Playback Spring 2022 Issue

® SPRING 2022

Cancon clout Homegrown TV in demand with global audiences

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Indie List 2022 Sustainability: How far have we come?

A publication of Brunico Communications Ltd.

CONTENTS

SPRING 2022

Aml Ameen (Junior Massey) and Charles Officer (director/executive producer) with additional crew of The Porter.

Photo: Arnold Pinnock

Indie List 2022

Going Global

Studying Sustainability

Playback takes the temperature of Canada’s indie production sector.

Canada holds its own in the international market.

How far has the industry progressed when it comes to green issues?

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Programmer Profile 10 The Roku Channel is crafting content that capitalizes on consumer interest in AVOD.

Canadian Screen Awards 14 The CSAs look to reinvent themselves for their 10th anniversary.

Super Channel turns 15 38 Super Channel celebrates its anniversary with its “best year yet.”

ON THE COVER

Hall of Fame 42 We welcome Andrea Martin and Susanne Boyce to the Playback Hall of Fame.

Oh, Canada 28 In honour of the Banff World Media Festival (June 12 to 15), let’s talk Canada.

Canadian companies are finding new ways to land international TV sales, even as the market gets harder to negotiate. (Illustration ©Dave Murray, i2i Art.com) 3

EDITORIAL

vp, publisher - playback executive director, banff world media festival

Jenn Kuzmyk jkuzmyk@brunico.com editor, playback daily

Victoria Ahearn vahearn@brunico.com senior reporter & special reports editor

Season of renewal SPRING IS A TIME OF REGROWTH AND TRANSITION, and such is the case for Canada’s screen industry as it slowly emerges from two years of a global pandemic.

The recently tabled Online Streaming Act, which is explored in the new podcast series The Sessions from Playback and The Creative School (available on the Playback site), offers a chance to update the decades-old Broadcasting Act and regulate foreign streamers. But there are concerns: does the CRTC have the resources to manage the Act as-is? Is Bill C-11 visionary enough? Is it too big in scope? Will it hurt free speech in user-generated content?

Global perspectives

This edition explores the industry’s thoughts on Bill C-11 and the overall health of the sector with our annual Indie List, in which Canada’s independent production companies outline how they navigated COVID-19 obstacles.

The pandemic is among the factors making international TV sales more complicated these days but, as another feature story notes, this country is showing strength in that regard. Despite challenges, “Canada is better placed than most to compete internationally,” says the story – a sentiment also felt in our look at the Canadian Screen Award nominees, many of whom are making waves internationally.

Kelly Townsend ktownsend@brunico.com contributors

Brendan Christie, Mark Dillon, Amber Dowling, Andy Fry, Marc Glassman ADVERTISING SALES (416) 408-2300 FAX (416) 408-0870 1-888-278-6426 associate publisher

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Clean costs

The industry is also thinking globally and evolving when it comes to greening film and TV sets in order to make a significant dent in the climate crisis. As another feature explains, more screen organizations are committing to sustainable initiatives, such as CBC’s new carbon footprint requirement for original productions and Telefilm’s eco-responsibility action plan.

I moderated a panel on sustainable efforts during the Canadian Media Producers Association’s Prime Time conference in February, featuring producers Diana Pokorny and Mari Jo Winkler, and Randi Kruse, senior director of sustainability and communications at MBSE Canada.

The conclusion: the film and TV industry is a high emitter of carbon through the use of fossil fuels and must move to the next frontier of clean energy. It’s a critical issue, with a fall 2021 report from the United Nations Environment Programme saying the world has just eight years to halve our greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep global warming below 1.5 Celsius this century.

Yes, adding clean energy on top of pricey COVID protocols and production interruptions is a tough pill to swallow. But as the Prime Time panel noted, the more demand there is for sustainable goods and services, the more supply that will come to fruition and bring down costs.

The technology is there; now it’s time for governments, studio executives, producers, facility owners, unions and guilds to create the demand for it. If you build it, they will come, as the adage goes. It’s in the industry’s best interest, with climate emergencies such as hurricanes shutting down productions and becoming increasingly disruptive to the business.

As Winkler noted during the Prime Time panel: “They say that climate action is too expensive, but it’s actually too expensive to wait for the consequences.”

Victoria Ahearn Editor, Playback Daily

CORPORATE president and ceo

Russell Goldstein rgoldstein@brunico.com evp, canadian media brands and editorial director

Mary Maddever mmaddever@brunico.com

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: jp.pinto@brunico.com Sales e-mail: sales@brunico.com Sales FAX: (416) 408-0870 © 2022 Brunico Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Stealing the Scene

This year’s Canadian Screen Award nominations read like a who’s-who of established and up-and-coming Canuck talent. But, of the many names that grace that list, four rising directors stand out as ones you definitely need to keep your eyes on. The future of Canadian film and television looks to be in good hands. (For more on the CSAs, be sure to check out A Transformational Decade starting on page 14.)

Tracey Deer

Photo: Dory Chamoun

Producer/director Tracey Deer is coming off a pivotal year. Her feature debut, Beans, racked up awards from the DGC, TIFF, Canadian Screen Awards and Berlinale – to name just a few of more than a dozen accolades it’s landed to date. And the one episode she directed for Hudson & Rex last year (“Blood on the Tracks”) is up for Best Direction, Drama Series at this year’s CSAs. Already an established name in the industry – with writer and producer credits on projects such as Mohawk Girls and Anne With an E – Deer is becoming one of Canada’s most exciting directorial talents.

Winnifred Jong

Named to Playback’s 5 to Watch in 2018, Winnifred Jong has more than lived up to her promise in the director’s chair. In 2020, she Photo: Ramona Diaconescu received the DGC’s award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for her work on Hallmark’s Mystery 101: Dead Talk. She’s since landed gigs on Coroner, Nurses and others – including a recent CSA Best Direction, Comedy nom for Pretty Hard Cases (“Gliders”).

It’s clear that Jong’s extensive storytelling and scripting experience has had a positive effect on her directing. She’s currently producing/directing OWN’s Kings Of Napa for WB and Harpo, which premiered in January.

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Renuka Jeyapalan

Renuka Jeyapalan has Photo: Helen Tansey, Sundari Photography staked her claim as a directorial force to be reckoned with, starting with a string of notable projects that include 13 episodes of Kim’s Convenience and return engagements on Workin’ Moms, First Person and Sort Of – the latter of which saw her nominated for a CSA award for Best Direction, Comedy Series. She recently featured at SXSW 2022 as the director/screenwriter/executive producer behind drama Stay the Night – one of many projects she’s juggled in the past year. (Having also tackled episodes of Children Ruin Everything and Son of a Critch.)

Aleysa Young

Director Aleysa Young boasts an impressive list of credits to date, despite only making her TV directing debut in Photo: Jackie Brown 2016. Her resume features eight episodes of New Eden, 21 of Baroness von Sketch Show and 13 of Workin’ Moms, to name only a few. She’s also up for a CSA for Best Direction, Comedy this year for Workin’ Moms (“FACK”). Perhaps, most notably, she was tagged – along with co-director Kelly Makin – for the much-awaited revival of The Kids in the Hall for Amazon. Something tells us that she’s just getting started.

Playing the odds Canadian film producers weigh the risks and the benefits of self-distribution.

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

Andrew Chung, filmmaker and co-founder of the Asian Canadian Film Alliance

WITH THE FILM DISTRIBUTION MARKET STILL IN RECOVERY from the pandemic, some Canadian producers are looking towards selfdistribution to increase discoverability and return on investment on their features.

Terry Greenlaw of Halifax’s Picture Plant tells Playback that a pre-sale to Crave led to her theatrical self-distribution for Shelley Thompson’s LGBTQ+ family drama Dawn, Her Dad and the Tractor.

Greenlaw says her decision to sell the Canadian broadcast licence rights – which triggered muchneeded production funding from the Canada Media Fund (CMF) – hurt the film’s chance at attracting a distributor, but the combined funding amounts given

by Telefilm and CMF were “more valuable” than a distributor’s minimum guarantee.

After Dawn, Her Dad and the Tractor sold out its world premiere at Toronto’s LGBTQ festival Inside Out in May 2021, as well as its screenings at FIN Atlantic in September, Greenlaw decided to pursue a theatrical run.

Greenlaw worked with Crave to push back its streaming premiere to March while in negotiation with Cineplex, which was dealing with a backlog of U.S. studio films due to the pandemic. They landed on a 10 screen release through Cineplex in cities across the country, plus over 25 indie screenings. She handled promotion, including marketing support from Telefilm,

Dawn, Her Dad and the Tractor tells the story of a transgender woman who returns to her family farm to reconnect after the death of her mother.

Photo: Dan Callis

hiring a PR firm and bringing on a team for a social media campaign. She says producers must be prepared to handle the extra costs associated with distribution.

Greenlaw says the window could have been longer if not for theatre closures during the Omicron wave of the pandemic. “We’re seeing word of mouth build now, but we don’t have time to fully play it out.”

Toronto filmmaker Andrew Chung says indie producers should look at self-distribution as an opportunity to build their network and increase their potential profit.

He partially self-financed his feature White Elephant, which was also supported through a private investor and a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The ’90s-set teen drama won a number of prizes during its festival run, including Outstanding Feature Film at the Reelworld Film Festival, but Chung says the 60-minute run-time and lack of a premiere at a major film festival, such as TIFF or Sundance, made it less valuable to distributors.

However, he says film festivals that focus on racialized filmmakers have increased the presence of buyers in recent years, opening an opportunity for producers to network with platforms directly. He has since sold White Elephant to two broadcasters in Canada and one streaming platform in the U.S., set to be announced this summer.

“It’s all about [building] your personal relationships,” he says.

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Three Things

FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT INDUSTRY VETS This issue, we spotlight Cathy Wong, VP of equity, diversity & inclusion and official languages at Telefilm Canada.

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Cathy was once a contestant on the Quebecois journalist competition show La Course Évasion autour du monde

“Racing around the world as a video reporter was an amazing experience. I was really stressed before setting out because, unlike other contestants, I’d never done editing or worked on a shoot. I was fresh out of law school and suddenly swapping the Civil Code for a camera! Moving from country to country, I learned about directing, editing, creating soundtracks and colourizing.

“What inspired me most were the stories of resilience I encountered. I’ll never forget my experience in Nepal with a Tibetan family living in a refugee camp. Despite my Chinese ancestry, the family welcomed me into their home to talk with me and tell their story. That moved me deeply.”

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Cathy is obsessed with word games Among her many hobbies – which include sewing, origami and sculpting (catch one of her projects on exhibition at Université du Québec à Montréal this spring) – Wong loves to unwind by playing word games, particularly Scrabble. “Let me know if you’re looking for a Scrabble partner but, watch out, Scrabble is the only time I become fiercely competitive!” she warns.

Like many others, she’s also recently caught the Wordle bug: “I hope one day that they add a way to play with friends – it would be so fun to see how we rank against each other, and it would add that extra pressure to get it right!”

Cathy’s next travel plans: Vietnam “Of all the countries I’ve visited, I dream of going back to Vietnam the most. I can’t wait to take my 18-month-old daughter to discover the country of my ancestors. One thing I miss in Vietnam is trekking through the vivid green rice paddies in the north of the country. I’m also a huge fan of street food in Vietnam. I love to grab a fresh pho noodle soup, some spring rolls and tasty lychees from a sidewalk vendor and sit on one of those small plastic stools on the street to eat.”

Alberta’s billion-dollar film and TV ambitions

The Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation shares how the government is working with the sector to build its production capacity.

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

THE ALBERTA GOVERNMENT HAS DOUBLED DOWN on its investment in the province’s film and TV sector, announcing a budget of $225 million for the local tax credit over the next three years.

Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation Doug Schweitzer tells Playback the government created its current Film and TV Tax Credit after consultations with studios and streamers such as Disney, HBO and Netflix on how to attract larger productions to the province. The credit covers 30% of eligible costs for domestic productions and 22% for foreign-owned service projects.

“We’ve seen this massive growth in the industry, effectively doubling the number and scale of productions in Alberta in 2021, and 2022 is off to a fast start as well,” he says.

Schweitzer anticipates the sector will soon generate $1 billion in its annual production volume. The province generated roughly $220 million in production activity in fiscal 2019/20, according to the CMPA’s annual Profile report.

Among the more recent productions is HBO’s upcoming Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation Doug Schweitzer series The Last of Us, touted as one of Canada’s largest-scale productions to date. Domestic productions include SEVEN24 Films-produced series Wynonna Earp and Heartland and Prairie Dog Film + Television’s Tribal.

Schweitzer says the tax credit budget is based on available labour force, so it can be adjusted in future years as the province’s production capacity grows.

They are working on a “multi-tiered approach” to build that capacity and increase crew levels, including collaborations with unions such as IATSE and recruiting skilled workers from the energy sector.

Schweitzer says the government is also planning to further engage with the digital media sector this year, which has been short on incentives since the Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit ended in 2019.

“The challenge is the labour force,” he says. “We don’t want to necessarily throw gasoline on the fire, we have to make sure we get this right so we can actually fulfill the labour pressures in many different industries that are looking for that similar talent pool.”

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Children Ruin Everything has been renewed by CTV for a 16-episode second season.

The Roku Channel PROGRAMMER PROFILE B Y K E L LY T O W N S E N D

Despite a pandemic-fueled ad sales slump, the ad-based video on demand (AVOD) model is thriving. More than half of Canadians use ad-supported platforms to stream content, according to a Fuse Insights study commissioned by AVOD platform Roku, with the platforms accounting for roughly 10% of total streaming time in Canada.

Roku launched in the Canadian market in 2018 and has recently acquired Canadian content as The Roku Channel originals, including New Metric Media’s Children Ruin Everything for the U.S. and adult animation Doomlands, produced by Blue Ant Media-owned animator Look Mom! Productions. The company is also investing further into its originals strategy, hiring ITV America’s David Eilenberg as its head of original content.

Playback spoke with Jennifer Vaux, senior director, content acquisition for The Roku Channel on how the company is crafting its content strategy to capitalize on the Jennifer Vaux growing consumer interest in AVOD. senior director, content acquisition

Playback: Before the pandemic, AVOD was considered a growing avenue for consumers.

How much growth have you observed in the last two years?

Jennifer Vaux: In our 2021 “The Streaming Decade” report we found that 42% of streamers in Canada used ad-supported streaming services. Free is a very strong value proposition for a consumer. It’s accessible, it’s easy to use, you can just jump right in and start watching content.

What are some of the key content trends you’ve seen from the Canadian market since the 2018 launch?

We’ve seen a lot of growth in VOD, but also in our FAST channels. We’ve got over 100 free live TV channels across news, sports and entertainment, including branded IP, like The Red Green Channel. CBC News is a partner. We’re super excited to see people still want to watch linear. They want that lean-back experience, but they also want the complement of the VOD side of it.

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A PROUD CHAMPION OF CANADIAN TALENT AND STORIES, AT HOME AND ABROAD. TELEFILM IS A PROUD GRAND PATRON SPONSOR OF THE 2022 BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL. AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! TELEFILM.CA

Would you say there are certain genres that audiences tend to lean more towards?

We see everything work, from procedurals, dramas and true crime, but we also see a lot of strength in comedies and unscripted. I think what we’re able to do, especially because we have such a strong algorithm in The Roku Channel, is we’re able to serve up the content that audiences tend to want to watch, and we surface it up to the top.

How does that impact your acquisition strategy?

With The Roku Channel, we have this flywheel of content where you get great content on the service, it grows engagement, which then accelerates the ad revenue, which then allows us to reinvest in more content, so people are able to find what they want to watch when they want to watch it.

As a result, we are sourcing broadly from existing distributors. We work closely with CBC, as I mentioned, and we license movies of the week and romance from Incendo. It’s definitely a challenge from an acquisition point of view because we do have to look at everything, but we want really good relationships with Canadian [distributors] and producer partners.

How much do those MoWs factor into the overall content strategy?

It’s a part of the strategy. We also have our Roku original strategy where we’re using the data to determine what we want to make and what resonates with our audience.

We launched our first Roku original movie, Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, and these holiday movies do really well at that time of year for the MoW space. We’ve just announced Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which we’re super excited about.

We’re approaching content from a portfolio mix, so longer-form series that drive engagement, but also movies that drive a lot of reach and excitement.

Recognizable talent is super important because you have to get people engaged right at the get-go from that thumbnail art. Like, ‘Do I want to spend time with this property? Do I recognize the talent? Do I recognize the value proposition of the title?’

With Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, it’s pretty clear what that movie was about. That’s what we’re focused on is how do we encourage the audience to spend time with content they want to watch, whatever mood state they’re in.

What advice would you give a distributor or producer interested in selling or pitching original content?

For original content it has to go through our originals team and through the usual channels, whether it’s through a distributor or an agent. We are still a pretty small outfit, so we can’t take unsolicited pitches. Colin Davis, who oversees scripted, and Brian Tannenbaum, who oversees unscripted, have their contacts and their network and they go to markets.

Look Mom! Productions’ adult animation Doomlands was acquired as a Roku Channel original after it was initially commissioned for Quibi.

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The Roku Channel commissioned a two-hour holiday film of the Vancouver-shot Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist when the series was cancelled by NBC after two seasons.

B A N F F WO R L D M E D I A F E ST I VA L P R E S E N TS T H E

Indigenous Screen Summit JUNE 12-15, 2022

Celebrating Indigenous cultures and representation within media A new ‘festival within the festival’ launching Sunday June 12 with a Pitch Forum showcasing Indigenous-led scripted films, drama series and comedy projects in development. Throughout BANFF, we will bring together Indigenous entertainment industry professionals from Canada and around the world, seeking to conect partners, explore trends, create opportunities and amplify Indigenous voices through screen storytelling in the global market.

Access is complimentary with your BANFF pass.

Register at banffmediafestival.com

Founding partners:

Supporting partners:

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Night Raiders is nominated for 11 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction for Danis Goulet.

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

How the Canadian Screen Awards are striving to reinvent themselves at the 10-year mark.

IT’S BEEN 10 YEARS SINCE THE GENIE AND GEMINI AWARDS MERGED into the Canadian Screen Awards, but in many ways the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is just getting started.

The organization has set out to transform the typical awards show format, which has universally seen a decline in audience for high-profile broadcasts such as the Oscars and Emmys. Louis Calabro, the Canadian Academy’s VP of programming and awards, says their objective is about “putting content first.”

“Before the pandemic hit, it wasn’t a secret that award shows were analyzing who they were, what they were and what they wanted to do,” he tells Playback.

The last two virtual Canadian Screen Awards were pre-recorded and shot “more like a documentary” to highlight the work of Canadian film and TV. The upcoming 2022 ceremony will take cues from the last two years, being pre-recorded once again due to the COVID-19 Omicron wave, but reflecting more of a studio production than previously seen with the stars of CBC sketch comedy TallBoyz as hosts.

Calabro says the Canadian Academy has also done much inward work to make it “more accessible and inclusive than ever before.” That includes introducing membership subsidies, reducing entry fees and reexamining the language in its rules to ensure key creatives aren’t excluded from awards consideration by establishing some Canadian Screen Award categories as a “team award,” including Best Stunt Coordination.

One of the Canadian Academy’s most significant changes, according to Calabro, was incorporating the

principles of the 2019 On-Screen Protocols & Pathways guide, commissioned by the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, to help the organization promote narrative sovereignty for First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. “That was a moment where you could feel things changing for the better,” he says.

Indigenous-led features have had a prominent role in the Canadian Screen Awards the last few years. Jeff Barnaby’s horror Blood Quantum led nominations in 2021 and earned the most awards in the film category, while Tracey Deer’s drama about the 1990 Oka Crisis Beans won Best Motion Picture and Best First Feature Film.

Danis Goulet’s dystopian thriller Night Raiders, meanwhile, tied with Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson’s Scarborough as the top-nominated films in 2022.

The Canadian Academy currently does not collect any race-based data as part of its entry process, so quantifying whether the level of diversity in its nominees has increased in recent years is difficult.

Calabro says the organization is open to collecting that data in the future, but it will “take a lot of conversation with different communities and to be very transparent in what we want to ask for.”

In the meantime, the Canadian Academy’s goal is to continue to transform so that it won’t require any type of diversity-specific initiatives for nominations, but to be naturally more inclusive to the talent base in Canada – something he says they’re already seeing in the current nominees.

“When you look at the TV category Best Direction, Drama Series… you say, ‘Yeah, that looks right. This is reflective of our country and our industry,’” he says, referring to nominees Charles Officer for CBC’s Coroner; the aforementioned Deer for Citytv’s Hudson & Rex; Sharon Lewis and Warren Sonoda for separate episodes of CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries; and Helen Shaver for History’s Vikings. “That’s the feeling you want.”

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A look at how Canadian Screen Award Best Motion Picture nominee Wildhood is using tools, including an FYC campaign, to gain attention in a fractured market.

Wild market for Wildhood

BY VICTORIA AHEARN

IT’S BEEN ANOTHER YEAR OF PANDEMIC CHALLENGES FOR CANADIAN FILMS. Cinemas reopened last spring and summer, only to face wintertime restrictions and shutdowns in the face of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. As restrictions lift and theatres resume operations, homegrown indies are competing with tentpoles like The Batman for screens.

So, what does it take to get noticed at a time of market unpredictability?

For Wildhood – which is nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture – it’s been a combination of factors including community outreach and a For Your Consideration (FYC) campaign.

Written, directed and produced by two-spirit L’nu filmmaker Bretten Hannam, Wildhood follows a twospirit teen who connects with his Mi’kmaw heritage.

Gharrett Patrick Paon of Rebel Road Films and Julie Baldassi of Younger Daughter Films are producers, while Damon D’Oliveira is executive producer. Other production companies attached are Flimshow and Mazewalker Film.

Paon says film festivals are still key to igniting buzz.

Wildhood secured an international sales agent with Berlin’s Films Boutique before its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the drama gained attention thanks to indie-loving audiences and publicist Cynthia Amsden, says Paon.

Wildhood was then acquired by Mongrel Media for distribution in Canada, where it launched in theatres on March 11.

Bretten Hannam’s Wildhood is nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.

Paon says Wildhood’s outreach has also included forging connections with LGBTQ and Indigenous organizations to bring the film to communities it represents. They also created a “meaningful social media presence,” including seven EPK videos on Instagram that were also used in the film’s digital FYC campaign for April’s Canadian Screen Awards. The campaign also included an ad on Playback.

The EPK spots were supported by the Shaw Rocket Fund, one of Wildhood’s financiers, says Paon.

FYC campaigns are a tradition in the U.S. but aren’t as big in Canada, says Paon, noting distributors don’t feel they translate into box office sales: “I think there’s a real hesitation to play at a Hollywood level when our population is not U.S. numbers.”

For Wildhood, an FYC campaign made sense ahead of theatrical release and during the Canadian Screen Awards voting period, says Paon. Such campaigns can also foster a sense of pride, community and future working relationships with filmmakers.

“A CSA campaign is not just for box office sales,” says Paon. “It’s to support your filmmakers and your filmmakers’ careers so that they can generate bigger box office sales with larger recognition on their next films.”

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Michael Oscars (left) and client Victor Garber.

Star-maker says so long Retired Canadian talent agent Michael Oscars reflects on his illustrious 50-year career and looks ahead to the industry’s future.

BY VICTORIA AHEARN

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IF THERE’S ANYONE WHO UNDERSTANDS WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE IT IN SHOW BUSINESS, IT’S MICHAEL OSCARS. The venerable Canadian talent agent has represented a slew of homegrown stars over his storied 50-year career – including Victor Garber, Shirley Douglas, Andrea Martin, Mary Walsh, Jim Carrey and Howie Mandel. Oscars brought the curtain down and retired this past January.

So, what does he look for in a talent? As Oscars tells it, the so-called “it” factor is different for every performer, but one key quality has stood the test of time: When actors trusted his feedback.

“That’s really the most important thing, is when you say to them, ‘That was such a lovely piece of work, you really thought it out,’ and you see their face light up, because they really trust what you’re saying to them,” Oscars, 73, tells Playback.

“Then there are others where, God forbid, you tell them, ‘You’ve done better,’ and they just fold up and dissolve. You realize they can’t take criticism, no matter how constructive it is. And that becomes a block to their progress.”

In a subjective industry where acting or comedy styles go in and out of fashion and “only a very small percentage succeed,” Oscars says he looked for actors who made him lose himself in their onstage performances. He never auditioned actors, instead preferring to see them perform live onstage before signing them.

“The top of the food chain would be the triple threats, those who can do it all,” he says, citing Garber, Hugh

Jackman and Nathan Lane as examples. Some actors, like Betty White, have also soared to fame thanks to their personality, he notes.

A partner/owner at Oscars Abrams Zimel + Associates, one of Toronto’s largest talent agencies, Oscars has shaped the careers of a who’s who of the Canadian stage and screen – it’s almost like he was born to do it. Oscars’ surname seems serendipitous, given many actors want to achieve the golden statuette, but he was actually born Michael Orski in London, England. (He changed his surname after working as the greeter at a Toronto discotheque named Oscars in the late ’60s and ’70s and gaining the moniker “Michael from Oscars.”) Growing up, Oscars went to drama school and did small acting jobs.

“Then my voice broke and I became very selfconscious and I realized I was a talentless clod,” he recalls with a laugh.

But the entertainment world still called.

Oscars got his start largely working in theatre box offices, first at the Old Vic in London, alongside the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier (who used to ask him for cigarettes while he was trying to stop smoking) and Albert Finney (who bought him his very first Scotch in the pub next door). Oscars then worked in the box office of the Saville Theatre leased by Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. When his sister and mother moved to Toronto, Oscars followed.

In the early ’90s he was founding chairperson of Talent Agents and Managers Association of Canada, lobbying to ensure Canadian producers on homegrown projects would go to agents on this side of the border to hire talent instead of U.S. counterparts. Oscars formed Oscars Abrams Zimel & Associates with Perry Zimel in 1997 (Daniel Abrams became partner in 2018).

A masterful raconteur, Oscars can easily rattle off a treasure trove of memories about his career, which he clearly loved. So, why retire now?

“The business,” he says. “I’ve had a very long run, and it’s just not the same anymore. The business has fractured in so many ways.” Oscars says he feels “there used to be more of a premium put on actors.

“Now it seems they’re just more grist for the mill. I

don’t want to sound negative. There used to be, I think, a little more respect.”

Social media has also had an impact on casting, Oscars says, noting some actors have been hired based on their high amount of followers. He’s also seen a rise in actors being hired for video games.

The pandemic, he says, has been “very frustrating” for actors having to audition remotely via video conference or sending in a self-tape. (“They’ve worked their hearts out, only to find that it disappears in a morass of nothingness.”)

Still, he posits that the rise in overall content amid the influx of streaming services has led to “a golden age for storytelling, especially on TV.” He’s also happy to see more diversity in the industry and less of a talent drain to the U.S. as shows like Schitt’s Creek prove Canadian actors can thrive on home soil.

Oscars says most of his clients, some of whom were with him for decades, are now with assistant-turnedagent Nick Saites at Oscars Abrams Zimel & Associates.

His plans for retirement include travelling and reuniting with a sister he hasn’t seen in nearly 70 years.

To his surprise, he isn’t missing the biz.

“I thought ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to go into withdrawal,’ but I’m not, so it’s lovely,” he says. “This isn’t a complaint, just the minutiae of the day to day of dealing with client anxieties, neuroses as well as the hopes, dreams and fears – it can take a lot out of you.”

Ones to Watch

BY VICTORIA AHEARN

Michael Oscars is retiring from the agency world at a time of great opportunity for the business.

The flood of streamers has set off a content boom fueled by talent who rely on representation to stand out. To be a successful agent, he recommends becoming an expert in ACTRA, SAGAFTRA and Equity agreements, and says agents also need to develop a passion for the medium in which a client specializes. Playback surveyed agencies about Canadian agents to watch. Here are some of the notable names, in alphabetical order: J ordan Drage, literary agent (film/TV) at Integral Artists: With a roster including directors Kelly Fyffe-Marshall (Black Bodies) and Danishka Esterhazy (Ginny & Georgia), Drage is described as a hard worker with a keen eye for finding and developing talent. Drage climbed the ladder at Integral, going from agent’s assistant to associate and then literary agent. lix Kazman, agent and manager at Fountainhead Talent: Kazman is committed to developing A a diverse roster of actors who are Black, Indigenous, people of colour and from the LGBTQ+ community. Kazman is described as having a passion for promoting gender-diverse performers.

Kazman’s clients include actors Kiley May (Coroner) and Breton Lalama (Slasher). iane Nhan, agent in the film, TV and theatre division at Lucas Talent: A former lawyer, D corporate recruiter and career counsellor, Nhan first worked at Leo Management in 2015 as a principal and commercial talent agent, followed by CCA and then Lucas Talent in 2018. Nhan’s clients include actors Sarah Marchand (The Umbrella Academy) and Johnnier Mejia (Riverdale).

J ulia Schneider, agent/manager at Ambition Talent: A former actor and casting director assistant, Schneider joined Ambition as an assistant in 2008. She now heads the TV/film department and is described as having a discerning eye and deep passion for seeking out new and interesting talent, including diverse and underrepresented voices. Schneider’s clients include actors Laura Vandervoort (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Clark Backo (Letterkenny). onrad Sun, manager on the screenwriters team at Meridian Artists: A former film producer C and content developer, L.A.-based Sun joined Meridian in 2014 as an associate.

He builds and supports the L.A. roster and works with the Toronto office to develop properties for the U.S. market and prepare clients who plan to work in L.A. His clients include director-writer Jordan Canning (Schitt’s Creek) and director-writer-producer Sudz Sutherland (Subjects of Desire).

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oaz and our clients

thank you Michael Oscars for your decades of work and for leaving an indelible mark on the business.

Your legacy will live on forever and entertain generations of audiences to come.

Bravo!

Love, Gayle, Perry, Daniel

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Photo Credit: Marni Grossman 17

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2022-03-16 10:46 AM

Sustainability: slow but steady progress It’s not easy to change the way an entire industry thinks and works.

But, when it comes to addressing environmental concerns, the needle is starting to move.

BY ANDY FRY

Above: Season two of Romulus (Cattleya and Groenlandia), set itself the target of being “the most environmentally sustainable Sky Original Italian production to date.”

THE COP26 CLIMATE SUMMIT IN GLASGOW LAST NOVEMBER WASN’T PERFECT BY ANY MEANS, but it did inject some much-needed urgency into the debate around sustainability. In some ways, that’s analogous to the situation in Canadian film and television – where there is clearly positive momentum, but still a lack of visibility on how far the industry has progressed towards critical carbon-zero targets.

At the forefront of the industry’s efforts is public broadcaster CBC, which launched a five-year action plan called ‘Greening Our Story’ in June 2021. It committed the broadcaster to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2026, with reduced energy usage, travel cutbacks, sustainable procurement and a shift toward an electric/hybrid fleet among its key subsidiary targets.

This past January it introduced a new carbon footprint requirement for all original Canadian English-language productions above $400,000.

“The CBC has been moving in the right direction for the last decade,” says CBC executive director, business & rights and content optimization, Lisa Clarkson. “But this heralds a new era of sustainable production and broadcasting. As we start to get information back from the carbon calculator, we can identify issues and develop industry best practice.”

Introduced last fall, the carbon calculator is based on the albert system devised by BAFTA in the U.K. “It can be used as a tool during production,” says Clarkson, “allowing producers to adjust as they go. It allows ‘a green pause’ in every element – assessing the impact of materials, costume, transport, etc.”

The CBC began experimenting with the carbon calculator on in-house productions like Gary’s Magic Fort and Family Feud Canada. While the S P R I N G 2 02 2

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The CBC began experimenting with the new carbon calculator on in-house productions like Gary’s Magic Fort.

broadcaster is keen to drive change, there are no plans to penalize producers that are slow to sign up or whose carbon footprint is too high.

“The key to progress is collaboration,” says Clarkson, “which is why we’ve also introduced a new sustainability lead role. My sense is that there is a real coalition for change building among all stakeholders.”

Clarkson says the key will be to make sustainability “as easy as possible” so it becomes second nature – and, to this end, CBC will soon start inviting producers to seminars to explore techniques.

Is she concerned that producers may balk at the costs involved in changing processes? “The evidence from the BBC and ITV in the U.K. is that sustainability doesn’t actually increase costs,” she notes.

Telefilm has also created its own eco-responsibility action plan, which focuses on internal organization, production and promotion.

“Inspired by Indigenous practices, as well as the progressive work done

by industry partners in Canada and around the globe, we have made a commitment to take greater action,” explains Christa Dickenson, Telefilm executive director and CEO. Like Clarkson, Dickenson can point to various initiatives over the years, such as greener Canada pavilions. But now, she says, “we are setting clear objectives, timelines and performance indicators to enhance accountability.”

Powered by a “science-based” plan, Telefilm shares the CBC’s objective to achieve viable carbon reduction targets on production.

It also plans to establish a multi-level consultation plan to advance sustainable industry practices. But in terms of tangible results, Dickenson says it’s a little too early: “I’m absolutely seeing a genuine desire for action. But the life cycle of a production is so long that we’re probably going to have to wait another year for results.”

Zena Harris, president of sustainability consultancy Green Spark, believes there’s still “a long way to go” on reshaping industry behaviour – but she has seen solid progress. “A few years back, we would focus on what we could see – which was waste. As data collection has become aligned, attention has shifted to fuel consumption. Electrification of the fleet and equipment is the top issue.”

Harris knows producers who have been serious about sustainability targets for years, but she also encounters continued resistance. In some respects, it’s a reaction exacerbated by COVID, which has left many production staff exhausted and overworked. “For some, sustainability seems overwhelming,” she notes, “so the first step is about breaking patterns. Part of that is about pre-production planning, so that people don’t fall into bad habits when things get busy.”

She echoes Clarkson by saying collaboration is key: “We need this industry to start sharing assets and resources more so that we’re using less virgin material. That means a circular economy involving key decision-makers, like production designers, construction managers and materials suppliers.”

One advantage Canada has is multiple production hubs that can learn from each other. B.C., for example, is a leader in eco-friendly production through its Reel Green initiative. Over a decade old, it has trained more than 1,000 crew in sustainable production and has strong advocates on boards like Vancouver-based Martini Film Studios. Similarly, 2020 saw the launch of Ontario Green Screen through Ontario Creates.

This has provided a focal point for best-practice case studies.

Sinking Ship Entertainment’s Endlings, for example, introduced a range of initiatives from composting to carpooling. Cream Productions, meanwhile, committed to going carbon-neutral in 2021. On horror anthology series The Haunted Museum, it introduced a waste audit and deployed albert to measure carbon emissions. That exercise showed that more than 80% of emissions came from vehicles. According to Cream, the biggest takeaway has been that “tracking emissions is actually pretty easy to include in our daily efforts,” says Patrick Cameron, Cream’s SVP of operations. “It’s also not hard to find the money – with production budgets, this is a fraction of 1%.”

Sinking Ship’s Endlings introduced a range of eco-friendly initiatives, from composting to carpooling.

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Beyond Canada, Netflix is aiming to be carbon zero by 2022, while in Sweden regional film offices have just signed up to a digital planning tool developed by sustainability experts Greentime AB, in co-operation with Film i Väst. Still in Europe, NBCU-owned studio Sky has launched a ‘Sky Zero’ initiative and claims it is already influencing production. Season two of epic drama Romulus, produced by Cattleya and Groenlandia in Italy, set itself the target of being “the most environmentally sustainable Sky Original Italian production to date.”

The U.K. is also influential. Aside from delivering a carbon calculator, albert teamed up with the British Film Institute and design firm Arup to create a comprehensive 61-page report on sustainability solutions and specialists. One U.K.-based company leading the way is Bristol-based Eco Shoots, which has recently provided services to Wonka! (Warner Bros.), Chloe (BBC/Amazon Studios), Sanditon (BritBox UK/Masterpiece) and upcoming sci-fi series The Last Bus (Netflix). Co-founder Monty Till says Eco Shoots “provides shoots with equipment and services to help them work more sustainably. We own and supply a range of kit, from clean generators to hydrogen-fed lighting towers as well as waste and recycling, reusable floor protection and bamboo signage.”

On Wonka!, Eco Shoots provided Warner Bros. with clean generators to power their video village. “And on a recent high-end fashion shoot, we transferred food waste to an aerobic digestion plant rather than tossing it into landfill.”

Bristol-based Eco Shoots recently provided sustainable equipment services to Chloe (BBC/Amazon Studios), including clean generators.

Like Green Spark, Till believes planning and education are key.

But he also believes the time is probably right for the sustainability agenda to have teeth. “A broadcaster mandate and one supported by law would make the biggest difference. Many people are onboard but there is still hesitation by others.”

While there is undoubtedly some post-COP26 progress, the impression right now is that the industry still needs to decide what it is willing to sacrifice to make a real impact. Ultimately zero carbon may require zero tolerance to be truly effective.

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Two years into the pandemic, international TV sales may have become more complicated, but Canada is holding its own.

Cancon clout

BY ANDY FRY

Illustration ©Dave Murray, i2i Art.com

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RISING PRODUCTION COSTS, SHRINKING CHANNEL BUDGETS, COVID COMPLIANCE AND COMPLEX RIGHTS NEGOTIATIONS can make the content business seem like a tough gig right now. But the fact remains, Canada is better placed than most to compete internationally.

Valerie Creighton, CEO of the Canada Media Fund, which provides around $350 million a year in funding to Canadian production and development, says Parrot Analytics “estimates that Canadian TV series accounts for 5.2% of the demand share for all non-U.S. content with global audiences. For a market of about 38 million people, this is an excellent performance.”

Creighton also points to a July 2021 report from the Canadian Media Producers Association, which shows that CMF-backed Canadian shows generated $279M in international presales from 2014/15 to 2018/19 (the most recent pre-pandemic figures). That equates to 125 projects across drama, documentary and kids. While 74% went to drama, 45 documentary projects attracted presales.

Assessing the appeal of working with or buying from Canadian content creators, Blue Ant Media, EVP international, Solange Attwood says the country continues to benefit from “the quality of its production base, its partnership-oriented mindset and its proximity to the U.S. “Canada’s cultural connection to the States is still meaningful in terms of exports. The U.S. is the North Star for many buyers and Canada leverages that.”

As for her point about partnership, she says “Collaboration has always been in the DNA of Canadian producers because it’s a small market that needs to look internationally for funding. Everything from copro treaties to the CMF funding model is geared toward collaboration.”

Blue Ant doesn’t position itself as a Canada-specific content company, but Attwood has several examples of copros where Canada has been a lynchpin. Among them are World’s Most Scenic River Journeys and History By The Numbers, both of which include Blue Ant’s Toronto-based subsidiary Saloon Media as a partner. The former series

We’re rolling.

Congratulations to the daring dreamers, creators and storytellers nominated for 2022 Canadian Screen Awards for Albertabased productions. Your excellence and fearless creativity has caught the attention of the world and is fuelling the growth of film and TV in Alberta.

By Hook or by Cook

Come True

Empathy

Heartland

JANN

Jasmine Road

Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy Range Roads

Van Helsing

Wynonna Earp

albertafilm.ca Wynonna Earp photo: Michelle Faye Fraser

aired on the U.K.’s Channel 5 and Smithsonian Channel Canada while the latter includes Curiosity Stream, Smithsonian Channel Canada and U.S.-based Jupiter Entertainment as collaborators.

But pulling together international copros has undoubtedly got tougher. In factual, broadcasters around the world are increasingly looking for more local content.

In drama, budgets are escalating rapidly thanks to a combination of streamer-driven competition for talent/ crews, COVID compliance costs and rampant inflation.

So partners need to bring more resources to the table.

Nevertheless, says Attwood, “that doesn’t change the fact that coproduction is often the solution to the funding challenge. The stakes are so high you want the right people at the table.”

Cineflix Rights CEO Tim Mutimer says long-running Canadian-originated factual series like Mayday: Air Disaster and Property Brothers continue to do great business globally – and the international-facing model that helped develop those shows still has relevance in 2022. “We have a greenlight strategy that is all about getting new content to the international market,” he says.

Like Attwood, Mutimer says it’s the combination of high quality, on-the-ground incentives and cost effectiveness that bring partners back: “Canadian content has a U.S. look and feel but at a lower price point and can leverage treaty copros. It can also be made with U.S. talent.”

The latter point isn’t just in relation to factual but also scripted, says Mutimer. “We’ve worked with Lifetime on a series of TV movies and are now involved in scripted series Reginald The Vampire. That is produced in Canada, directed by a Canadian (Jeremiah Chechik) but has a U.S. lead (Jacob Batalon) and a U.S. channel partner (Syfy).”

Mutimer says Cineflix Rights has also enjoyed much success working with CBC drama Coroner. Produced by Muse, Coroner is now up to four seasons and has been licensed to around 150 territories.

Changing with the times

Canada is undoubtedly still adept at creating content with an overtly international sheen. Boat Rocker Studios, for example, is producing Robyn Hood, a re-imagining of the Robin Hood myth for Corus Entertainment’s Global channel, with the U.K.’s Eleventh Hour Films on board as copro partner. In this version, protagonist Robyn Loxley is a young woman whose masked hip-hop band, The Hood, is known for its anti-authoritarian message.

Explaining why a Canadian firm is backing a series based on English folklore, Jon Rutherford, president of Boat Rocker Studios, kids & family and rights, says: “We back projects that are distinctive and have the potential to work internationally. But there are clear benefits for the Canadian content business in supporting innovative productions like Robyn Hood, not least the fact it is being shot around Toronto and Hamilton.”

Rutherford has no doubt Canada still commands a key position in the global market. He cites scripted series The Next Step, a copro with the BBC that has clocked up 200 episodes and continues to sell worldwide. He also singles 24

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out preschool show Dino Ranch (Disney Junior, CBC Kids), which he says is shaping up as an onscreen and offscreen global franchise.

On the factual side, he acknowledges that there is a trend towards local content buying, but says it is not insurmountable. “There are areas like history, popular science and engineering that lend themselves to coproduction. And if you get the right lifestyle star, such as Mary Berg, they will transcend boundaries.”

Alexandra Finlay, VP of creative and coproductions at Shaftesbury, says: “We’ve got a lot of international coproductions in development with partners across Europe, the English-speaking markets and Australia. Canada’s influence is evident in all of them, even if not onscreen.

The IP may mean the show is located elsewhere but that doesn’t mean the showrunner, director or composer can’t be Canadian. The Sounds (Shaftesbury/South Pacific), for example, was set in New Zealand but had a Canadian director and Rachelle Marie Lefevre in a starring role.”

Sometimes, says Finlay, it makes sense to join coproductions as a junior partner simply to establish a working relationship. “We joined Dead Still as a secondary partner,” she recalls, “That was a period drama set in Ireland, produced by Deadpan Pictures. That established a good working relationship which then led to the reverse situation, when Deadpan joined us as a supporting partner on Departure season two.”

For Finlay, one of the biggest challenges facing Canadian firms is that they are competing with producers from an ever-increasing range of territories. “But the market is hungry for content, and it is open to shows that combine specificity of subject and with universal themes.”

Underlining this point, Canada’s export strategy has certainly been boosted by content that champions distinctive voices. CMF’s Creighton says “Canadian content is doing well internationally right now because it embraces a diversity of voices we don’t see from content out of many other territories. Kim’s Convenience, Schitt’s

Blue Ant’s World’s Most Scenic River Journeys, created with subsidiary Saloon Media, has sold to both the U.K.’s Channel 5 and Smithsonian Channel Canada.

The stakes are so high you want the right people at the table.

– Solange Attwood, EVP international, Blue Ant Media,

Sienna Films’ Sort Of has already been acquired in multiple territories.

Creek, Transplant and Sort Of all portray diversity in different ways.”

The CMF is playing a part in this through a range of international copro incentives. These include the CanadaSouth Africa Co-Development Incentive, a collaboration with the National Film and Video Foundation.

Jonathan Ford, managing director of Abacus Media Rights (AMR), agrees that diverse storytelling is a Canadian superpower: “We’ve been working with Sphere Media/Sienna Films on Sort Of, which was picked up by HBO Max U.S., M6 France, Stan Australia and Sky for the U.K. and Germany. It’s well-crafted and has a diverse spirit that is in demand.”

Prior to Sort Of, AMR secured widespread sales for Sienna’s Trickster, based on the bestselling book series from author Eden Robinson of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations. Ford is now working with Sienna on the

drama The Porter, about Black railway porters in Montreal in the 1920s. “It’s well cast, exciting and resonates with a lot of contemporary issues around race.”

Sally Catto, general manager of entertainment, factual and sports at CBC, says international coproductions “are key to ensure our stories can be told on a more significant scale, and to ensure we can compete and take Canadian creative talent to the rest of the world. To name just a few, we’ve partnered with HBO Max on Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo’s Sort Of. We’ve also been involved with NBCUniversal International on Cameron Pictures’ female-driven police procedural Pretty Hard Cases; Lionsgate on Son of a Critch; and Netflix on Workin’ Moms.”

In recent times, the CBC has formed strategic alliances with both the BBC in the U.K. and ABC in Australia. And there’s no question that the pooling of English-language talent and resources is still a key feature of the global market. TVA-owned Incendo, for example, has been working with Banijay’s New Zealand production division Screentime on romantic comedy movies. CBC, Super Channel and Rhombus Media are all, meanwhile, partners in The North Water, a copro with the BBC and See-Saw Films that falls within the Canada/U.K. treaty.

Of course, the 21st century content business is no longer all about tape sales or copros, with some Canadian firms seeing opportunities in factual formats.

Marblemedia, for example, has been touting titles such as Race Against the Tide to European partners while Quebecbased Media Ranch has enjoyed success with IP that has come through its Horsepower format incubator. A recent example is Love Van, which is being codeveloped with French broadcaster TF1.

Canadian content has also found support from streamers. Proper Television’s (part of Boat Rocker) Motel Makeover and marblemedia’s Blown Away are both on Netflix, while another Boat Rocker subsidiary (Platform One Media) recently received a second season order for 25

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sci-fi series Invasion from Apple TV+. In 2022, HBO Max has ordered a new version of WildBrain’s youth franchise Degrassi and picked up U.S. rights for the library of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

In terms of core competence, further endorsements for Canada include AMC Networks entering a strategic partnership with Shaftesbury. More nuanced is the recent news that Amazon has parachuted in Sony Picture Television-owned U.K. producer Left Bank Pictures to produce Three Pines, based on Canadian author Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache novels.

While the series will showcase Quebec to the world, and lean heavily on production services from Muse Entertainment, there will inevitably be concerns that high-end TV is taking on the same foreign service characteristics as feature films (with SPT distributing).

Three Pines perhaps hints at the core challenge facing Canada, which is lack of scale in an industry that’s accelerating towards consolidation. The CMPA report

Boat Rocker recently received a second season order for sci-fi series Invasion from Apple TV+.

underlined this when it said: “To produce high quality Canadian series and films, greater resources are needed.”

This conundrum can’t be solved overnight, but Creighton believes a useful starting point will be the proposed Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11). “With cord shaving/cutting resulting from competition by the streamers, contributions by cable distributors to the CMF have decreased sharply. If we are to ensure the long-term sustainability of our ecosystem, we need to bring foreign streamers into the system,” she says.

Creighton believes a re-energized CMF can have a pivotal role in helping Canadian producers deliver internationally: “If we want Canada’s stories to continue reaching global audiences, we need the CMF to become a global content fund. We need to generate partnerships that will take our creators and content to new markets.”

Science-fiction drama Plan B from Montreal’s KOTV has gained international attention and sales.

Are there reasons for optimism when it comes to francophone sales?

The CMPA’s 2021 report underlined the gulf in international performance between English and French-language content, with the former generating $275M in presales compared to $4M for the latter (2014/15 to 2018/19). However, Mia Desroches, head of content distribution partnerships at CBC & Radio-Canada Distribution, believes two factors are helping French-Canadian content increase its impact.

“The first is that there is a lot more financial support for content creators from within Quebec,” she notes. “Key backers like SODEC, Quebecor and Netflix are increasing their investment alongside our own funding.”

Also important is the growing international taste for non-English-language content: “The fact that streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Starzplay are acquiring such content is great news, coming at a time when the output from French-speaking Canada is so compelling.”

Desroches says Radio-Canada is enjoying much success with high-concept productions like Plan B (KOTV), while shows like Wipe Me Away (Babel Films) have gained attention at events such as Canneseries. The distribution division, meanwhile, is witnessing increased success in licensing scripted formats. Recent deals include the sale of comedy Conversations With My Parents to NBCU for adaptation in the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. Elsewhere, Banijay-owned production company Terence Films has optioned the rights to Aprés (After), produced by Duo Productions. Denis Leroy, head of scripted formats at Banijay France, observes that: “French-speaking Canada has always been a place for strong and innovative drama.”

While streamers and scripted formats are potential areas of growth, Desroches notes that changes in Europe’s content quota arrangements have made it tougher to do deals on the continent. But like her English-language counterparts, she says distinctive cultural stories are striking a chord internationally. At Series Mania, the company will showcase Dear Flora (Pour toi Flora), written and directed by Kanienkehà:ka filmmaker Sonia Bonspille Boileau and produced by Anishinaabe filmmaker and producer Jason Brennan.

The story was developed with the ongoing collaboration of residential school survivors from Abitibi in Quebec and was shot on traditional Anishinaabe territory. The goal, say Brennan and Bonspille Boileau, “was to bring to screen the injustices created by residential schools and the impacts felt still to this day by so many Indigenous people.”

As for Quebecor Content, the company came out of COVID-19 lockdown with a strong slate of thrillers. Key titles in 2021 included Runway, a 10 x 60-minute series being adapted by TF1 in France. Also among the top performers in Canada were Alert Squad, a spinoff from 2019 crime drama Amber Alert, and Piégés (Trapped). The latter, which debuted in October 2021, centres on five people who wake up in a prison cell with no idea how they got there. A psychological thriller, it’s perfectly pitched for the post-Squid Game world.

Other companies to have scored recent hits with French-Canadian content include Zone 3, which sold teen drama Les petits rois to YLE’s streaming service Areena in Finland (original with sub-titles).

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Oh, Canada In honour of us playing host to the world at the upcoming Banff World Media Festival (June 12 to 15), let’s talk Canada. Let’s talk about the industry. Let’s talk mentors and luck and awards and what makes this country so dang special. And, while we’re at it, let’s talk to comedian Rick Mercer about his recent industry-focused memoir, Talking to Canadians, which perfectly captures what it takes to make it here.

BY BRENDAN CHRISTIE

WITH HIS TOUR PLANS CANCELLED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC, political satirist Rick Mercer – himself a Banff Rockie Award winner – spent lockdown penning his memoir: Talking to Canadians. So, Playback sat down with Mercer to get his take on award shows, the state of the industry and how to make the budget work.

(No matter how Canadian it is.)

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The book must have been a hit because it sounds like they want another. How did this one happen?

I had a relationship with Doubleday, and my publishers have always suggested a memoir because they say Canadians read memoirs – and, I do. I certainly thought about doing a memoir, but it just didn’t seem feasible. I didn’t see where the time was going to come from. I was focused on doing a new Just for Laughs tour and I had other projects going on. And, of course, that all went away – and I’m not complaining because everyone is in the same boat. I was very fortunate that I had this other project I could transition to.

And it saved me because I’ve never done anything without a deadline in my life. I need a deadline. I need to know someone is going to call me on that day, looking for the material. So, that was it. I agreed to do the book because of the pandemic and it all worked out.

One common theme you return to in it is budgets – how you always had to find a way to make a little do a lot. What lesson has that taught you?

When [CBC’s] This Hour Has 22 Minutes started there was no money, and that actually worked in our favour – though I never would have told them that. It forced us to be streamlined and to focus the show. We didn’t have the luxury of exploring many of the areas people wanted to explore. We had to be nimble.

The advice I always give people is to embrace your budget – whatever your budget is. Don’t sit around and moan about the fact that you can’t afford the aircraft carrier. Figure out another way to do it. By the time I got to The Mercer Report, I just saw the advantages of being nimble. It was famous for the road trips we did, but we never had more than four people on the road, ever. That was the entire crew, including me. That’s the way we rolled.

If we added one more person, that meant we needed a second minivan. And then, that’s an extra hotel room. And then, if you have that extra minivan, well, you might as well put a person in it. So, we always just kept it at the size of a minivan and we made it work. I think we achieved what we achieved because we were lean and mean.

What is one thing you would change about the industry if you could? Would it be the money?

I would love to see more space for Canadian films on Canadian screens – and the money to promote those films properly. Canadian show business is unique in the sense that certain people are almost loath to promote the products they have. “[Partner] Gerald [Lunz] and I – since we started in the theatre together – often had people accuse us of being ‘a bit crass’ when it came to promoting the products. In America, I don’t think anyone would ever say: ‘Well, you know, that movie is good but they’re just promoting it a little too much.”

We were unrelenting with The Mercer Report. If I wasn’t working on a Tuesday, I did radio all across the country. That was a standard Tuesday. You do 42 interviews for the show. And we did that at any opportunity.

We did that for 16 years. We never took our foot off the gas when it came to promoting the show.

Adhel Arop

Producer, founder Adhel Productions What’s the greatest lesson you’ve ever learned at a BANFF Festival?

That broadcasters and executives are just people and you don’t need to be afraid of them. Don’t let their job titles make you feel like you don’t belong in the room. Meeting people virtually really amplified that because anything can happen when you’re video calling and it’s less controlled.

(Though, I have to say, thanks to the pandemic, all these virtual festivals have allowed access in a way that was never possible.) That’s my biggest lesson from doing the virtual BANFF. Everyone’s just a person, too. And if you’re able to see them as that, and just have a conversation, you never know where it can lead.

You’ve had a chance to travel and talk about some of the things that make Canada great.

(Like our ‘National Igloo’…) What do you think Canada’s most important export has been?

With all due respect to anyone in show business, I’d have to go with insulin. But, humour is certainly up there.

Look at the impact SCTV has had on the world of humour, globally. You could write volumes about just that.

OH, C A NA DA C ONTI NU E D ON PAGE 3 0

Brandon Lane

Development Producer, Nelvana What show has shaped your career the most?

I’d have to say Jim Henson’s work with the Muppets – Sesame Street, Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock and so on. My childhood was jam-packed with Muppets and I have been lucky enough to work as a showrunner with performers who collaborated with and were trained by Jim Henson, which is really surreal!

What makes you hopeful about the future?

Kids now have the tools and ability to make their own content like never before. They get to experiment and fail and learn from their mistakes and express themselves in ways that weren’t feasible in the past. I think, with that experience from a young age, the filmmakers and showrunners of the future are going to bring so many exciting new ideas and approaches to storytelling. So often, the advice given to young filmmakers is to just make some of your own content.

Well, more kids are making more content than ever before.

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O H, C A NA DA C ONTI NU E D FR OM PAGE 2 9

Adam Scorgie

Producer and “Creative Hustler,” Score G Productions When did you know you wanted to take this career path?

When we were premiering our first film, The Union, at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2007. It was a completely sold-out theatre, not one empty seat, and it was the first time I had watched our film with a large audience.

To witness the emotional impact the film created with the audience, from laughter to tears and then the standing ovation, I knew right then and there I could never go back to an ordinary 9-to-5 job. I had to figure out how to make this a career.

What do you think is the most underappreciated talent in the industry?

Marketing! AKA “Creative hustle,” as my team and I like to call it. There are tons of talented creators in Canada. But after you create something special, how do you get it seen in today’s market, where there is never-ending content? If you’re not thinking about how you’re going to connect and get watched by an audience after you’ve created a great piece of content, you’re going to get lost in the digital vastness.

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A few times in the book, you talk about your ‘big dumb luck’.

Where do you think you’d be without it?

I think I’d be a real estate developer in St. John’s. It’s funny that so many people think luck is a theme of the book, but I think that’s disingenuous. Has anyone that’s had a long career not realized that luck plays a part in it? I just think most people, if they’re honest, realize that they were in the right place at the right time.

OK, so what advice would you give emerging creatives?

The only advice I have for people – and it hasn’t changed in all the years I’ve been doing this – is that if you want to be in show business, you have to start creating content. If you want to be a writer... Well, I think we all know people who sat around and talked about how they’re going to be a writer all their life. Start writing for the school newspaper. And if you want to do comedy sketches, you have to create comedy sketches. And, yes, they’ll probably be awful. I can guarantee you they will be. But that’s how you’re going to learn. And if you can muscle through those failures and humiliations, then maybe you’ll be cut out for the business.

What’s the greatest accolade you’ve ever received?

Well, I was honoured and flabbergasted when I received the Order of Canada, of course. That was unexpected and overwhelming.

The [2003] Banff Rockie Award was interesting because that was the beginning of a time when people started to talk about my ‘body of work’. And I can remember thinking: ‘What do you mean, my ‘body of work’? I just started!’ But, by that time, I guess I did have a body of work.

All those things are incredibly meaningful, especially when they come from your peers, and people who are fans or just respect the work.

John Brunton

Chairman and CEO, Insight Productions

Jason Brennan

President, Nish Media/ Seventh Screen What has the pandemic taught you?

You can never develop too much and you should always be ready to shift gears and look at your business in a different way. Imagine the worst-case scenario and how would you react.

What do you hope to get out of BANFF 2022?

I’m excited about this year because it will most likely be my first in-person event in a long time and we’re headed to Banff with a few drama projects in development – and a drama portfolio to back them up.

Have you ever had a moment of crazy, dumb luck that’s altered the path of your career?

I’ve been blessed with lots of crazy dumb luck. One of those occasions, I was deep-sea fishing 20 miles offshore in the Bahamas when a great friend of mine, Phil King, called me and said: “John, we just commissioned a new show that we’d like you to produce. Can you get on a plane today and fly to L.A. and have a meeting there? The show is called The Amazing Race.” We’re now in our eighth season producing the program with CTV and it’s the most-watched Canadian show on record. It’s just been a magnificent adventure.

What is your best BANFF memory?

For years, Insight hosted a VIP dinner at BANFF following the Rockie Awards and it included all the guest speakers, honourees and organizers. One year, I had the good fortune of sitting beside CBS News anchor Dan Rather and spent the evening hearing about his extraordinary stories, including tours in Vietnam, the politics of CBS and how he was forced out of his job. It was an evening I’ll never forget.

For more Banff coverage, please visit playbackonline.ca

e i d n I st i l

20 22

Adapting to seismic shifts

Our latest survey results show an indie production sector on the upswing from the COVID-19 pandemic, with producers eager to build their business in the year ahead.

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

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DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK. Canada’s independent producers set new benchmarks in production volume in 2021. They were able to adapt to an ever-changing industry and demonstrate a determination to recover from pandemic-related shutdowns and keep domestic content flowing to an increasingly demanding market.

In many ways, it was the year of the streamer in Canada, with Netflix and Prime Video hiring long-time industry execs Tara Woodbury and Brent Haynes, respectively, as domestic content heads, while Disney hired former Shopify exec Jason Badal to lead its Canadian direct-to-consumer strategy.

The year also had its share of disappointment, with Bill C-10 – the longawaited amendment of the Broadcasting Act that would ensure digital giants contributed to the Cancon system – put on ice after a federal election was called in the fall. The death of the bill followed months of government debate about freedom of speech, despite a unified call from the industry to see it passed.

Since then, the re-elected Liberal minority has tabled a new bill – Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act – with hopes that the legislation will pass before the end of the year.

So, how are producers feeling about the health of the industry in 2022?

Cautiously optimistic, to say the least.

% 3 2plan. to

8 expand their business within the next year

EYES ON THE HORIZON

With or without the Online Streaming Act, Canada’s indie producers are pushing ahead. Of the companies that took part in the 2022 Indie List Survey, 82.3% said they plan to expand their business within the next year, either through M&A, hiring new staff or an increased and diversified production slate.

One survey respondent, who asked to remain anonymous, said the emergence of streaming platforms in Canada has “filled the gap” in the wake of reduced spending from Canadian broadcasters.

More than half of the companies polled are looking beyond their own backyard to grow their business, with 64.7% saying coproductions and coventures are some of the biggest opportunities for producers in 2022 and 52.9% looking to international partnerships.

Producers are also feeling optimistic about content ownership, with 58.8% identifying exploitation of new IP as a key business opportunity.

“While it’s true that old systems of financing and exhibition are declining and transforming, there is a climate of positivity and a demand for content that is greater than before,” wrote another anonymous survey respondent.

“Diverse voices will make a healthier and more sustainable industry; while not yet truly equitable, there are more opportunities for storytellers who have been historically underserved.”

ROUGH WATERS AHEAD

The portrait isn’t all rosy. Producers identified a number of core challenges in the year ahead, with 70.6% anticipating problems with financing and budget. The talent crunch also remains a persistent problem, with 55.8% saying hiring staff, professional development and competing for talent are challenges.

Producers are also still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 44.1% identifying it as an issue for 2022. Additionally, one-third of producers said the space for domestic programming on Canadian TV remains a challenge.

Aldo Di Felice, president, TLN Media Group said the sector has an issue of “dependency and domination,” with companies relying on funding programs in the long-term, rather than becoming self-sufficient, leaving less money for emerging companies trying to access the funding pool.

Overall, survey participants had a mixed response for the future of Canada’s independent production sector. One-quarter felt opportunities for producers are

Photo Credit: Christopher Wahl

“ The whole Bill C-11 discussion shouldn’t be simply getting the streamers to contribute money, but to follow the money… We should ensure that all the money contributed into CMF from Canadian BDUs, Canadian broadcasters or from the streamers is put into projects that are actually produced, owned and distributed by Canadian companies.”

- Michael MacMillan, co-founder and CEO, Blue Ant Media

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% 7 4.

identified coproductions and coventures as a key business opportunity for producers in 2022

6

“ Ethnic content made by and for multicultural Canadians is chronically under-supported. While 20% of Canadians speak immigrant languages at home, barely more than 1% of total CMF funding supports Canadian ethnic content.”

- Aldo Di Felice, president, TLN Media Group

worse than ever, with 41.3% saying opportunities are the same and 37.9% maintaining they’re better than ever.

“Our industry is at a crossroads,” observed Mark Bishop, co-CEO and executive producer, marblemedia. “We must strive to ensure our independence is protected and our creativity is valued so that Canadian-owned content can continue to be produced by independent producers and exported around the world.”

ON THE UPSWING

This year’s list has revealed how prodcos across the country have hit new production highs in the aftermath of the COVIDfueled production shutdowns of 2020, including Toronto’s 9 Story Media Group and Shaftesbury, Calgary’s SEVEN24 Films, Winnipeg’s Eagle Vision and Montreal’s Sphere Media and Muse Entertainment.

Sphere Media’s M&A strategy has paid dividends for this year’s Indie List following its acquisition of Sienna Films and BGM in 2020, in addition to its existing animation studio subsidiaries. The media company’s production volume jumped to more than $157 million in 2021, up from $87 million in 2019 and $92 million in 2020, and boasts projects such as CBC and HBO Max dramedy Sort Of and season two of CTV ratings hit Transplant.

Meanwhile, Shaftesbury’s production slate kept it high on this year’s list, including the long-running CBC detective drama Murdoch Mysteries, Citytv’s Hudson & Rex, Global’s Departure, the resurrected Shudder Slasher horror anthology and new children’s series Ruby and the Well on Family Channel. Similarly, SEVEN24 Films kept its production train rolling with CBC drama Heartland and interprovincial coproductions Jann on CTV (Project 10 Productions) and Family Law on Global (Lark Productions).

Six companies overall spent more than $100 million for production in 2021, up from two in 2020 and four in 2019.

While Thunderbird Entertainment and Boat Rocker Media spent roughly $52 to $53 million on domestic production and development in 2021, both saw service work in the $100 million mark.

Several other companies on the list saw higher production spend from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, including marblemedia, Sinking Ship Entertainment, Guru Studio, Cream Productions, Aircraft Pictures and Scythia Films, setting the stage for even bigger growth in the year ahead.

% 8 5.

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say staffing issues remain a business challenge in 2022

GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES!

3 BEST TV MOVIE Canadian Screen Award Nominations for

THE CHRISTMAS SETUP MIDNIGHT AT THE MAGNOLIA FAITH HEIST

www.neshamaent.com

t e i s i d l n

20 22

I

Total (Production + Development)

Total Production Budget

Total Development Budget

Service Production Budget

Feature Production Budget

12,100,000

9,300,000

1

WildBrain*

275,518,000

2

9 Story Media Group

173,800,000

172,300,000

1,500,000

3

Sphere Media

158,050,000

157,700,000

350,000

4

Shaftesbury

124,204,146

123,741,888

462,258

5

SEVEN24 Films

118,490,000

117,990,000

500,000

58,950,000

6

Muse Entertainment

109,230,042

108,115,492

1,114,550

171,433,573

7

Attraction Media

55,745,151

55,045,151

700,000

2,931,612

8

Thunderbird Entertainment

53,682,724

52,991,781

690,943

122,305,212

9

Boat Rocker Media

52,073,134

50,773,134

1,300,000

118,742,195

10

marblemedia

48,754,240

47,808,340

945,900

11

Sinking Ship Entertainment

44,500,000

44,000,000

500,000

12

Eagle Vision

43,810,501

43,410,501

400,000

13

Guru Studio

40,329,000

40,077,000

252,000

14

Nomadic Pictures

38,320,000

38,200,000

120,000

15

Cream Productions

36,285,000

35,760,000

525,000

19,000,000

16

Blue Ant Media

34,624,634

30,345,539

4,279,095

4,718,553

17

Project 10 Productions

28,253,343

28,242,166

11,177

22,425,163

18

Neshama Entertainment

20,181,331

19,479,721

701,610

6,310,352

19

Aircraft Pictures

18,750,000

18,600,000

150,000

32,500,000

18,300,000

18,000,000

300,000

34,000,000

Pier 21 Films

18,124,617

16,933,288

1,191,329

22 Elevation Pictures

17,958,662

17,854,957

103,705

23 Fireworks Media Group

11,000,000

10,700,000

300,000

24 Accent Entertainment

10,325,000

10,200,000

125,000

25 Independent Edge Films

8,450,000

8,300,000

150,000

26 TLN Studios

6,647,000

6,536,000

111,000

27 Jobro Productions

6,030,000

6,000,000

30,000

6,000,000

28 Conquering Lion Pictures

4,545,000

4,225,000

320,000

4,225,000

29 White Pine Pictures

4,196,000

3,996,000

200,000

30 Monkeys & Parrots

3,732,500

3,720,000

12,500

20 Scythia Films 21

4,924,800

24,000,000 3,227,445

52,000,000

11,532,704

8,300,000

3,996,000 3,676,000

*WildBrain figures represent an estimate based on its quarterly reports via the line item “direct production costs and expense of film and television produced.”

It does not include financial instruments such as funding or tax credits. **Every year, Playback solicits data from the industry on the volume of independent Canadian producers’ production spending in the previous annum.

The surveys are voluntary, and reflect data compiled by each individual company. The exception is public companies which were tallied by Playback based on publicly available quarterly reports. Certain fields may have been left blank as they are not applicable to the production company listed.

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New players bring new challenges to the system

Domestic producers are optimistic about the future now that the Online Streaming Act is on the table, but persistent issues are pushing them to their limits.

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

“ We’re on the brink of a whole new industry in this country.”

– Kyle Irving

“ ... our unions could not keep up with demand.”

– Damon D’Oliveira

The Online Streaming Act could trigger a transformational year for Canada’s film and TV industry – a moment producers argue can’t come soon enough.

While the increasing prominence of streaming platforms has brought new buyers into the system and fueled a global content boom, domestic producers face an uphill battle in rights retention and carving out space in Canada’s busy production hubs.

Eagle Vision partner Kyle Irving says producers are having a “harder time than ever” to source production crews and space, which he attributes to the level of service production happening in the country. “The demands on the crew, what it’s doing to them and their wellbeing, what it’s doing to the price of services, locations… has reached a critical point,” he says.

Conquering Lion Pictures producer Damon D’Oliveira says the crew crunch has been especially difficult on projects where having a diverse crew is essential for the subject matter. “I found that our unions could not keep up with demand and we were bringing members to NABET,” he says.

He points to on-set internships as a tool used to give emerging crew talent on-the-job experience to join unions, as well as a growing number of crew databases that highlight diverse talent.

Streaming platforms have also presented themselves as a double-edged sword when it comes to commissioning content. Vince Commisso, president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group, says while streaming services have increased the number of buyers in the market, their constant flow of content generally translates to less marketing focus than a film would get from a studio or a series with a linear broadcaster. “[Streaming] platforms have unlimited shelf space, and they are always concerned about how they maximize what they have on the shelves to bring in the most eyeballs,” he says. “We are constantly struggling with meeting the moment in regards to promotion and advertising opportunities for each of the shows that we believe have franchise capacity.”

He says that burden is even more difficult for an emerging producer who likely can’t afford to invest their dollars in promotion. A possible solution?

Ink a partnership with a larger-scale production company, who’s in a position to negotiate a better rights deal and promote the finished product.

Irving says the Canadian Media Producers Association continues to push for better IP ownership rights in Canada, which in tandem with contributions from digital streaming giants could create an equitable system for both foreign and domestic producers.

“I feel like we’re on the brink of a whole new industry in this country,” says Irving. “If we can continue to bring the big giant streamers into the tent and have everyone get along and play by the same set of rules, if we can continue to have government support for our tremendous national agencies, in turn, all of that will help strengthen the existing Canadian broadcast system… Canada can be a world leader in content creation and ownership of its success.”

“ [Streaming] platforms have unlimited shelf space, and they are always concerned about how they maximize what they have.”

– Vince Commisso

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WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN

BY MARC GLASSMAN

P L AY B A C K T R I B U T E ANNIVERSARIES ARE A TIME FOR WELL WISHES AND CELEBRATIONS – and, sometimes, they’re a chance to reflect on the road you had to travel to get where you are. For Super Channel, a network with four brands and nation-wide reach, its first 15 years have been nothing if not dramatic, including twice having to seek CCAA creditor protection. It’s a journey reminiscent of that iconic but rueful Grateful Dead refrain: “what a long, strange trip it’s been.”

When Super Channel launched on Nov. 2, 2007, it had high hopes of competing with its contemporaries – national pay services The Movie Network (TMN) in Eastern Canada and Movie Central in the West. Owned by Edmonton’s Allarco Entertainment, Super Channel was initially granted Category A must-carry status, which meant that all BDUs had to carry it.

But, as president and CEO Donald McDonald observed to Playback, “just because you have must-carry status, it’s not a mustsell status.” People weren’t picking up the service in enough numbers to make the fledgling company sustainable.

“I was brought in to help the previous VP of finance sort through all the contracts and exit out of the [first] CCAA,” says McDonald. Super Channel was in CCAA from June 2009 to September 2010, but emerged with positive subscriber growth. The outlet’s rocky road seemed to smooth out a little from 2010 to 2016, but the potholes returned when Bell Media took over the national scene, paying Corus to end Movie Central while taking over TMN (eventually rebranded as Crave).

“We were just overpriced to compete,” recalls McDonald. “There wasn’t enough room for both of us… So we had substantial churn. Our spending went out of control. That led us to the second CCAA in May of 2016.

“We had a tough choice. We either had to go into CCAA and make some really hard decisions, or we were going to go under.

With a lot of suppliers, we had to disclaim contracts. We had to get our programming costs to a level that we could sustain based on our revenues. The good news is that we’re here today, celebrating 15 years come November, six years since CCAA. We are coming off our very best year ever.”

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This year’s CFF on Super Channel featured two high-profile Canadian actors making their directorial premieres, including Valerie Buhagiar’s Carmen.

FINDING ITS WAY

One of the biggest moves McDonald has made post-CCAA was to rationalize the channel offerings. Each needed to clearly serve a different role, and their individual value had to be clearer to viewers. For its part, Fuse features fresh content, including a high percentage of Cancon; Heart & Home is feel-good fare; Vault has older feature films; and GINX includes e-sports and gaming lifestyle programming.

Says McDonald: “We will never compete against Crave. We want to be the companion channel to Netflix, to all of the big guys.”

One thing that is clear, McDonald has brought his passion for Canadian film to Super Channel. “When we got our licence,” he recalls of the days after the second CCAA, “I told my staff that we’re committing to the Canadian industry and its filmmakers.” Two years ago as the pandemic hit, he was able to demonstrate that philosophy through Super Channel’s sponsorship of the Canadian Film Festival (CFF).

McDonald recalls Vortex Media VP Justin Rebelo asking him to help out the CFF after the pandemic forced its cancellation in March 2020.

McDonald agreed and suggested making it a national, virtual festival. So, Rebelo rallied the troops – including Bern Euler and Ashleigh Rains of the CFF – and the team worked to an ambitious timeline. Already into March, they intended to run over three weekends in May. “I think we were really the first true virtual festival,” says McDonald.

“I wanted to have everything that they would do in the theatre, but on broadcast TV – the intros, the shorts and the features. We even offered to give the features a broadcast licence.”

The CFF’s Rains says McDonald’s sponsorship of the festival saved it. “With Super Channel, we reached a subscriber base across the country,” she recalls. “With the online events and the word of mouth that was generated through this new format, we have had people tuning in to our live events from England and America.”

15 YEARS

OF SUPER CHANNEL

WE HAD A TOUGH CHOICE. WE EITHER HAD TO GO INTO CCAA AND MAKE SOME REALLY HARD DECISIONS, OR WE WERE GOING TO GO UNDER… THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT WE’RE HERE TODAY… WE ARE COMING OFF OUR VERY BEST YEAR EVER.

Toronto-based Go Button Media’s funding approach perfectly fits the Super Channel philosophy, resulting in projects like Colossal Machines.

– CEO Donald McDonald

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This year’s CFF broadcast, which ran from March 22 to April 2, featured two high-profile Canadian actors making their directorial premieres: 2013 Playback 10 to watch pick Katie Boland with We’re All in This Together, and Valerie Buhagiar with Carmen.

WITH SUPER CHANNEL, WE REACHED A SUBSCRIBER BASE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. – Ashleigh Rains, festival director, CFF

GETTING CREATIVE

Jackie Pardy, Super Channel’s chief content officer, feels the company plays an important role in the health of the business. “This industry needs Super Channel to be around,” she says, “just like it needs all the independents to be around, because we need more doors for producers to knock on and more screens for Canadian content to be exhibited on. We all took a hit when Super Channel was in CCAA, but now we’re back. We’re not the biggest broadcaster out there, but we play an important role in the whole ecosystem of Canadian production.”

Pardy’s break-out commission for Super Channel has come from Toronto producer Daniel Oron, whose company Go Button Media offered Phantom Signals. The popular six-parter was followed by The Animal Within, Colossal Machines and Mysteries of the Ancient Dead. All include a modicum of science (what Pardy and Oron call “mystery history”) and archaeology.

“I don’t think our body of work in the last few years would be the same without the partnership from Super Channel,” says Oron. And it turns out that Go Button’s financing model – to look to multiple international partners before turning to the Canadian market – perfectly lined up with Super Channel’s needs.

“We were in a pandemic and there wasn’t a lot coming down the pipeline in terms of productions,” says Pardy.

“Daniel came with the secret sauce for me, which is when I hear producers say: ‘I’ve sold this in other territories, I just need to place it in Canada to recruit my tax credit.’ So, now

Playback 10 to Watch alum Katie Boland makes her feature directorial debut with We’re All in This Together.

Series like Farpoint Films’ Satanic Panic use voice-over, recreations and expert witnesses in tightly edited formats which can be dubbed into foreign languages for other markets.

THIS INDUSTRY NEEDS SUPER CHANNEL TO BE AROUND… JUST LIKE IT NEEDS ALL THE INDEPENDENTS TO BE AROUND, BECAUSE WE NEED MORE DOORS FOR PRODUCERS TO KNOCK ON AND MORE SCREENS FOR CANADIAN CONTENT TO BE EXHIBITED ON. – Jackie Pardy, chief content officer

you’re saying to me that we can fill an important role for you without doing the heavy lifting.” It’s a good fit, she says: Canadian, not expensive, but with fine production values.

She’s found a Prairies equivalent to Go Button with Winnipeg’s Farpoint Films. Farpoint has produced such unique works as the rock documentary The Sheepdogs Have at It and the Joe Pantoliano comedy From the Vine. Lately they’ve been scoring with such factual true crime series as Cruise Ship Killers and Heartland Homicide. Like Go Button’s shows, these series use voice-over, recreations and expert witnesses in tightly edited formats, which can be dubbed into foreign languages for other markets.

While it’s been a bumpy ride getting here, Super Channel is firing on all cylinders now. McDonald sums it up well: “We have a great focus on the Canadian production community and buying a lot of Canadian content. I’m very happy with that.”

P L AY B A C K T R I B U T E : 1 5 Y E A R S O F S U P E R C H A N N E L

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CANADIAN FILM & TELEVISION HALL OF FAME

Bringing Canada to the World Whether building broadcast networks or creating legendary franchises, for Playback Hall of Fame inductee Susanne Boyce it was always about the audience.

BY AMBER DOWLING

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BY THE TIME SUSANNE BOYCE MADE HER INDUSTRY EXIT in February 2011 as president of creative, content and channels at CTV, her contributions to the Canadian media landscape were indisputable.

Not only was the New Brunswick native credited with commissioning Canadian hits like Corner Gas, Canadian Idol and Degrassi: The Next Generation, but she had successfully launched specialty stations like E! Canada, Bravo and MTV Canada. Add in U.S. acquisitions like The Big Bang Theory and Grey’s Anatomy, which catapulted CTV to the top of the weekly Nielsen charts, and it’s no wonder former Bell Media president Kevin Crull once called Boyce a “programming legend.”

But her success stretches farther than that. Whether through championing local news during her time at CBC staples Newsworld, Midday and The Journal, or carving out a medium for underrepresented audiences on a project like CTV Vancouver’s Indigenous news program First Story, her viewers were always top of mind. (Boyce jokes about coming up in the newsroom – like Mary Tyler Moore, but “without the fabulous wardrobe.”)

“I never thought of demographics at all,” Boyce recalls. “It was always about servicing a community, country or people that didn’t have access.”

When former CTV president Ivan Fecan, who worked with Boyce at CBC, lured her to “the dark side,” Boyce approached scripted Canadian content the same way: story first. Then show that story to the world.

“If you don’t have the idea, you can splash all the money you want but nothing is going to happen,” she says. “We had to convince people and show them if you had the idea, money could come.”

She cites Corner Gas as an example. It debuted in 2004 to 1.15 million viewers, despite the assertion comedy was dead. Or, in 2002, taking the Junos from a one-night event into a weeklong festival. The money also followed after Boyce greenlit The Listener and Flashpoint ahead of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, when content-hungry U.S. programmers snatched up both series.

“It’s not a crystal ball, it’s a belief,” she says of such foresight. “I understand we don’t have money for certain things. But putting money into Canadian content, when you had good ideas and good writers, made sense.”

Through it all, Boyce surrounded herself with knowledgeable, passionate people. She credits her CTV “dream team” for its collaborative atmosphere, and says watching so many colleagues from her former entertainment days be successful now, years later, is a full-circle moment.

“I always felt that you manage things, you don’t manage people.

You lead people,” she says. “You create people who lead. The whole creative field is an extraordinary space. You see some of the results many years later.”

Boyce recently had one such full-circle moment. Former Pop TV head Brad Schwartz, who programmed Schitt’s Creek in the U.S., previously worked with Boyce as the SVP and GM at The Much MTV Group. She recalls his brilliant marketing mind, but says he also had a brain for programming. She remembers instructing him to: “Take Canada to the world.”

And he did. Two years ago when Schitt’s Creek historically swept the comedy categories at the Primetime Emmy Awards, Boyce says Schwartz called her from the show with one very meaningful announcement: “We took Canada to the world.”

CANADIAN FILM & TELEVISION HALL OF FAME

Woman of a Thousand Characters Andrea Martin’s work on SCTV alone would be enough to guarantee her immortality, but she has also amassed award-winning credits on stage and the big screen.

BY MARK DILLON

Photo: Danielle Kosann

ANDREA MARTIN IS CANADIAN COMEDY ROYALTY. Born in Portland, Maine, of Armenian descent, Martin rose to fame as part of Toronto troupe The Second City and then the SCTV series, offering up a seemingly endless parade of impersonations and eccentric characters forever etched in viewers’ minds, from lively leopardprint-clad station head Edith Prickley to incomprehensible European immigrant Pirini Scleroso.

Her work on SCTV (1976-84) earned her two shared Emmy Awards for writing and an acting nomination, as well as a shared Earle Grey Award at the Geminis.

Her film career got off the ground thanks to Ivan Reitman, who cast her in his first two Canadian features, and she would go on to nail roles in the likes of Wag the Dog (1997), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), and as Aunt Voula in box-office smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002).

Martin currently appears in the supernatural drama series Evil, which has been renewed by Paramount+ for a third season. She spoke to Playback from New York, one of her three home bases along with Los Angeles and Toronto.

Playback: Congratulations on your recent Critics Choice Awards nomination for Evil.

Andrea Martin: Thank you. The show is very well received, particularly by people who like the supernatural horror genre. It’s beautifully written. It examines evil from three perspectives: if you’ve seen a vision, is it a saint, is it because you suffer from mental illness, or is it a scientific thing going on in your brain? I started last season as a recurring character – a nun called Sister Andrea – and they made it into a principal this year. I’m happy to be doing it, even though I can’t watch it because I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

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SPRING 2022

PB: You recently shot an episode of Only Murders in the Building with SCTV alum Martin Short. You performed in the stage musical Godspell in Toronto in 1972 with Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, Gilda Radner and Dave Thomas, who would also be on SCTV. That cast and the SCTV cast were all-star lineups. Did you ever look around and think, “We are a powerhouse!”

AM: (Laughs) I never did. But I certainly looked around and thought, “How did these likeminded people all get together? What kind of fluke is that?” A seamless friendship developed out of Godspell. We were connected from a very early age, and then to have that continuity is crazy. I don’t know how many people can say they’re still close friends with actors they started out with in their 20s and are still working with them.

PB: You became a dual citizen in 2017 just ahead of being honoured on Canada’s Walk of Fame. Why was it important for you to be officially recognized as Canadian?

AM: I was spending more time in Canada, and everything important in my life happened there: getting married, my career starting, having my children, writing a book [Andrea Martin’s Lady Parts], SCTV, performing at Stratford. So it was nice to carry a Canadian passport and I feel really lucky.

PB: It seems you haven’t slowed down at all.

AM: There’s no part of me that’s slowed down. The work – the joy and curiosity and enthusiasm and childlike play it offers – fuels me. I have a lot of interests, two beautiful sons, a beautiful granddaughter, friends and hobbies. But when I wasn’t working during the pandemic, I didn’t know who I was. It’s just part of who I am. And luckily, people have hired me over the years because they like [what I do]. I’m excited to go to work. There’s no part of my vocabulary that has “retire” in it.

Playback’s Canadian Film & Television Hall of Fame was founded in 2007 to recognize extraordinary achievements in the Canadian entertainment industry. Inductees are selected by a jury of their peers.

THE BACK PAGE

Behind the Scenes With the Canadian Screen Awards into their 10th year, we asked those who run the annual event for their biggest show memories.

Here are three standout CSA moments as told collectively

by Beth Janson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television; Louis Calabro, VP of programming and awards; and Marko Balaban, director of programming and awards.

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David Cronenberg receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014: Cronenberg was introduced by actor Viggo Mortensen, his frequent collaborator.

“Mainstream movie business people, much as they might praise him from time to time, seem very reluctant to reward him officially,” Mortensen said. “I can understand that because David basically is not one of them. And I think they know it; a fact that probably makes them even more uncomfortable than his movies do.”

Mortensen gave Cronenberg a kiss on the lips and a Montreal Canadiens flag instead of the statue as a joke. In his speech Cronenberg invoked a quote from the Dilbert comic strip: “The key to happiness is self-delusion, so don’t think of yourself as an organic pain collector racing to oblivion.”

The audience’s standing ovation lasted well into commercial break.

Norm Macdonald hosting the 2016 bash: As Norm prepared to open the show, he was so serious and engrossed reading his lines. We thought “maybe he is just nervous before the opening monologue.”

But this would happen throughout the show – he would go onstage, kill it, come back and go back to his cards. In that moment, we understood why his comedy is so polished, smart and poetic, and considered one of the greatest of all time.

When the show ended and we saw this giant of comedy retreat into the dark halls, we knew that we had witnessed something special.

We were so incredibly fortunate to experience what it is like working with an artist so professional and dedicated to his craft, both onstage and behind the scenes.

Christopher Plummer accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017: As Plummer delivered his masterful acceptance speech, it felt like everyone working backstage stopped in time to observe one of the country’s greatest actors.

“When the committee made this decision, they used my name out of pity, ‘give it to him now before he croaks...’ and they were right...

I’m old... dangerously old...” he said drolly. “By no means is this the end... the curtain has not yet fallen... It’s simply stuck.”

As he came offstage, he collapsed into a chair, fatigued and out of breath. And we realized that he had given every ounce of energy he had to deliver those three minutes. And we will forever be grateful.

Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Jaeger-LeCoultre

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Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

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