i s i t a c a d e m y . c a / a w a r d s . Academy voting members receive preferred rates on television and digital media entry fees. Not a member yet? JOIN HERE.

Another commercial sweet spot for Canada is comedy and drama. Sometimes Canadian filmmakers leverage their cultural proximity to the U.S. (as in Natalie Krinsky’s The Broken Hearts Gallery), but more often the answer lies in international coproduction. “Canada has always been the poster child for coproductions,” says Bourgages, “and 2020-2021 has been no exception with 40 Canada-backed film and TV copros. Copros enable producers to build larger budgets and access global audiences. They also help to attract high-profile casts.” Recent Canada-U.K. copros include The Nest (Jude Law) and French Exit (Michelle Pfieffer), the latter securing theatrical release in the U.S. and Canada during February 2021 (total revenues $1.6 million) – as part of the Sony Pictures Classics portfolio. Copros with the EU have also proved beneficial, giving filmmakers access to additional production and post-production support. This year, six Canadian-backed films attracted $1.9 million total. These include FranceCanada-Tunisia copro Motherhood, the first feature by Montreal-based Meryam Joobeur. Arguably of the most fruitful Canada/EU relationships has been with Ireland, which offers the triple benefit of Irish tax credits, EU financial support and access to the Englishspeaking market. After Brooklyn and Room trod this path, Memento Films International secured global distribution for 2020 Berlinale opener My Salinger Year, directed by Oscar-nominated Canadian director Philippe Falardeau, starring Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley. Next up is Cry From The Sea, a copro between Canada’s Sepia Films and Ireland’s ShinAwil. Los Angeles and Paris-based Cinema Management Group (CMG) is handling worldwide sales. CMG president Edward Noeltner, who previously collaborated with Sepia Films on The Games Maker, introduced the project

Soulterrain, directed by Sophie Dupuis, mines emotional territory in this tale of an underground accident at a Quebec gold mine.

French Exit stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges with a script by Patrick deWitt.

in Cannes where it was well received. “What you always get with Canadian films is great craftsmanship – but what I especially liked about this production is the character journeys. The sense of loss and redemption has the feel of Manchester By The Sea.” The film’s prospects have been enhanced by the attachment of Emily Beecham, named Best Actress in Cannes 2019 for Little Joe. “It’s the kind of film I could see working in festivals or as a specialist theatrical release, Curzon in the U.K. for example. But we’re holding back right now in case we get a worldwide streaming deal. You have to keep options open.” As for French-language output, Cannes selection Aline, based on the life of Celine Dion, is probably the most highprofile Canadian copro of 2021. Other standout productions have included Denis Côté’s comedy drama Hygiène Sociale (Social Hygiene). Speaking to Playback, Côté said: “We had an amazing start at Berlinale by winning a Best Director award in the Encounters section.” To date, says Côté, the film “has been selected for about 15 festivals and about 20 more are coming this fall. We [Côté’s production company Inspiratrice & Commandant] sold it to Portugal and are in talks with other territories. But it’s a very arty and independent title. With some luck, we might end up on a platform or two in the coming months.” Bourdages said he believes streaming is opening up opportunities for French-Language Canadian films. “Le guide de la famille parfaite has generated more than $1.5 million in box office so far and international rights have been acquired by Netflix. I think global streaming audiences are increasingly open to non-English films.” Looking ahead, there is some cause for optimism with $105 million of new Telefilm funding coming over next three years. In 2021, the funder ploughed $11.65 million of development money into 607 projects. Designed to help the industry recover from COVID-19, it will be interesting to observe if this wave of projects triggers an export boom, or if most projects turn out to be baby turtles that never make it off the beach.

“

What you always get with Canadian ﬁlms is great craftsmanship. Edward Noeltner, president, Cinema Management Group

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T I F F

S P O T L I G H T

Set to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the CanadianBelgian-French co-production Charlotte began as a passion project for January Films’ Julia Rosenberg. BY SADAF AHSAN

STORIES LIKE CHARLOTTE SALOMON’S – a preternaturally talented and passionate young German Jewish artist who created one of the world’s first graphic novels during the Second World War while hiding from the Nazis and before her capture and gassing at Auschwitz – are rare, not only in their being found, but in their getting to be told. For January Films owner and producer Julia Rosenberg (Sundowners, Natasha, Where the Truth Lies), that meant bringing her artwork – while also granting her tragic tale all the recognition it’s long demanded – to life. Rosenberg fell in love with Saloman as an artist at the age of 13 when she was first given a collection of her work. “She became a private obsession for me,” explains Rosenberg. “It happens to people who know of Charlotte’s work, we create this fierce fan base. Every time I fell in love with someone, I would give them a copy and say, ‘Here, this is the most important thing in the world to me.’ ” While jogging one morning in 2011, the idea hit Rosenberg hard – if Salomon drew her life story as a painting series, then Rosenberg had to produce an animated dramatic film. “Before I’d gotten out of my running clothes and into the shower, I’d sent an email off to the Charlotte Salomon Foundation, and that’s how it started,” she says, a smile spreading across her face. In May 2012, she had officially optioned Life? or Theatre?: A Song-play, Salomon’s series of close to 800 paintings with 32,000-word narrative and multiple classical-music cues. Charlotte, the film, is no small undertaking. Although the source material offered a “conceptual neatness” to work with, it constituted taking into consideration countless things: that her canvases were vertical (as opposed to the way films are horizontal), and that there had to be a distinction between her existence and her artistic style. That led to the decision – alongside directors Tahir Rana (Welcome to the Wayne) and Éric Warin (The Triplets of Belleville) – to opt for 2D, which felt “painterly” and allowed the animation to work with similar aesthetic challenges Salomon did. But this being Rosernberg’s first time veering away from live action, 28

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it was a learning curve. One that began with an animatic (storyboarded images edited together with basic effects). In a sense, she says, “you’re choosing your mise en scène,” everything from your choice of sets to camera positions, before you animate and record the voices. What followed was travelling to London, England where the cast recorded their vocals, creating the characters’ identities. Speaking of, Charlotte features quite a cast, one that will likely only help widen its platform. It stars Oscar nominee Keira Knightley as the eponymous artist, while Oscar winner Marion Cotillard plays her in the French version, as does Romain Duris; both Knightley and Cotillard also serve as executive producers. Oscar nominees Brenda Blethyn and Sophie Okonedo, Oscar winner Jim Broadbent, as well as the late Helen McCrory co-star with Sam Claflin, Mark Strong, and Henry Czerny also star. London-based casting director Kate Ringsell is to thank for compiling that crew, as is the stunning script itself. Rosenberg developed the story as one might a live-action film, with it taking four to five years for the screenplay – with the help of screenwriters Erik Rutherford and David Bezmozgis – to arrive at a place where they were ready to show it to others. It’s rare, according to Ringsell, that such extensive scripts are available so early in the process for animated projects, and that was a major advantage to Charlotte’s assembling. “We had this beautiful script that we could send to people that read like a live-action movie, and the story itself is so compelling,” explains Rosenberg. “So I think that was incredibly convincing.” The work of the cast itself is remarkably gentle and empathic. Which is because, she explains, “We didn’t direct the actors to give us big renditions as they might while bringing to life a shoe or a cloud. Here, they’re incarnating not only people, but people who existed, so that gave a dramaturgical guidance. Also, 90% of Keira’s recordings were able to be done with her co-stars, so they were in the booth together and could act with each other, which is so important for dramatic work.”

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In combining the pieces, Rana’s deep understanding of storytelling through animation allowed him to work closely with the animators and supervise the storyboard process, whilst Warin, as a visual artist himself, brought a keen know-how into the project, intuitively handling elements of light and depth. In fact, each individual involved in the 92-minute film connected with it in a deep, emotional way, says Rosenberg, and that was important in adapting what she considers the first graphic memoir. Salomon, after all, was terrified that she was going to succumb to madness while being persecuted, and her artwork – which memorialized key moments and people in her life while living in the south of France between 1941 and 1943 – was a way for her to prove that wouldn’t happen. “It’s an act of resistance,” says Rosenberg. “She painted her life story as she wanted to represent it. ... We didn’t always really know what she was depicting or what was actually historically true. So the word ‘memoir’ encompasses the storytelling in a contemporary way; you know, she painted these pictures, she gave people dialogue, she even had musical suggestions. It’s a biopic, really, that uses her memoir as a vital source for information.” The Charlotte Salomon Foundation had script approvals – which was a relief to Rosenberg – and that helped in moments where it meant opting for Salomon’s depiction, even if it might not have been true to life. So when it came to taking poetic license and cutting one moment for another, for example, Rosenberg says reminds that that was the artist’s intention, as the title Life? or Theatre? suggests. The production team behind the $14-million project, by the way, is an ample and impressive one. In addition to January Films, the production teams includes Jérôme Dopffer of France’s Les Productions Balthazar and Eric Goossens and Anton Roebbens of Belgium’s Walking the Dog studio. Dopffer was crucial in acquiring French financing for the adult-targeting project first pitched Cartoon Movie 2017 in Bordeaux, France.

The teams worked in association with Telefilm Canada, Trinity Media Financing, Umedia, Serendipity Point Films, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Eurimages, Crave, CBC Films, Ontario Creates, Screen Flanders, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Flanders Audiovisual Fund. Montreals’ Xavier Dolan (Matthias et Maxime, Juste la fin du monde) and his producing partner Nancy Grant of Sons of Manual executive produce along with Morgan Emmery, Sylvia Geist, Jean-Charles Lévy, Cédric Iland, Bastien Sirodot, Robert Lantos, Jim Sternberg, Joe Iacono and Mark Musselman. “It was incredible,” says Rosenberg. “We laugh that it’s all because of Charlotte, everyone came on board because of Charlotte. Even the challenges we had, we had a feeling Charlotte was sitting up there going, ‘You’re gonna tell my life story? Prove yourself!’ Everyone brought different qualities. Xavier and his producing partner Nancy were particularly helpful, not only with bringing on the French cast, but their understanding of how to bring together a team, and their take on the script.” Elevation will release Charlotte in English-speaking Canada, MK2 Mile in Quebec, the Searchers in Benelux, Diaphana Films in France. Sierra/Affinity is the international sales agent. As for what she hopes viewers will take away from Charlotte? “Most artists don’t make over 1,000 pieces in a lifetime, and she did that before she was murdered at the age of 26. I hope people recognize that and really look at her work and everything she contributed,” says Rosenberg. “Ultimately, Charlotte is a story of hope, because before her death, she realized herself in her voice. And we see that at the end of the film when she looks out at the sunset and notices its beauty. Despite everything that’s going on, she can see the world around her and, in it, something that gives her hope and moves her. I want viewers to give this incredible, overlooked artist the recognition and the attention that she so richly deserves but, on a deeper level, I hope they walk out of it and feel her hope, because I also know so many people need it right now.”

Opposite: Charlotte Salomon and her lover Afred Wolfsohn, a champion of her visual diary, are shown in a scene from the Canadian-Belgian-French co-production. Below: Charlotte pays tribute to the overlooked German Jewish painter who created one of the world’s earliest graphic novels before her death in Auschwitz in 1943.

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Marching from a scrappy Canadian start-up to a global entity in a decade

BY AMBER DOWLING

Michael MacMillan has always had global ambitions. Photo Credit: Christopher Wahl

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The company launched as a homegrown media channel in a new digital age and reinvented itself into a groundbreaking, global entity with stakes in distribution, studios, copros and streaming.

FOR A DECADE NOW, BLUE ANT MEDIA HAS DEFIED THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE with optimism, risk-taking, and quiet but solid growth. What began as a scrappy Canadian startup in 2011 has since transformed into a bona fide media enterprise with solid footing in the global space. Over the past 10 years it has expanded significantly, growing from a specialty channels business in Canada into a diverse company with offices in six countries, a vast global production operation and a distribution library with more than 4,000 hours of content, including the largest 4K natural history offering on the market through Blue Ant’s global wildlife and nature brand Love Nature. Blue Ant CEO and co-founder Michael MacMillan knew from the beginning that digital technology and viewer habits were on the cusp of massive change. As the former chairman and CEO of Alliance Atlantis Communications, he had been involved in bringing channels such as HGTV and Food Network into Canada. Now, he saw an opportunity to do what few others in the country were, during a time when the refrain “TV is dead” was a mantra: become a Canadian-based company that not only distributes content, but one that creates and owns its IP. “There were all sorts of predictions of doom and gloom for the industry and for creators, but I thought they were dead wrong,” MacMillan says. He notes that as a startup the company wasn’t tethered to old strategies or technologies, and was able to push forward in new directions. Creating clearly defined brands with expertise in a handful of factual categories through M&A growth was essential in laying the groundwork for what was to come. Over the first couple of years the company acquired and transformed Glassbox TV, HiFidelity TV, Cottage Life Media and Bold TV into strong brands including Cottage Life and Smithsonian Channel Canada. Three years in,

the company invested in Omnia Media, rebranded Oasis HD to Love Nature, and committed to 4K programming, a risky venture no one else was investing in at the time. Back then there were also few linear and streaming platforms available in Canada, and so in 2014 Blue Ant International was born with EVP Solange Attwood at the helm. The exec had previously made an elevator pitch to MacMillan (in an actual elevator), and they hit the ground running. “Mike had always wanted to be an international company and in 2014 it was a great time to get in because the market was hot,” Attwood recalls. “The path to success was very clear. We were able to partner with a lot of thirdparty producers who were making lots of internationally relevant television shows, which we acquired, and then launched in various markets around the world.” Today, Blue Ant International has transformed into a full-service entity including first-look development deals, content distribution, and financing opportunities with pre-sales and co-productions. Ownership always remained key to that success. In the early days Blue Ant had a small content business based in Toronto to produce IP for Canadian channels like Love Nature, Makeful and Cottage Life. Acquiring international production companies was a natural way to extend Blue Ant’s global reach, and by 2018 it had undergone significant expansion with the acquisitions of Beach House (Asia’s largest indie and a growing

Clockwise from top: Blue Ant International oversees global licensing for No Responders Left Behind (Paradox Pictures), which premieres this fall on Discovery+ in the U.S. The doc follows the fight to get health benefits for 9/11 first responders. Photo credit: Faye Murman Merchants of the Wild, a docuseries co-produced by Blue Ant Media and APTN, features six Indigenous adventurers on a survival journey through an ancient waterway trade route. Six-part doc series Evolve, produced by Blue Ant-owned Beach House Pictures for CuriosityStream, explores the world of biomimicry.

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attraction to international streamers), Saloon Media and NHNZ. (Blue Ant sold its majority stake in the latter company in February but retains a minority stake and a seat on the board.) In 2016, it also launched adult animation company Look Mom! Productions with Josh Bowen as creative director. However, while Blue Ant was solidifying its name in the international market, it was still missing a key territory: the U.S. “It’s a big priority for us,” says MacMillan. “The U.S. is the centre of the universe when it comes to the film and TV industry. It’s not only the biggest market, it’s the most competitive market. And it’s also the place where an enormous amount of programming that dominates many other markets originates from.” In 2019, Blue Ant Studios USA launched. That American expansion continues in earnest under the Blue Ant Studios banner, which was also created that same year and formalizes the company’s entire production business under one umbrella. MacMillan had kept in touch with Laura Michalchyshyn, a transplanted Canadian living in New York, since their days together at Alliance Atlantis. Whenever they met up, they would discuss the evolution of the company. “I told him, the growth opportunity that you’ve created globally, and in Canada, is amazing. [But] everything you’re doing is going to have a certain level of growth until you hit the U.S. market,” she recalls.

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Michalchyshyn officially boarded the company in 2019 as co-president of Blue Ant Studios alongside Sam Sniderman, who had joined the company in 2017. Jennifer Harkness also came on board as SVP unscripted content in 2019 and, last year, Julie Chang was upped to the newly created position of EVP, international co-productions, reporting directly to MacMillan. It’s a necessary position for the evolution to come. While Blue Ant prodcos still produce shows for the company’s ever-growing global channels, the majority

From left to right: Spirit to Soar is a one-hour documentary distributed internationally by Blue Ant International. Produced by Makwa Creative in association with Antica Productions, it follows Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga, pictured, to Thunder Bay, ON to explore the story surrounding seven Indigenous high school students who went missing. Produced by Blue Ant Studios, Canada’s Drag Race contains elements of the classic fanfavourite RuPaul’s Drag Race. Season one premiered in Canada on Crave and the streaming service has also picked up Season 2, which is in production. Produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Studios company, Hotel Paranormal is a 10-part documentary series narrated by Dan Aykroyd, that reveal true accounts of those who have dared to stay or work at hotels cursed by paranormal activity. The series is distributed by Blue Ant International. Osprey, is a one-hour documentary that is a coproduction between Love Nature and the WNET Group and is distributed internationally by Blue Ant International. It gives audiences an intimate look into the life of an osprey family over one year. Photo credit: Thomas Koeck

of its business is now with external companies including BBC, Netflix, Crave and Peacock. The studio is focused on making topically relevant factual and scripted content for global audiences, and has seen success with recent titles like the docuseries Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell, and Playback’s 2020 Unscripted Show of the Year, Canada’s Drag Race. In February, Blue Ant Media unveiled a strategic partnership with Julie Bristow’s Content Catalyst Fund, in which the companies will work together to develop, produce and distribute female-generated, unscripted projects for the global marketplace. This past April, Blue Ant Studios also announced a new development deal with Emmy-nominated, Atlantabased producer Tamra Simmons (Surviving R. Kelly). The former BANFF content advisory board member will work with execs to develop three upcoming unscripted projects, identifying and exploring diverse storytelling. “We’re in a market that is being disrupted massively. The traditional model, which was dominated by cable and broadcast, is being blown up and in its place are these new services, which have different kinds of content and reach customers in different ways,” says Sniderman. “That’s the biggest challenge that we face. The good news is that there’s a lot more money going into content now than there used to be, and most of that new money is flowing into the independent sector, which is where we are. So if you can navigate the new buyers and those new relationships, you’re actually in a much better position.” That growth also continues at home, specifically in the free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) space with the D.C.-based Love Nature and its hundreds of hours of natural history content that are now moving into the U.S. market via strategic AVOD and FAST launches. (The channel is currently available on more than 10 U.S. platforms.) The product’s overall model reaches all pillars of what Blue Ant hopes to be: owning and acquiring its own IP, growing internationally, expanding platforms and emerging as a player for new production technologies and methods. “No one was going for FAST right off the bat, everybody was putting library content on FAST,” says Carlyn Staudt, global general manager of Love Nature. “Everybody was looking at me like, ‘You’re crazy. What are you doing? You’re not going to go on the pay TV side?’ And we said, ‘No, we’re charting new territory, we’re going for it.’ That has so paid off so far and I really anticipate that will continue.” Jamie Schouela, Blue Ant Media’s president of global channels and media, has been with the company since 2013 and has rebranded eight channels in eight years, including Love Nature and BBC Earth. Looking forward, he says the goal is to continue fostering strong brands that cater to specific passion audiences, specifically in the FAST space by offering a unique mix of content that differs from linear channels and reaches new, potentially younger audiences. So far that strategy is paying off. BlueAnt’s HauntTV and Crimetime offerings have both been consistently growing month over month since their respective

launches, combining in Canada for 25 million minutes in June. Collectively, overall minutes watched have grown 235% since March. That kind of diversity, both from a content and a geographic point of view, is what many of the company leaders feel has allowed them to thrive during the pandemic, when productions across the world essentially shut down. Blue Ant has continued its steady growth over the past year, and as it looks ahead the homegrown strategy remains focusing on opportunities beyond broadcasting and advertising revenues. That includes forays into digital spaces like its Animalogic and Mobile Syrup properties, as well as consumer shows. “Consumer shows are probably the best focus group I’ve ever done in terms of really meeting and seeing your audience firsthand,” says Schouela. “We can’t wait until next spring to do this again post-COVID because we’ve missed this business the last couple of years… it’s the best place to really understand what consumers love about the brand, what they don’t like, what they’re thinking about. We’ve gotten show ideas from that. It is the single best focus group we could ever do and it’s a really good business as well.” MacMillan concurs Canadian growth will probably come from expanding the company’s digital footprint and launching more consumer shows and live exhibitions. “Again, it’s not being tethered to one single technology and not being beholden to one single business model. We’re in the business of programming that has a longer life, that will travel well and be translated into other languages and that is suitable for various audiences,” he says. “Ten years in, we’re a lot bigger than we obviously were, but we’re still relatively small on the world scale. So we still are able to be agile and nimble, and zig and zag, which is pretty darn important.” fa l l 2 02 1

Going

THE BACK PAGE

for

GOLD After Canadian TV made Emmy history in 2020 with the Schitt’s Sweep – which saw comedy Schitt’s Creek break records and win nine statuettes – Canada is hoping to make it to the podium once more for the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, taking place on Sept. 19.

Photo credit: HGTV

Canadian producers shared their nominee reactions with Playback:

Every time we are nominated for an award we feel a tremendous sense of pride and a responsibility to continue producing work that moves the interactive entertainment category forward. Space Explorers: The ISS Experience is the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken. Félix Lajeunesse

executive producer Space Explorers: The ISS Experience (Felix & Paul Studios, in association with TIME Studios) Nominated for Outstanding Interactive Program

[The nomination is] just a lovely surprise, as well as an affirmation of the work we’re doing. Our category is a mouthful, for sure, but the programs included encourage people to think about their own lives and the world around them, which is very gratifying. Jonathan Scott

co-star and executive producer Property Brothers: Forever Home (Scott Brothers Entertainment) Nominated for Outstanding Structured Reality Program

I have always said that the height of my career would be getting an Emmy nomination! Now that I have one for such a necessary dialogue about the film industry, I am beyond proud. Elizabeth Trojian

executive producer American Masters: How it Feels to Be Free (Yap Films) Nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series

The discussion this documentary is generating around empowering Black filmmakers to tell their stories is very necessary. This is my third Emmy nomination – and hopefully my third win. Elliott Halpern

executive producer American Masters: How it Feels to Be Free (Yap Films) Nominated for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series

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ANNOUNCING THE

NOVEMBER 9 & 10, 2021

ACCELERATING THE CANADIAN FILM BUSINESS FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN Join delegates from across Canada, the US and around the world for virtual expert panels, pre-set meetings and networking to ignite new projects and partnerships. MEET OUR CONTENT ADVISORY BOARD:

Amos Adetuyi

CEO & Executive Producer Circle Blue Entertainment

Lauren Howes

Executive Director Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival

Hussain Amarshi

Daniel Bekerman

Laurie May

Charlotte Mickie

President & Founder Mongrel Media

Founder & Co-President Elevation Pictures

President & Founder Scythia Films

Managing Director Celluloid Dreams

Lauren Grant Producer Clique Pictures

Naveen Prasad

President & Co-Founder Impossible Objects

fi l msum m it . play backonline. ca