Industry leaders reflect on 2024’s big moments
The exit interview: Catherine Tait
Canadian actors Vanessa Morgan and Giacomo Gianniotti star in Wild Cards, produced by Blink49 Studios, Playback’s Production Company of the Year, as well as Front Street Pictures and Piller/Segan in association with CBC and the CW. Courtesy of CBC
Year in review
How the events of 2024 could impact the industry long-term
Celebrating success in 2024
Arctic power
How North of North is expanding Nunavut’s local film industry 8
TVO’s next POV
The exit interview
A chat with Catherine Tait on her time at CBC/Radio-Canada
Maverick movie-maker Guy Maddin joins Playback’s Hall of Fame 39 19 14 36
Innovation spotlight Nature docs are levelling up thanks to tech advances 10
TVO Docs’ new commissioner explains her content strategy 12
I will survive (to 2025) Predicting next year’s big industry slogan 42
On a global scale, the unknowns that accompany the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election loom large. Here at home, the screen industry is facing its own existential crisis with the possibility of a federal election coming any time in 2025. One with more at stake than most, including the future of CBC and progress on modernizing the broadcasting sector.
On a more tangible level, Canada’s independent production sector is facing changes to the definition of Canadian content, which could have a direct impact on IP ownership rights. Not to mention the fast-growing development of generative AI tech and the myriad ways companies are exploring its potential. There are a lot of reasons for members of the screen sector to feel like their career trajectory is in someone else’s hands.
But, even in these times, there are moments where you can find some sense of agency.
For instance, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) formally launched a public consultation process on the Cancon definition on Nov. 15, which will also cover key regulatory requirements like CPE (Canadian programming expenditures) and PNI (programs of national interest), as well as crucial topics like data use and AI. Comments are open until Jan. 20, 2025. Following that, there will be a round of hearings kicking off on March 31. If you ever wanted your voice heard on the future of the industry, now would be the time to speak up.
We dig into the ramifications of the CRTC’s modernization process, as well as other key moments from the past year, in a feature starting on page 14. While doing interviews for the piece, I learned more about how organizations like the Canadian Media Producers Association are working hard to convey to MPs how Canada’s indie production sector is, above all else, a job creator and an economic driver for the country.
While covering the seemingly endless debates around Bill C-11 in the House of Commons and the Senate in 2022 and 2023, I often felt the role of independent producers as employers and business owners was lost in the shuffle. So many conversations were focused on how foreign-owned companies contribute to the domestic economy or the possibility of regulations around user-generated content. Seeing indie producers come front and centre in discussions now gives me a bit of hope as we enter 2025.
Speaking of hope, our 2024 selections for Best of the Year (page 19) represent the people and projects that inspired and surprised us over the last 12 months, including overdue recognition for Tassie Cameron (page 29) and Ricardo Trogi (page 30). Some have courted their own share of controversy as well. (Looking at The Apprentice, which we named Film of the Year on page 33.)
This issue also includes a conversation with Catherine Tait (page 36), who wraps up her term as president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada on Jan. 2, 2025; and a profile on Winnipeg’s one-of-a-kind experimental filmmaker Guy Maddin (page 39) as we induct him into Playback’s Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame.
Now, more than ever, feels like the time to get loud about the cultural and economic importance of this industry. Let’s leave the humble Canadian attitudes in 2024, shall we?
Kelly Townsend Editor, Playback
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How the Syfy and CTV Sci-Fi series Revival became the largest TV production to date for the province.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
BLUE ICE PICTURES’ LATEST SERIES, REVIVAL , IS LIVING UP TO ITS NAME in more ways than one. The supernatural series is helping to resuscitate New Brunswick’s local film industry after the province lost its tax credit in 2011.
Produced for Syfy in the U.S. and CTV Sci-Fi for Canada, the 10 x 60-minute series is based on the Image Comics IP of the same name by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton about a town in Wisconsin where the dead mysteriously come back to life.
Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp) stars as a local detective with a cast that includes Romy Weltman (Backstage), David James Elliott (JAG), Andy McQueen (Mrs. Davis) and Steven Ogg (Snowpiercer).
The series went into production with co-producer Hemmings House in and around Saint John in September and wrapped in December at a budget of about $2 million per episode, Samantha Levine, Blue Ice’s VP, production, tells Playback Samir Rehem (Killjoys) and Amanda Row (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) each directed five episodes.
Levine says the level of forestry and access to water made the location ideal as a double for the Wisconsin city Wausau, where the show is set.
Conservative Party at the time – to see what could be done to bring the show to New Brunswick.
The government had already shown interest in supporting the local industry, doubling the film, television and new media production incentive program to $5 million, starting in fiscal 2022-23. The incentive covers up to 30% of eligible costs for New Brunswickowned productions or 40% of labour costs for service productions.
Greg Hemmings, founder and executive producer at Hemmings House, says Revival is the largest television series shot in New Brunswick to date.
The series was in development at Blue Ice for three years with creators and showrunners Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce, says Levine. When it came to finding a location, Blue Ice and Hemmings House approached the provincial government – led by the Progressive
To make a production of this scale work, Hemmings says the government spread its support through different fiscal years.
So far, the investment is paying off. Hemmings says they hired a number of local entry-level crew members, and were able to source heads of departments from experienced provincial expats who returned home after the pandemic.
“We’re starting to see, through Revival, that we have the potential to crew up and service projects like this on an ongoing basis,” he says.
However, questions remain on the scalability of the sector. When the incentive was increased in 2022, the former government said it would reach $20 million by 2026, but no further budget increases have been announced since.
Hemmings says he’s seen an interest from the new Liberal government to support the industry, but no commitments have been made at press time.
Despite the uncertainty, Revival marks an exciting new chapter for the province.
“This is one of the first times, certainly in a long time, that New Brunswick will be captured for a global audience in a show like this,” says Hemmings.
How the CBC, Netflix and APTN comedy North of North is single-handedly helping build capacity for Nunavut’s local industry.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
THE ARCTIC-SET COMEDY NORTH OF NORTH HAS FAST-TRACKED the development of a thriving screen industry in Nunavut.
The series is a co-commission from CBC and Netflix in association with APTN, created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril. It’s produced by the duo’s Iqaluit-based Red Marrow Media and Miranda de Pencier’s Toronto-based Northwood Entertainment and premieres in Canada on CBC and APTN on Jan. 7.
Producing a premium series in Iqaluit required a “significant investment” across the board. Arnaquq-Baril tells Playback it was the largest production budget the two had worked with. (The exact budget was not disclosed.)
It also required building the territory’s first production studio. Arnaquq-Baril says they secured a temporary production hub for season one of North of North, but the City of Iqaluit said they wouldn’t be able to use the space for additional seasons. “We had no choice but to build a studio,” she says. “What network is going to want to invest in a show that can only go one season?”
The first domino fell in 2023 when the Indigenous Screen Office put up $1 million to help build the studio, which Arnaquq-Baril describes as a “game changer” for Red Marrow. The company secured additional funding from the Government of Nunavut and Iqaluit entrepreneur Cody Dean. The funding, combined with a loan, brought in a total budget of $4.1 million to build the studio, which they co-own.
Construction is still underway, with an opening date to be announced later, so a potential season two of North of North is currently the only project slated to use the facility, but Arnaquq-Baril says they’ve seen interest from other projects currently in development.
North of North itself took years to develop. The duo started working on the concept in 2019, about a young Inuk mother (played by Anne Lambe) who inadvertently blows up her life when she starts to feel suffocated in her
marriage. They brought it to CBC in 2020 after another series in development wasn’t picked up. “We were so appreciative that they stuck with us and gave us another chance,” says Arnaquq-Baril.
An early partner on the comedy was de Pencier, a frequent collaborator who worked with them on The Grizzlies (2018) and the short film Throat Song (2013). “She’s amazing at challenging us to think as big as we can,” says Aglok MacDonald.
While CBC was the first to come on board, it was clear a series of this scope required multiple partners. Enter APTN and Netflix.
All three partners brought something to the table creatively, says Arnaquq-Baril. “APTN knows the community better than the other networks do and has our backs. CBC made sure our show is speaking to a Canadian audience. With Netflix, we’re also speaking to the entire world … they operate on a much larger scale than we’ve ever worked on. We learned a lot working with them, the attention to detail on everything.”
For their partners, the sentiment is mutual.
“When we first met with Stacey, Alethea and Miranda to hear about their show, they made us laugh so hard that we cried,” said Danielle Woodrow and Tara Woodbury, directors, content at Netflix Canada, in a statement to Playback. “We knew from that moment that we had to partner creatively with them and invest in this project.”
Trish Williams, executive director, scripted content at CBC, said the series is “vibrant, funny and joyful,” adding that the ability to shoot the film in the North was important to the pubcaster.
“Stacey and Alethea have drawn from their own personal experiences to create this amazing show in a unique setting – one that very few people across the country, let alone around the world have a real understanding of – that offers universally relatable themes,” she said.
For APTN, it was an opportunity to invest in Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril’s vision and help contribute to Nunavut’s production sector. “The future is bright for storytelling in the North, and we are thrilled to continue to help pave the way,” said Adam Garnet Jones, APTN’s director of TV content and special events.
The capacity-building goes beyond a physical studio. Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril were intentional about providing training opportunities on set, building it into the budget for the series from the start.
Aglok MacDonald says all of her scripted and unscripted productions have provided training opportunities, but with one-off films or shorts, people were coming and going within that entry-level threshold. She noticed a change with the Inuktitut-language comedy Qanurli?, which she co-created, directed and produced.
“There was a sense of how much television has a role to play in maintaining an industry, especially when you’re an [emerging] one, in terms of the consistency of work, opportunity for promotion and opportunity to train and level up,” she says. “That was something that we thought about very critically when we knew we were going to be able to make this show.”
They hired locals as background performers, crew members and support staff, and people from all across Nunavut came to set to provide clothing and jewelry for the cast’s wardrobe.
“In our first season we learned what didn’t work and we really hope to continue shaping it in future seasons so that we can develop those skills and develop people who want to work in the industry,” says Aglok MacDonald. “[We want to] continue to see them rise and be promoted, then make their own work and hopefully someday me and Alethea will be their executive producers and we can support their vision.”
Vancouver producers mull the benefits of the B.C. government’s proposed increase to the local film and TV tax credits.
BY JAMIE CASEMORE
A CAMPAIGN PROMISE FROM B.C.’S RE-ELECTED GOVERNMENT has local producers hopeful for a lifeline as they continue to struggle post-strikes.
During the lead-up to the provincial election on Oct. 19, Premier David Eby committed to upping both the Production Services Tax Credit and the Film Incentive BC refund to 36% if the New Democratic Party was re-elected. He reaffirmed his support for the industry during a press conference following the election and members of the B.C. government embarked on an L.A. mission in November to promote the local film sector.
“Eby’s promise to up the tax credit is comforting. I think that’s a baseline,” Arielle Boisvert, partner and EVP of production at Vancouver’s Brightlight Pictures tells Playback. “I think we need to do more. We need to do better.”
Boisvert says she would like to see B.C. tax credits expand from just labour expenditurs to other eligible costs, similar to the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit. She would also like the province to develop the credits to be more competitive and aggressive to better align with the B.C. industry’s economic impact.
Boisvert says she has noticed crew members in B.C. leaving the province for areas with more work and some leaving the industry in general.
“It’s been a tough slog for the industry,” says Boisvert. “COVID, strikes and now just a general overhaul of the number of productions studios and streamers are making across the board.”
Eby echoed that sentiment in a press conference on Oct. 29 after the NDP narrowly beat out the Conservatives to win a majority government after the election.
“The message to filmworkers in British Columbia, who I know are feeling a lot of the pressures of the big streamers dialing back their budgets and other pressures facing the industry, is that we’re in your corner,” he said.
Other local producers argue the state of the B.C. industry is similar to other regions.
“I think the [B.C. industry] has waned a bit, but it’s just like the state of the industry as a whole,” says Timeless Pictures co-founder Michael R. Goldstein. “I think, like anything, it’s cyclical. B.C. has always been on the front edge of that cycle, so it’ll likely pick up faster than other places.”
Around the same time that Eby began discussing boosts to the tax credit California governor Gavin Newsom proposed a change to the state’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program, increasing the allocation from US$330 million to US$750 million annually.
However, Goldstein says he’s not overly concerned with competition from California and is happy to celebrate any success within the industry.
“[The California credit] is good for film everywhere,” says Goldstein. “The more choice that you have the better off it is.”
How cutting-edge underwater drones and high-speed cameras have helped expand what’s possible in nature documentary production.
BY JAMIE CASEMORE
ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY ARE ALLOWING NATURE documentary filmmakers to enhance the quality of their projects and, in certain cases, provide new avenues for promotion.
Under the Great Lakes, Bruce Peninsula, Ont.-based Inspired Planet Productions used advanced underwater technology from Auckland-based Boxfish Robotics to capture how an invasive mussel species was impacting the Lakes’ ecosystem in its TVO original documentary All Too Clear: Beneath the Surface of the Great Lakes
The documentary, co-directed by husband-and-wife duo Zach Melnick and Yvonne Drebert, was filmed over approximately 200 days with about 150 spent filming underwater.
“We brought the first of their Luna series, their most advanced system, to Canada for the first time,” Melnick tells Playback.
Boxfish Robotics began in 2016 with the goal of introducing a product that improved on two major issues the company saw in underwater drone technology: lack of control and poor picture quality.
The Luna combines Boxfish’s drone technology, which includes integrated sensors, lighting and either of Sony’s Alpha 1 or A7SIII cameras in an enclosed frame. The Luna has a surface control station for monitoring and recording. The price of the tech begins at US$105,000.
For All Too Clear, the drone was not only able to explore further depths in the Great Lakes, but give enhanced visuals. This allowed for extensive coverage of the Great Lakes’ ecosystem and facilitated the discovery of a shipwreck at the bottom of Lake Huron.
The ship, likely the Africa, was lost on Lake Huron in 1895 and, 128 years later, was found encased in the same mussels Inspired Planet was utilizing Boxfish’s technology to document.
The story of the discovered shipwreck made its way to publications such as CBC News, Smithsonian Magazine and Canadian Geographic, giving the doc a promotional boost.
Back on land, Bristol’s Humble Bee Films utilized high-speed cameras, drones and cameras suspended
on cables to capture rare visuals of mid-air animals for Airborne, co-produced by U.K.-based Sky Nature and Blue Ant Media’s Love Nature.
The 4 x 60-minute series, in post-production at press time, was filmed in multiple locations around the world, including Costa Rica and Thailand. It will have its global release on Love Nature in 2025 following its debut on Sky Nature in the U.K., Italy and Germany.
“We wanted to tell stories of airborne animals by giving the audience the opportunity to see and appreciate the mechanics of flight like never before,” says Alison Barrat, Love Nature’s SVP, head of content.
A high-speed Phantom VEO4K was one of the cameras used during filming. The Phantom has the ability to shoot at up to 1,000 FPS, allowing Humble Bee Films to capture details such as territorial disputes between rival hummingbirds.
The Phantom – leased for upwards of $3,000 per day – was also used to capture extremely high frame rate footage of insects such as dragonflies and mayflies. The crew had a gimbal-mounted RED Gemini 5K S35 on a boat, which was optimized for shooting in a variety of environments, including those with low-light. The use of the Gemini also allowed production to avoid using drones, which could potentially harm mayflies.
For filmmakers, the tech has unlocked new capabilities for storytelling in the documentary space.
“The story we were trying to tell would have been virtually impossible without this technology,” say Melnick and Drebert. “This would have been impossible with divers; and older ROVs, designed for science, either have terrible cameras or cost a fortune to operate from a large research vessel.”
“We already had our primary broadcaster (TVO) on board before we truly understood the potential for the Boxfish Luna as a filmmaking tool,” they continue. “But everyone has been so impressed with the footage that we are designing several new projects to fully take advantage of the technology in the future.”
Spin Master Entertainment is taking connecting with audiences to a new level via a partnership with Cameo Kids. The companies launched PupTalks in November, which sees PAW Patrol characters Marshall and Chase deliver personalized messages for $35 (US$25), which range from birthday messages to potty training support. Fellow pup Skye joins the party in December. To help with the launch, Spin Master recruited singer Meghan Trainor, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and comedian Kenan Thompson to receive their own PupTalks.
New Metric Media turned scripted TV into reality, making Shoresy’s fictional Sudbury, Ont. hockey team the Bulldogs into a real-life team for the Shoresy Fall Classic.
The team, which included star and creator Jared Keeso, competed against retired NHL players in Detroit, Boston, Toronto and Illinois in November ahead of Shoresy’s season four premiere on Crave in winter 2025. Regardless of who scored the winning goal in this series, Shoresy took a double-victory by adding a North American road show to the IP’s roster while raising $125,000 for charity.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) found an appetizing way to highlight Canadian talent within its Lightbox space. TIFF launched a pop-up shop in October dedicated to Saint John-born chef and The Bear actor and EP Matty Matheson, featuring his new book and merch from the Matheson Food Company. TIFF’s holiday-themed edition runs in the same location from Nov. 14 to Dec. 29. In 2025, promotional pop-ups might move up on producers’ wish lists as greenlights and box office decline.
Fast food franchise Wendy’s got “Krabby” this fall with a special collaboration with SpongeBob SquarePants for its 25th anniversary.
Wendy’s locations served the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger and Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty into early November, promoted in Canada exclusively on Paramount+ and its properties. With Heartland and Murdoch Mysteries approaching 20, opportunities abound for snack-themed celebration.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
Speaking of snacks, M&M’s partnered with Amazon MGM Studios to promote the holiday action film Red One with a riff on the famous Red M&M. The company dropped Red-themed merch tied to the film’s release on Nov. 15, including a “firstof-its-kind jacket” with a pocket to carry M&Ms and a napkin-dispensing sleeve and a limited-edition popcorn bucket. We’re eyeing a lucrative Swedish Berries campaign next time Canada has a copro with Sweden.
BY NICHOLAS SOKIC
MORE THAN A YEAR INTO HER ROLE AS COMMISSIONING EDITOR at TVO Docs, Alexandra Roberts is focused on expanding its offerings both in terms of content and distribution.
Roberts tells Playback that the overall documentary commissioning strategy has remained consistent since she joined TVO Docs in July 2023, with an emphasis on point-of-view (POV) films, but they’re exploring different ways of sharing those films with audiences, experimenting with YouTube Shorts and 4K video.
They’re also expanding the types of content they’re commissioning, with an unscripted comedy series in development. And the documentary films they look at cover a range of topics, including arts, sports, science, natural history, history, current affairs and social issues.
Roberts leads a team that includes programmers Shane Smith and Aidan Denison; digital channel specialist Darcy MacQuarrie; and docs coordinator Abbi Sharvendiran.
TVO Docs typically has a slate of eight to 12 films for production and about four to five in development, although the budget, licensing fees and windowing depend on the individual film. By the end of 2024, TVO will have released upwards of 70 documentaries both commissioned and acquired across linear and digital platforms. About 30% of those titles are Canadian. In total hours, roughly 58% of annually aired content is certified Cancon.
Playback: What have been your priorities since joining TVO’s Docs team?
Alexandra Roberts: We have a long-standing tradition of supporting POV feature docs. That certainly won’t be changing anytime soon, because we really believe in that format. That said, all of the ways that we’re expanding and growing creatively are still very much in line with our identity as an educational broadcaster.
[That means] when we look at incoming pitches, we are always thinking about: What is the audience going to learn from this about the world around them or themselves? We want there to be concrete takeaways, but it shouldn’t feel like medicine.
We know that we exist in a world where audiences have everything they could ever want at their fingertips. That means that even though we’re a regional broadcaster, we’re still playing in a global sandbox when it comes to the competitive landscape. So we think not just about what that means for us creatively, but also what that means for us pragmatically.
We’re looking for more opportunities to collaborate on international coproductions, for example, as [they have] the dual benefit of enhancing a project’s budget while also enlisting a likeminded international partner to champion and amplify the story.
How many docs have you commissioned since you started?
We did 11 when I started that fiscal year. This next fiscal year, we’ll be doing about 10. We generally tend to do eight to 12 for production.
[The greenlights, under working titles, include] Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom, Kim Nguyen’s first doc in over a decade, spanning Vietnam, the U.S. and Canada, in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada and Noble Films. The Theft, by director Aisha Jamal with Ed Barreveld producing, traces a set of ancient, treasured artifacts stolen from Afghanistan that have, in some cases, ended up in the hands of Western museums. The Pitch, from director Michèle Hozer and producer Bryn Hughes, gives us a character-driven, inside look at the formation of the Northern Super League – the professional Canadian women’s soccer league.
The first two were greenlit directly for production and the last was greenlit for development in 2023, and subsequently for production in 2024.
How much do those docs represent your current strategy?
It’s all about arriving at a balance that makes sense. How can we make sure that those POV feature docs really stand out in the landscape [and] that filmmakers have articulated the audiovisual strategy of their project?
A really great example of that is Ali Weinstein’s Your Tomorrow, which is the first film that I commissioned. In many ways it was a no-brainer for TVO to support a project about Ontario Place, but one of the things that we loved about it is the fact that Ali came in with a really bold vision of how she wanted to tell that story. She wanted to make sure that it was a purely observational doc. That is a really specific creative choice to make, because it precludes you from being able to do things like include talking heads in your doc, or speak to your subjects in any way on camera. It presented a really fun creative challenge that also made sure that the film would have a distinct point of view.
We talk a lot about specificity on the Docs team. Personal stories are another great way of doing that [like with Kim Nguyen’s doc]. That said, we don’t always need filmmakers to tell stories about their own communities, but those are just some examples.
Are there any specific genres you’re more focused on?
The reality is that our remit is so broad when it comes to genre that it’s really about impact. On the flip side of that, we also notice that as a regional broadcaster, our industrywide impact is actually disproportionate to our size, and
we take that very seriously … because our specific focus is centred on a vulnerable sector in the industry – longform documentary – we’re aware that we have a large impact.
What advice would you give a director or producer looking to pitch your Docs team?
One of the great things about being an educational broadcaster is that people come to us with the stories that really matter to them. It’s less about articulating why climate change matters and needs to have a film made about it, but more, ‘Why does this climate change story matter?’
We’re open to having collaborative conversations, and we know that pitches are just a starting point, but we want to know that the creative is being driven by you. We want to come in as collaborators. We do that a lot, even in development. Putting four to five productions in development a year is not a lot at all. It enables us to take a very bespoke approach to our entire development slate.
Do you see TVO’s strategy evolving during your tenure?
I think the overall intention behind the strategy is, ‘How can we make sure that our content is resonating with audiences from a social impact perspective? How can we make sure that we’re reaching as many audiences as possible and what are the different ways we can do that?’ Maybe new platforms and new technology will continue to enable that as well.
We’re available across the country [online]. I think that is something that we’re going to continue to keep an eye on. How can we make sure that we’re really reaching audiences in new, dynamic and interesting ways?
Such as?
Our focus is on YouTube at the moment, in an effort to meet audiences where they are at. We’re experimenting with pulling different levers in that arena, from YouTube Shorts, which enables audiences to watch snackable clips from our programs on their phones, to publishing our docs in their original 4K fidelity, as we did with All Too Clear. [The 4K videos have garnered more than 159,000 views on the TVO Docs YouTube channel to date].
[All Too Clear] was commissioned by the previous docs team but editorially and creatively guided by myself and the new Docs team, [along with the] release strategy.
the years ahead.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
THE YEAR 2024 MAY EVENTUALLY BE CONSIDERED A BENCHMARK FOR CANADA’S SCREEN SECTOR. Between initial regulatory decisions, historic labour disputes and controversial content deals, there was no shortage of drama. But what will the long-term effects be for Canada’s indie production scene? Playback spoke with several industry leaders to reflect on the year that was and how it may shape the years to come.
The morning of June 10 sent shockwaves through the industry when Rogers Communications announced new content deals with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and NBCUniversal for content rights previously licensed to competitors Bell Media and Corus Entertainment.
Under the agreements, Rogers had the rights to launch six new channels: Bravo in September and HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia, Discovery ID and Discovery on Jan. 1, 2025, as well as add content from Cooking Channel, OWN, Motor Trend, Animal Planet and Discovery Science on Citytv+.
The reaction was swift. Corus co-CEO Troy Reeb became the talk of the Banff World Media Festival when he compared Rogers executives to schoolyard kids stealing lunch money – a statement he tells Playback he still stands by – and Bell Media threatened legal action. The latter company followed through that same month, filing for an injunction to block the launch of a new Discovery channel and seek
damages from WBD. The dispute between Bell Media and WBD was settled in October, and the company dropped its legal action against Rogers.
Rogers did not provide comment at press time.
Despite it all, SVP, content and sales Stewart Johnston says Bell Media is “in a stronger position today than we were six months ago.” He credits this to quick action from the company to replace the Discovery brands and an extended deal with WBD to keep HBO content on Crave “for the foreseeable future,” enabling long-term planning for the streamer.
In October, Bell Media announced the rebranding of Discovery to USA Network and Investigation Discovery as Oxygen True Crime, effective Jan. 1, 2025, thanks to a deal with NBCUniversal. That day the company will also be rebranding Animal Planet, Discovery Science and Discovery Velocity to CTV Wild, CTV Nature and CTV Speed, respectively.
Johnston says Bell Media had already been in talks with NBCUniversal to expand their partnership. Because of the legal dispute, he says the companies continued to stay in touch, but talks didn’t get into high gear until they settled with WBD. After that, the parties secured the new partnership in “record speed.”
Corus unveiled a rebrand of its own in September, with HGTV Canada changing to Home Network and Food Network Canada to Flavour Network, effective Dec. 30.
“We’ve never been afraid of competition,” says Reeb. “Competition is always more difficult when your competitor has the brands that you built, but we’re not afraid of it. We have decades of experience in [lifestyle programming] and the reality is, for our services, it really is the Canadian content that most resonates with Canadian audiences.”
In fact, Reeb says the rebrand to Home and Flavour has led to new opportunities for original programming. They have 110 hours of originals slated for the 2025-26 broadcast year, up from 95 hours in 2024-25. He says Corus is connecting with new independent producers on original content and has already secured partnerships with new studios, including Beer Budget Reno (Proper Television), a coproduction with A&E Networks.
For Bell Media, Johnston says the commissioning strategy remains the same as under the prior brands, with mainstay originals like Highway Thru Hell (Great Pacific Media) and new series My Pet Ate What? (Tyson Media) available alongside acquired shows such as Suits and The Traitors franchise. A co-development deal with WBD will bring global resources in the creation of more Canadian originals.
“It’s refreshing to see broadcasters competing over media assets in this country,” says Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO of the Canadian Media Producers
Association (CMPA). “We’ve heard from broadcasters that they are hungry for content to fill these new channels. There has been so much doom and gloom and we’ve seen Canada’s private broadcasters, until very recently, seem to retreat from broadcasting. These deals seem to represent a 180-degree change in approach, and that is a great thing for the system.”
While Bell Media and Corus are leaning on optimism, the seismic event has shifted the broadcast landscape at a time when advertising revenue for linear continues to decrease. For Corus, which is actively seeking ways to cut costs to offload its $1 billion in debt, the pain is felt more sharply.
“This was not a helpful move by Rogers to go and start bidding up the price of studio content at a time when there’s only so many dollars to go around,” says Reeb, adding that pending regulation on the market dynamics between small and larger players in the system will be crucial in leveling the playing field in 2025.
Corus’s credit facility agreement has been extended to March 31, 2025, giving them a few more months to work out their debt problem. “Whether it’s our shareholders, bondholders, banks or suppliers, everyone is invested in finding a solution,” says Reeb. “Of course, we can’t speak to what that solution might be, but I will say this: All of our suppliers are getting paid, no one’s had any concerns on that front. It’s business as usual as we work through this.”
The independent screen sector averted disaster in May when the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) and the CMPA settled on a new Independent Production Agreement (IPA), following months of extended talks and the WGC’s first-ever strike authorization vote.
Some of the fought-for provisions of the new IPA - which began on May 15 and expires on Jan. 31, 2027 - go into effect in 2025, including a staffing requirement for a writer to join a showrunner during production in January, and higher animation writer fees in March.
WGC executive director Victoria Shen says the additions are meant to create “real and substantive improvements in the earnings of our members,” as well as foster a new generation of showrunners. The Guild has previously reported that members’ aggregate earnings fell by 22% from 2018 to 2023.
“One of the things we always value is having stability in our system and the agreement that we reached with the WGC will provide stability and predictability for the duration of the IPA,” says Mastin.
One of the more contentious topics was AI, with the IPA establishing baseline rules about the use of generative AI. Producers are now required to disclose if they supply a WGC member with AI-generated material and they must give the writer full compensation and credit. Shen says the WGC is currently one of two writers’ guilds globally to have AI rules in their agreements, following the Writers Guild of America’s agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in September 2023.
Mastin says the collective bargaining process allowed the CMPA to begin a dialogue on AI with the WGC, which now extends to other unions and guilds, including the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
The CMPA was in bargaining with ACTRA over their IPA at press time, with neither party able to comment. But, in November, the CMPA’s B.C. branch and the AMPTP were able to successfully negotiate a memorandum of understanding with DGC BC for an amended collective agreement lasting into 2028. The deal includes clear definitions on generative AI and a sunset clause to renegotiate terms as the tech evolves.
While labour agreements are a key first step for industry workers, Shen says protections are needed at the legislative level.
“We urgently need transparency in AI training practices, and a consent-based approach for text and data mining,” she says. “We also need to make it clear that neither AI systems nor their users are ‘authors’ for copyright purposes. Only human beings create copyrightable works.”
Corus Entertainment’s pivot to invest in more lifestyle content has triggered its own ripple effect, compounding a growing crisis in Canada’s kids content landscape as the company reduces its investment in original programming for its suite of kids channels.
“There’s only so much money to go around,” says Reeb. “The reality is that the overall linear viewership of kids services has declined faster than any other segment …
Of course, even when legislation is put in place, the payoff could still be a long way off. On June 4, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) determined that foreign-owned undertakings would direct 5% of their Canadian revenues to various funds, estimating a total annual value of $200 million across the audio and audiovisual industries as part of the modernized Broadcasting Act.
Of the 5%, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) will receive 2%, with the caveat that the streamers can determine where 1.5% of it goes, as long as it’s split 60/40 between English- and French-language content. Another 1.5% will go to the Online News Fund, administered by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), while 0.5% is directed to the Indigenous Screen Office’s (ISO) Certified Independent Production Fund (CIPF). Another 0.5% goes to CIPFs supporting equity-deserving groups, while the other 0.5% is to CIPFs serving official language minority communities. The first payments are due by Aug. 31, 2025.
“In its intent, it will be effective, assuming that all things move forward,” says Black Screen Office executive director Joan Jenkinson.
Therein lies the problem. While the decision evoked praise for prioritizing Indigenous content and equity-deserving groups, foreignowned streamers were quick to criticize the requirement to support news production, arguing that it’s outside of their business model.
Legal action soon followed, with the Motion Picture Association-Canada (MPA-Canada) – which represents the interests of companies such as Netflix, Disney and Paramount – issuing two filings to the Federal Court of Appeals, one to appeal the decision and another to launch a judicial review. Amazon, Apple and Spotify also mounted legal challenges regarding the audio contributions ruling.
we have such a deep library and new isn’t quite as important to kids either.”
CMF’s 2023-24 annual report shows a significant decline in production funding for English-language children and youth programming, accounting for 9.4% of overall funding for the fiscal year. In comparison, kids and youth content accounted for 13.3% in 2022-23 and 14.2% in 2021-22.
“The numbers clearly demonstrate that
kids content is in crisis and urgent action needs to be taken so that we don’t lose what has been a spectacularly successful industry in Canada,” says Mastin.
He says the CMPA is “doubling down” on its work to convey to regulators and the federal government to find a solution in 2025, arguing that it will take a coordinated response from all parties to support that part of the sector.
The legal challenges have had a chilling effect.
“[The CMPA] is concerned that means that there is going to be less investment in Canadian programming by those streaming services between now and [Aug. 31],” says Mastin.
MPA-Canada declined to comment while the matter is before the courts.
Shen says that even when the funds do flow, “the amount of money going to productions that our members work on will not be a game-changer” with only 0.5% controlled by CMF.
“The promise of Bill C-11 was $1 billion in new money annually into the system,” she says, citing a figure provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage before the bill was passed. “We’re still a long way from that, and there’s much more yet to be done if we want to achieve a strong and vibrant Canadian broadcasting system.”
CAB president Kevin Desjardins says it will be “a challenge” to ensure the legal proceedings are concluded before the payment deadline, but the CAB was heartened to see the CRTC’s recognition of the need to support news programming. “The funds that they have either enhanced or helped to create for television and radio news are real steps in the right direction.”
the definition of Canadian content on Nov. 15 instead of next spring, with a hearing scheduled to begin on March 31, 2025.
As part of the consultations, the Commission has proposed several changes, such as an expanded 15-point Cancon system that introduces showrunners as a key creative role and eliminating the requirement for programs of national interest. Talks will also address the use of AI.
Undoubtedly one of the core talking points in the discussion will be whether Canadian-owned IP will remain a centrepoint of the definition of Cancon.
“Under the modernized Broadcasting Act, there is a requirement on the CRTC when it reviews the definition of Canadian content to determine whether Canadians are retaining a meaningful and significant share in their own IP,” says Mastin. “So, from our perspective, that is the starting point for the rights discussion in front of the CRTC.
Kevin Desjardins President Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Some CIPFs are facing another challenge. In instances where more than one CIPF is eligible for funding, it will be up to individual streamers to determine where the funds will go in a given year.
As is the case for the BSO, which shares a contributions bucket with the Canadian Independent Screen Fund for BPOC creators and the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.
“It means we have to make our own individual relationships with the streamers and basically compete for that tier of funding,” says Jenkinson. “That makes it a little bit difficult for us to plan because we don’t know how much we’re going to have from one year to the next. We’re looking at it as an opportunity to engage with the streamers individually to talk about how it’s not just the money that we’re looking at, but also the partnership we can have with them in developing talent.”
In the interim, the BSO board is laying down the foundations of its CIPF, including the mission, vision and criteria, followed by developing guidelines and an application portal.
“Whatever we decide will have to be scalable. If we get $2 million, what are we going to do? Or what if we get $7 million? Whatever we get, we are going to look at building the fund so that it’s sustainable and we’re not relying on that one source of funding,” says Jenkinson.
Of course, the base contributions decision was just phase one in modernizing the broadcasting system. The CRTC accelerated its timeline in November, launching consultations about Canadian programming rules and
Parliament has sent an unequivocally clear signal that Canadians need to meaningfully own a share in, and participate in, the rights and revenues to their own shows.”
While Heritage’s policy direction to the CRTC calls for regulations to put all business models into account, Mastin says a solution to that is to set a terms of trade agreement for independent producers, foreign-owned streamers and domestic broadcasters.
“This should be about collaboration; about fair and equitable sharing in the rights and revenues of successful shows,” says Mastin. “We’re confident that balance can be struck.”
In the midst of all this is the possibility of a change in government in 2025, which could have the potential to upend the entire industry if the federal Conservative Party of Canada is elected.
“We have been laser-focused in our discussions with elected officials – especially the Conservatives, given their public commitments to defund the CBC – to show them the impact that defunding the CBC would have on the independent production sector and the thousands of jobs that are generated through CBC commissioning annually,” says Mastin.
For others, they’re looking outside of the system for solutions. Jenkinson says the BSO is exploring global collaborations with regions like Nigeria, South Africa and Jamaica to serve places where audiences are “desperate for Black content.”
“We’re looking beyond the borders of Canada because I think we’ve allowed ourselves to be focused in a crisis mode,” she says. “How do we innovate and collaborate in different ways than we have before? Let’s make this into an opportunity rather than a fight to keep what we have. Because if the government changes, we’re going to have an even bigger issue on our hands.”
While many in the Canadian screen industry managed to survive until 2025, others found ways to thrive. Playback’s 2024 selections for Best of the Year represent the people, companies and stories that inspired, impressed and astounded us.
The Toronto and L.A.-based company is balancing its successful scripted slate with new unscripted greenlights and service work opportunities.
BY NICHOLAS SOKIC
FOLLOWING RENEWALS FOR ITS FIRST TWO ORIGINAL SCRIPTED PRODUCTIONS, Toronto-based Blink49 Studios shows no signs of resting on its laurels, expanding its unscripted division in 2024.
The company released its first two scripted series in 2024: Sight Unseen, coproduced with Sisters Troubetzkoy Productions for CTV, about a clinically blind homicide detective solving cases with an agoraphobic professional seeing-eye guide; and CBC’s Wild Cards, coproduced with Front Street Pictures and Piller/Segan, which follows a demoted cop and a con woman who team up to solve crimes.
Both series were picked up for second seasons following their runs in Canada and in the U.S. via the CW Network. Wild Cards was the U.S. network’s No. 1 new series for the broadcast year, peaking at 635,000 viewers.
The company was also an executive producer and U.S. distributor for The Trades (Trailer Park Boys Inc., Kontent House) on Crave, which was renewed for season two and was the platform’s top Canadian original.
Blink49’s scripted division remains focused on its continuing series and new productions on its slate with a number of greenlights and financing announcements coming, says Carolyn Newman, EVP of global scripted television. Justin Stockman, Bell Media’s VP, content development and programming, told Playback another series will be announced next year.
“It’s never easy to get renewals,” says Newman. “And in particular, with Wild Cards, it was fantastic. We went from an order of 10 to 13, which in this market is unheard of.”
CEO John Morayniss attributes the strong audience out of the gate, as well as the growth for “both broadcasters,” as playing a significant role in the expanded episode order and season two renewal for Wild Cards. Season two will premiere in the U.S. on Feb. 5, 2025.
Part of the scripted strategy going forward, Newman explains, is a larger focus on bringing together the right partners early in the development process. This is both, as Morayniss elaborates, a result of the longer gestation period for scripted series as well as the increasing need for multiple partners in order to secure financing.
“We feel we’re in a really good position to build on that history and legacy of Canadianbased companies that have to … figure out ways to put these copros together and make sure that creative is preserved and is enhanced by it,” says Morayniss.
The studio is still looking at expanding across Canada after its November 2023 acquisition of Vancouver-based Front Street Pictures. For now, its western Canadian operations are confined to Vancouver and Alberta, but Blink49 is also considering acquiring companies in other provinces.
Morayniss says there are ongoing conversations on potential acquisitions of companies in the U.S. or outside North America. “We’re excited and hope to announce something soon.”
Front Street develops roughly 25 to 30 MOWs per year, with Blink49 holding distribution rights to over half, says Morayniss. Among them are The Groomsmen: First Look, the first in a trilogy that has completed production, and Buying Back My Daughter, both with Hallmark in the U.S. and Corus Entertainment in Canada. The slate also includes Lowlifes, which streams on Tubi in the U.S. and Latin America and Crave in Canada.
Morayniss says he believes there will continue to be growth in this area as many traditional and VOD platforms look to expand their MOW offerings.
Blink49’s unscripted division has taken off since launching in 2022, with Emmy-winning producer Nadine Rajabi joining this past August. Among its first greenlights is an untitled true crime docuseries for Prime Video about a Toronto case that’s currently unfolding. Tara Long, Blink49’s president of global unscripted television, says the project is a “dream show,” which came to the studio as part of a bid between a couple of producers. Also in the works is Queen of the Castle, ordered by CTV Life this year and developed in association with Bell Media. The series focuses on a Canadian socialite couple renovating a 1,000-year-old English castle.
“We’re trying to be very broad and very diverse with the type of genres we’re working in,” says Long. “I think the market is so tough right now, all of our shows have to be great, not just the volume play.”
The commitment to quality extends to the studio’s approach to service production, Long explains. Blink49’s goal is to be the first company called when other productions come up to Canada. Long says the key to their success is close collaboration between the Canadian and U.S. teams.
Morayniss says his definition of service production is an amorphous one. It’s his hope that Blink49 can assist via not only its production infrastructure, but also using its creative point of view to “elevate the material.”
Long cites Beast Games, the MrBeast game show shot in Toronto, as a standout example of Blink49’s service production strategy at a reported budget of $100 million. The production was hit with Do Not Work notices from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, but Long says those she knew on the production had a good experience, including from other unions. The series premieres Dec. 19 on Prime Video.
As for its original works, Blink49 is still investing in talent long-term. The company announced a first-look deal with veteran producer Pancho Mansfield in July, and in November officially brought Mansfield into the company as president of global scripted television.
Newman confirmed the company has renewed its 2022 development deal with Scarborough, Ont.’s Lilly Singh. Blink49 and Singh’s Unicorn Island Productions are currently in development on a drama series based on the novel Arzu, written by Mumbai-based author Riva Razdan.
Still in progress is its larger distribution strategy. Since launching three years ago, its main strategic partner has been L.A.-based Fifth Season, which sells several of its series and inked a strategic partnership with Front Street in November for international rights to its MOWs.
“We’ve backed Blink49 Studios since its inception ... the team continues to attract great talent into their leadership team and make smart strategic investments; it’s been fantastic to see them continue to grow,” said Fifth Season co-CEOs Graham Taylor and Chris Rice.
In the case of The Trades, Morayniss says Blink49 hasn’t settled on the right distribution strategy, as they want to determine how the U.S. distribution may drive the strategy in the rest of the world. Global rights for the series are held by Hamilton, Ont.-based Rollercoaster Entertainment.
For now, its overarching strategy for all of its series, Morayniss says, is to focus on the content first, then “aligning ourselves with a distributor that has more scale and weight in the market” to create a partnership for both sales and financing support.
BY JAMIE CASEMORE
The CEO of the Indigenous Screen Office discusses the organization’s historic year securing permanent funding from the federal government.
combined resources of [the CMF] and the CRTC allocation, I think we can really start making some transformative change.”
For Swanson and the ISO, securing permanent funding meant balancing the messaging within the organization and outside to pressure the government while also communicating to the Indigenous screen community and staff that its programs and activities would continue.
Swanson penned a letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and then-Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez in 2023 when an early funding decision did not come through. She followed it up with a letter to current Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge in 2024 and multiple public talks on the importance of the ISO, including at the CRTC’s hearings on base contributions.
“I think it was crucial that we took that strategy, given all the pressures on the federal budget and given that the CRTC process was happening at the same time,” says Swanson. “Because we were working so hard on securing our funding, that definitely played into our messaging for the CRTC.”
IN THE SPACE OF A YEAR, KERRY SWANSON MOVED FROM RAISING CONCERNS about the future of the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) to overseeing a long-term strategy with an estimated $37 million in annual funding as of 2025-26.
When Swanson, a member of Michipicoten First Nation, assumed leadership of the ISO in September 2022, her remit was clear: to turn its three-year allocation of $40.1 million from the federal government in 2021 into a permanent funding allocation. Less than two years later, she has exceeded that goal threefold.
In March, the Department of Canadian Heritage confirmed that the ISO would receive $13 million on an ongoing basis. In June, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) gave the ISO’s Certified Independent Production Fund 10% of the overall base contributions owed by foreign-owned streamers, with the first wave of funds due by Aug. 31, 2025, worth an estimated $14 million annually. That same month, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced that the ISO would take over administration of its $10 million Indigenous program, starting in 2025-26.
“Creating an Indigenous screen sector requires supporting the entire ecosystem. It’s a huge endeavour and $13 million is certainly not enough to accomplish that,” Swanson tells Playback. “But, with the
The permanent funding decision came down to the wire, just one month before the ISO’s funding would have run out. The first payment arrived three months later.
“She did not flinch, she did not back down ... Kerry held the line and got us to a place that, years ago, when Kerry and I were starting out, we could have only dreamed of,” says Danis Goulet.
The Cree-Métis filmmaker describes Swanson as a collaborator and builder. The two have collaborated for years and Goulet is also a part of the ISO’s Membership Circle, an advisory group that approves the annual report and incoming board of directors.
“[I met Swanson] when I worked at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival as a director,” says Goulet. “I interviewed her for a job to be second-in-command at the festival and she actually called me to turn down the job. I spent an hour convincing her to take it because I saw something in her.”
The long-term security of permanent funding will allow the organization to expand capacity and hire at the senior leadership level, something the ISO could not do last year, says Swanson. The funding will also help diversify its revenue and reach out to new partners. For 2024-25, the federal allotment will continue to be funneled into the Story Fund ($9.5 million) and its Sector Development programs and initiatives ($2.5 million).
Out of all of her achievements, Swanson says she is especially proud of the all-Indigenous team they have built across four provinces.
“I think the biggest testament to success for me will be that I can leave the ISO and it will be perfectly fine and capable of functioning without me,” she says. “We have such a strong team in place, that we’re continuing to build, that isn’t reliant on any one person, and it’s certainly not reliant on me.”
The 9 Story president and CEO discusses the synergies created through Scholastic’s $250 million investment.
BY NICHOLAS SOKIC
FOR 9 STORY MEDIA GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO VINCE COMMISSO, MIPCOM WAS ONE OF THE FIRST OPPORTUNITIES for his company to exhibit the newfound synergy with publisher Scholastic following the closure of its $250 million investment in June.
Among the series showcased in Cannes were Scholastic adaptations like the CGanimated The Magic School Bus: Mighty Explorers and supernatural thriller Sixteen Souls, aimed at kids age 14 and up. “When we went to MIPCOM, we brought three properties that had IP and one was new, and that, I suspect, for the next little while will be the mix, or representative of a mix going forward,” Commisso tells Playback
Six months removed from closing the deal, Commisso is even more confident it was the right move.
“These days, having content that is well-known IP is key to any endeavour moving forward. It doesn’t guarantee anything, just like having new IP doesn’t mean it will be successful,” says Commisso. “But in the era we’re in right now, having something that you can point to as a substantial data point that says there’s demand for that IP is extremely important.”
The pipeline is already moving in both directions. The 9 Story series Juno the Jellyfish is being adapted into a Scholastic book series. The CG-animated family sitcom, which also was shown on the Riviera, was developed as a result of 9 Story’s development deal with Crayola Studios.
He says the opportunity exists to impact both markets at once with a simultaneous release of a book and series. However, the company hasn’t identified an appropriate IP for that scenario yet.
Much of the synergy in developing properties for series or books, at least initially, will be weighed in favour of Scholastic’s IP, according to Commisso.
“Scholastic’s done a very good job of [developing IP] themselves,” says Commisso, “but with our capabilities, we can bring it to market faster and bring more resources to bear to bring it to market for lower costs.”
Scholastic acquired 100% economic interest and minority voting rights to 9 Story in a deal valued at $250 million. The agreement keeps 9 Story’s leadership intact, along with an independent board of directors.
Commisso says the deal is replicable and even advisable for other companies given the current downturn in commissions in Canada.
“[In] other countries around the world, like the U.K., everyone’s been more agnostic about where the capital comes from. Right now, to keep our industry going in Canada, we need external capital to do it,” says Commisso.
He emphasized the importance of scale for Canadian companies of a certain size, because “when you get to a certain size, you’re in a bit of no man’s land and you need to scale up and be a company with substantial IP in the business,” which is what 9 Story has vied to do with its Scholastic deal.
However, Commisso says he’s unsure if the current Canadian system will allow others to scale at the level 9 Story has been able to. “It needs to adjust and reflect today’s landscape, and I hope we can get there.”
Director Mike Downie and executive producer Jake Gold discuss how the four-part documentary has solidified the legacy of the beloved Kingston, Ont. band.
BY AMBER DOWLING
PRIME VIDEO’S THE TRAGICALLY HIP: NO DRESS REHEARSAL IS THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENTARY about the Canadian rock band’s rise to fame, relationships and overall impact. It was also the easiest sell of director Mike Downie’s career.
The four-part doc is the latest in a string of successes for Prime Video, winning People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), following the world premiere on Sept. 5. It dropped globally on Prime Video on Sept. 20, becoming the most-watched non-sports Canadian original docuseries on the streamer to-date within a week of its launch.
Shaun Alperin, head of content for Prime Video in Canada, tells Playback the streamer is “proud of the achievements we’ve had with Canadian documentaries,” including winning people’s choice at TIFF twice in a row, following Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe (marblemedia, Hawkeye Pictures) in 2023, and the global success of I Am: Celine Dion. Band manager and executive producer Jake Gold helped Downie – a documentarian behind The Hockey Nomad (2003) and brother to late band frontman Gord Downie – secure a meeting with Prime Video in 2020 to pitch the concept.
Downie was adamant the project should be a film “chopped into four pieces” rather than a TV series, with the same editor all the way through. He wanted to cover the band’s meteoric rise, the realities of being in a band for decades, and then the band coming through their difficult years only to grapple with Gord’s untimely death.
Downie brought a treatment, supporting materials and an episode breakdown with him. He wasn’t even halfway through his pitch when Tyler Bern, head of content for Prime Video Australia, New Zealand and Canada, stopped him.
“He said, ‘Sorry to interrupt, Mike, but I just want to tell you, we’re really, really interested in doing this documentary with you guys,’” Downie recalls. “I asked if I should keep going with my pitch and he was like, ‘Well, you don’t have to.’ It was pretty shocking.”
“They loved it and said, ‘Let’s just do it. Go make your film,’” adds Gold. “It was literally that easy.”
Other potential partners were interested in the project, but the duo knew The Hip had a strong streaming presence on Amazon Music. They
also felt that Amazon was the most enthusiastic and were the least creatively intrusive. So they struck a deal a few weeks later to produce a four-part documentary under Downie’s Courage Films, with the help of provincial and federal tax credits.
Downie was not able to disclose the budget, but says it’s “larger than I’ve ever had the chance to work with in my experience making Canadian docs.”
Going into production, Downie recalls the team becoming private investigators in order to pull together enough footage. They leaned on fans, people who worked with the band over the years and journalists with old interviews to piece the narrative together. Downie says it felt like a family effort, much in the same way The Hip and its team became a family over the years.
Mark Williams, who directed the music video for “Nautical Disaster,” had a camera backstage at the Maple Leaf Gardens the first time the band played there and was able to share footage from the dressing room. A fan named Andrew Lecesse chased down someone who was at Bishop’s University during a performance in the 1980s and had taped the band backstage.
“We treated every rumour, every piece of information as very sacred and worth our efforts to find it,” says Downie. “We created this huge database. Of course, 99% of it didn’t make the cut, but we have hundreds and hundreds of hours of archive and then hundreds of hours of interviews that we did with the band. I knew a lot of the material was not for the documentary, but it was important to get it all.”
At one point, the documentary reveals how the band fired Gold in 2003 during a particularly hard period. Seventeen years later they hired him back to help preserve the history and find a new path forward without Gord. They knew the legacy wasn’t going to take care of itself.
“We knew we needed to tell the story warts and all and that it had to be authentic,” says Gold of the doc. “If everyone wasn’t in agreement to tell the truth and what really went on - good or bad - it wasn’t going to work.”
Silently, Gold wanted to market the documentary as a 40-year tribute to the band. That’s why the film’s materials contain an “Established in 1984” logo.
“They were always pushing back on the idea of 40,” says Gold. “They don’t really want to count the years per se, so it doesn’t say 40th anniversary. With the logo, the idea is to figure it out for yourself.”
Gold hints this is the beginning of more potential projects for The Tragically Hip. He expects a bump in music consumption from new and nostalgic fans alike. The band sold a commemorative poster on its website in conjunction with the Prime Video release, followed by a coffee table book, titled This Is Our Life, on Oct. 1 with publisher Genesis Publications. They released a vinyl box set of the album Up to Here on Nov. 8 via Universal Music Canada, which reached No. 1 on multiple Canadian music sales charts, according to Gold.
He says they anticipate “north of 20,000” sales in the lead-up to Christmas for the book, which debuted at No. 2 on the Globe and Mail’s hardcover non-fiction bestseller list for the week of Oct. 12. In addition, Gold says the band has seen “significant increases” in music streams, including a 317% boost for its catalogue in the U.S.
“The company line is ‘never say never,’ so there’s no stopping,” he says.
“There is an opportunity to do something else with the band, with some of that footage, so who knows,” adds Downie. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m certainly not being presumptuous, but there’s more to the story.”
Lionsgate’s Kevin Beggs and Jocelyn Hamilton unpack how the US$375 million acquisition has been a boon for the larger studio and its newly minted Canadian division.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
LIONSGATE’S US$375 MILLION ACQUISITION OF ENTERTAINMENT ONE (EONE) HAS ALREADY PROVEN TO BE LUCRATIVE for the U.S. studio and the Canadian division, rebranded in June as Lionsgate Canada.
The transaction with Hasbro closed on Dec. 27, 2023, with Lionsgate also assuming production financing loans. While Hasbro retained rights to hit kids IP like Peppa Pig, the price point was a fraction of the US$3.8 billion the company paid out for eOne back in 2019. Lionsgate came out of the deal with eOne’s film and TV library and a stake in the Canadian business.
While the transaction itself may have happened in 2023, the impact of the deal became clear this past year. Kevin Beggs, chair and chief creative officer of Lionsgate Television Group, tells Playback the teams have been fully integrated within the last 12 months. In its Q2 2025 earnings call, CFO James Barge told investors that eOne has become a “great asset” for the company. Jim Packer, president of worldwide television distribution, singled out ABC’s The Rookie as a long-term asset that Lionsgate is already seeing returns on.
Beggs says Lionsgate was in production on a seventh season for The Rookie at press time. “We have a lot of aspirations around expanding the brand in partnership with ABC,” he says. “It’s a beloved franchise for them. It was sold very well around the world but, in our hands, I think we’ll do even better.”
A stronger asset library is proving to be a boon for Lionsgate following a disappointing Q2, attributed to low box office returns and higher production costs. The company reported US$892 million in trailing 12-month library revenue, up 3% year-over-year.
Beggs says the deal has also brought certain Lionsgate assets like The Hunger Games and Twilight franchises back into the fold after Canadian rights were sold to Alliance Films (and later acquired by eOne).
While U.S. shows like The Rookie and Showtime’s Yellowjackets have been touted as standouts for the company, the Canadian library is proving lucrative as well. Jocelyn Hamilton, Lionsgate Canada’s president, television, says the Lionsgate distribution team helped sell the 2017 series Ransom to Netflix. The drama spent two weeks in Netflix Canada’s top 10 list for TV series following its three-season drop on Nov. 1.
Hamilton says she is working closely with Susan Hummel, EVP and managing director, distribution and ventures, on an expanded distribution strategy. And opportunities are already opening up, thanks to the pilot Distributor Program launched by the Canada Media Fund this year, which will allow a Canadian distributor to trigger production funding.
“New things are happening that will help us grow the industry, and we want to be at the forefront of that as Lionsgate Canada,” says Hamilton.
On the production front, the Lionsgate Canada team has moved forward on two series for Hallmark+ in that time with Mistletoe Murders and Ripple. Lionsgate Canada partnered with Headspinner Productions for Mistletoe Murders, based on the Audible podcast of the same name, which premiered on the W Network in Canada and Hallmark+ in the U.S. this fall.
Both projects were created by Headspinner’s chief creative officer Ken Cuperus, who served as showrunner on the series. Hamilton says the Lionsgate Canada team was excited to tackle a project with an established fanbase and build on their “podcast to broadcast” strategy following the success of Crave docuseries Thunder Bay, adapted from the original Canadaland podcast.
Hamilton is an executive producer on Lionsgate Television’s Ripple, which went to camera in Toronto in September. The 8 x 60-minute drama follows four different people living in New York
City and the unexpected connections they have to one another.
While the creator (Michele Giannusa) and showrunner (Joni Lefkowitz) are based in the U.S., British-Canadian actor Amanda Tapping is on board as a director and executive producer.
“[Hallmark] is taking a bit of a risk because it’s a real drama in the vein of This Is Us meets Serendipity,” says Hamilton.
While Lionsgate has opened more connections to potential partners, Hamilton says they’re still working on projects with Canadian broadcasters. One yet to be announced title is in the writing stage and expected to go to camera in western Canada next year, and the company has other projects in development with various Canadian partners.
“We’re bringing Canadian talent to the world, which has always been our strategy, but with Lionsgate Canada we have an even bigger opportunity,” she says.
Photo: Christina Gapic
The producers behind Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent discuss the hard work behind bringing the franchise to Canada.
BY AMBER DOWLING
When the series debuted on Citytv and Citytv+ last year, it secured 1.1 million overnight viewers, becoming Citytv’s top drama series premiere and its No. 1 original scripted series. Earlier this year the broadcaster, with the encouragement of Lark and global distributor Universal Television, renewed the show for two seasons.
Citytv helped create that initial buzz with a massive advertising campaign that included radio and television spots, playing the show’s distinctive chimes at the Rogers Centre in Toronto before Blue Jays games and an array of other cross-promotions. Globally, Universal Television has sold the series to more than 80 territories worldwide to date, including the U.K., Australia, India, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and regions in Africa. But, behind the scenes, Haskett says it was Cameron’s leadership that led to the show’s overall success.
“She has such a genuine curiosity about people and stories,” she adds. “If someone has a note or a question, she wants to know where the question is coming from so nothing is dismissed, nothing is pushed away.”
FEW COULD TAKE ON THE MONUMENTAL TASK of bringing the Law & Order franchise up north quite like Tassie Cameron.
Erin Haskett, president of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent prodco Lark Productions, says one of the biggest challenges of hiring a showrunner was finding someone who could make the Dick Wolf brand uniquely Canadian while staying true to the show’s success – and its massive show bible. Cameron was one of the first people she thought of.
“She’s one of the original procedural writers in this country,” Haskett tells Playback. “But she has also taken some of those procedurals in a direction that is aspirational and character-driven, and also feels as much Canadian as it does any other part of the world.”
Cameron’s extensive resume includes international hits like Global’s Rookie Blue and Mary Kills People, CTV’s Flashpoint and CBC’s Pretty Hard Cases, but even she had to prove her concept and compete against other potential writers before officially getting the gig. So, she studied the franchise, read the bible and tapped into that part of her brain for a test pilot. She also leaned into Toronto for inspiration while avoiding clichés, like people constantly apologizing or assuming that all Canadians have the same accent.
“It’s creating a puzzle and putting the pieces on the page and on the screen for people to solve with you,” says Cameron. “This is that on steroids. You get more clues, more twists, more suspects, but all the years of doing procedurals and knowing a lot about policing at this point helped me.”
Amy Cameron, who partnered with her sister on their company Cameron Pictures and is an executive producer on the series, recalls Tassie changing the finale in a season of Mary Kills People after someone from the AD team pitched a great idea.
“She’s incredibly open to feedback from all departments,” she says. “I’ve seen her build an entire storyline based on a wonderful location someone found. I’ve seen her take notes from PAs. The openness she exhibits with creative while maintaining that strong vision is what draws people and writers to her.”
Amy says this show in particular was an ambitious task for Tassie, given that it’s the first original international installment in the franchise, with original characters and stories. She had to “follow a certain recipe for this world,” like dedicating 10% of the show to the suspect’s perspective. Characters also don’t go into the courtroom often, and each episode ends with an aria where the detectives lay out their case.
“It’s a challenging piece, because you can’t have your audience too far ahead of your investigators, so there’s a bit of a tricky dance that happens,” says Amy.
Furthermore, all episodes are inspired by real Canadian crimes. Tassie says it’s been a “fascinating intellectual exercise” sussing out which headlines lead to successful episodes and which ones have hidden “booby traps,” like missing kids, serial killers or cases where police are culpable in the problem.
“Some of the most famous Canadian cases come with a lot of baggage,” she says. “There are narratives built around some of the big stories that are hard to put your own stamp on. Or with serial killers, they’re hard to do because it’s quite hard to analyze a psychopath’s criminal intent.”
For both sisters, telling crime stories is in their blood. The daughters of the late, celebrated investigative journalist Stevie Cameron recall their mom’s instincts for chasing a great story, or her excitement of a mystery unfolding.
“She would have been the greatest story engine on the show and would have had so much fun pitching ideas, sending us stories, throwing turns of phrase. This is absolutely the world she would have dabbled in,” says Amy.
“It does feel very full circle,” adds Tassie. “We listened to my mom talk about Canada, about crime, about policing, about justice, about law, about news for our whole lives. You can’t avoid thinking like her and it’s given us both real skills in this show.”
The director reflects on his record-breaking box office streak following the release of 1995.
BY JAMIE CASEMORE
FILM 1995, the Quebec City-born director now has seven films that have broken the $1 million mark in the Quebec box office, a record among Canadian filmmakers.
“I’m grateful for that,” says Trogi in an interview with Playback. ”I never knew that there was a prize around being the most popular but, if I am, why not?”
Produced by Sphere Media following its 2018 acquisition of the initial trilogy’s producer Go Films, 1995 hit theatres in Quebec and New Brunswick on July 31 in a run that lasted until Nov. 14. The film has claimed a box office bounty of $2,967,873, according to its distributor Immina Films.
Each of the films in his tetralogy depict a time in the director’s life, who has been portrayed by Jean-Carl Boucher all four times. The series began in the director’s childhood in 1981, followed by his later teenage years in 1987, his trip to Italy in 1991 and his initial dive into filmmaking for the Canadian reality TV competition La Course destination monde in 1995
The Radio-Canada series sent emerging Quebec filmmakers around the world to make short films. Trogi participated in the 1994-95 season.
The international factor meant that the film had to have an expanded scope compared to the previous films.
“Because this film is about a race around the world, we weren’t going to shoot the ending in the Laurentian,” says producer Marie-Claude Poulin. “It had to have the scope of what he did in those six months … We were able to achieve that by going to Morocco to shoot the Egyptian part and then finish in Nepal.”
According to Poulin, getting funding for the film was fairly easy, with Radio-Canada coming on board after the script was submitted to them in July 2021.
Funding from SODEC and Telefilm Canada was refused with the first submission in January 2022, with Trogi working on the script according to their feedback and resubmitting. Both organizations boarded after the second submission in January 2023, with the Quebecor Fund joining after that.
According to Sphere, Trogi’s track record was a factor in the funding decisions, but the approvals also reflect the quality of the script.
When it comes to the continued financial success of the films, Trogi says he believes one of the aspects is adherence to Quebec French, or Québécois.
“[Changing the way I speak French] would take away the colour that I use to do my narration,” says Trogi. “I don’t want to touch that just to please [French audiences].”
Each of the films in the tetralogy feature narration from Trogi speaking to the audience, much like a comedian on stage, according to Trogi.
Along with the use of Québécois, Trogi says developing a fanbase, although younger than he expected, means respecting the audience.
“I don’t put any message or some kind of moral in my movies. 1987 was a film about my criminal years, I was stealing [radios] from cars. Teenagers love when you don’t try to teach them anything and just be yourself,” says Trogi. “So, I have [fans] much younger than I thought I would have.”
When it comes to potential future plans for the series, Trogi says he believes six films could be a good place to end. And, although he is still mulling over when the next film could take place, 1998 or 1999 are strong contenders.
The duo discuss the process of bringing Talaga’s bestselling book The Knowing to the screen.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
GRIM REALITY OF CANADA’S RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM and the bureaucratic processes that kept it going for more than 150 years are laid bare in The Knowing, a CBC documentary series based on the bestselling book from Anishinaabe journalist and documentarian Tanya Talaga.
The four-part series had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 12, one week after the book shot up to No. 1 on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for hardcover non-fiction. It ran on CBC on Sept. 25, reaching one million viewers in its first three weeks, and has been the top docuseries on CBC Gem since its debut.
For Talaga, bringing The Knowing to the page and the screen meant relying on her co-director, Courtney Montour of the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, whose previous docuseries work includes APTN’s Skindigenous
“Working with Courtney has been life-altering for me,” Talaga tells Playback. “It’s almost like a yin and yang; [when] I’m out there [in front of the camera], she’s the one yelling at me, ‘slow down, let’s think about a scene.’ When we put our two brains together, it’s just beauty.”
The Knowing began as a non-fiction book from Talaga, which follows her journey discovering what happened to her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter, and the subsequent discovery of her maternal family’s connections to residential schools. As her work progressed, she knew she needed to document her experiences in real-time.
“Things were starting to come together and we were realizing what we had in front of us,” says Talaga.
The two first began filming in spring 2022, when Talaga was part of a three-day delegation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis to Rome, including Elders and residential school survivors, to meet with the Pope nearly one year after the discovery of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
At the time, they didn’t have development funding, but they picked up a camera and filmed what they could. “I knew that if we missed it, it would be gone and we’d never get these opportunities again,” says Talaga.
Following the journey to Rome, the financing came into place. CBC came on board as the broadcaster, with funding flowing in from the Indigenous Screen Office, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) and the Rogers Fund. It’s produced under Talaga’s banner Makwa Creative.
In 2023, while the book was coming along, Montour was one of the first to read its chapters. “That’s when we were starting to develop what the visual language of the series could be,” says Montour. “What came across very clearly in the book is we needed to grab [Talaga’s] ties to Albany [River], to the land and to the Ininiw (Cree) language.”
While researching the book, Talaga discovered familial ties to Fort Albany First Nation on Treaty 9 territory through the Carpenters, providing a direct line to her family matriarch.
Part of the CMF funding helped the team film 20% of the documentary in Ininiw, a dialect of Cree, and to create a fully Ininiw version to be released next year. They brought in members of the Fort Albany First Nation to Toronto to record. Talaga says some of the speakers themselves were residential school survivors.
Montour says a critical part of the process in making The Knowing was connecting with the communities they were filming. “It was a lot of community engagement and discussion all along the way through the process,” she says, adding they spoke at length with individuals rather than “just throw a camera in someone’s face.”
In order to deliver the series to CBC on time, Talaga brought in Antica Productions president Stuart Coxe, whom she previously collaborated with on War for the Woods (2023) and Spirit to Soar (2021), as an EP. He looped in supervising producer Geoff Siskind to help handle the production schedule.
“I needed somebody who could run the trains and build the scaffolding to put together a four-part series in a very short period of time,” she says.
The filmmaking process also supported Talaga’s work in the book. In one chapter, she describes a moment during a press scrum with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau where he fails to maintain eye contact with her while answering a question on bringing records on residential schools from Rome to Canada. Viewers can see it for themselves in the first episode of the documentary.
“I was so grateful to have recorded that and that we caught those moments,” says Talaga. “I knew that he couldn’t meet my eyes, but I needed to see it visually. I watched it so many times to make sure that I was dead-on accurate. That is the beauty of documenting all that we did, because I could go back when I was in the writing process and lean on those early days of filming.”
TWO SEASONS IN, SURVIVOR QUÉBEC
HAS BECOME THE NO. 1 SHOW on Bell Media’s French-language network Noovo, thanks to careful programming and promotional strategizing.
The localized version of the legendary franchise has amassed a dedicated fanbase with the help of strategic programming and promotion from Noovo.
BY SABINA WEX
The reality competition series airs five episodes per week, which may be the reason for its success, according to Suzane Landry, VP, Frenchlanguage content development and programming for Bell Media.
“We are the only ones in the world to offer four episodes a week, plus 60 minutes on the weekend,” Landry tells Playback. “We want to create an attachment between the audience and the players.”
The plan worked. A Bell Media spokesperson says Survivor Québec averaged 746,000 viewers per episode for its first season in 2023, and over a million in its second, which ran from March to June this year.
Landry says her team decided to secure the rights for a localized version of Survivor after the success of their other French-language reality shows, such as Big Brother Célébrités and Occupation Double dans l’Ouest. She says they realized the channel offered reality shows about love and celebrities, but few about adventure.
“We thought that it would be very interesting to explore this approach … to a show where you see people do something bigger than themselves,” says Landry.
Currently, there are 50 different versions of Survivor, according to Jane Rimer, SVP, Canada at Banijay Rights, the company that owns the rights to the franchise. When Bell Media came to Rimer to license the format for Quebec audiences, she didn’t see why it wouldn’t be a hit.
“I have to give huge, huge kudos to the Quebec marketplace,” says Rimer. “It’s one of the most incredibly active marketplaces in the format space.”
Landry also credits the success of the show to production company Productions J and their team’s ability to cast a diverse and interesting 20 players for each season. The team wanted to highlight the diversity
Congratulations to Patrice Bélanger, ProductionsJ, Bell Media, Banijay, and the entire creative and promotional team behind SURVIVOR QUÉBEC on its being named Playback’s 2024 French-Language Series of the Year. Noovo and Crave are proud to partner with you on this incredible adventure.
of French Canada, casting from both Quebec and French New Brunswick, as well as look for people of different backgrounds and ages.
Rimer says that the Survivor Québec host, Patrice Bélanger, was a crucial part of the casting process. He’s a wellknown Quebec TV and radio personality, and a huge fan of Survivor, allowing him to facilitate both a culturally unique experience, while still having the necessary knowledge of the format.
Both Landry and Rimer say it was a challenge to keep the show on budget, though they did not disclose the exact figure. But Rimer says: “The global media content production and distribution market is not getting easier, the margins are getting tighter. I think it’s always a challenge to make sure that you can get as much on screen as possible from the budget.”
One way they decreased the show’s budget was by working with other Survivor franchise teams. For both seasons, the 180-person crew combined their resources with the crew of the Swedish version, who were filming in the same Philippines location as the Quebec version. They shared games for challenges, technical equipment and catering installations.
Landry says she believes that the combination of the cast, the games and the five weekly episodes created a culture of “addiction” for the show, especially online. She adds that the Survivor Québec Facebook page has 1.7 million impressions; their TikTok, 3.3 million.
Audiences even created a petition for a third season of Survivor Québec. Lucky for these superfans, season three was already in the works and will air in spring 2025, according to Landry.
When Noovo put out the call for new players for season three, more than 2,000 people applied, she adds. The team had to whittle it down to just 20 people.
“I’m very confident that we will have another huge success,” says Landry.
BY ANDY FRY
ALI ABBASI’S HEADLINE-GENERATING THE APPRENTICE, a deep dive into the formative years of once and future U.S. President Donald Trump, overcame the odds to make it to theatres.
Lauded at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the Canada/Denmark/Ireland copro – produced by Toronto’s Scythia Films, Dublin’s Tailored Films and Copenhagen’s Profile Pictures – attracted the wrath of Trump’s inner circle and almost failed to secure U.S. distribution as a result. But the film’s team persevered with a theatrical launch ahead of the U.S. election on Nov. 5.
There was no shortage of controversy when it came to the Canadian copro exploring the history of one of the U.S.’s most divisive political figures.
Reflecting on the rollercoaster ride, producer Daniel Bekerman of Scythia Films says he is proud that the film is not the hatchet job some anticipated. “It would have been so tempting for a director to imprint their own political values, but that would have cheapened the film,” he says. “Ali’s unflinching eye gives space for audiences to make their own judgments.”
The premise of the film sees a fictional Trump (Sebastian Stan) as the titular apprentice, an inversion of his role selecting young acolytes on NBC’s long-running reality series of the same name. His mentor is lawyer Roy Cohn, portrayed by scene-stealer Jeremy Strong, who instills the young Trump with a win-at-all-costs mentality. While the story pivots on this dynamic, Bekerman says the real power of the film is that “it raises deep questions about all of us: What does winning mean? What price is too much to pay for success?”
Bekerman says about 60% of The Apprentice’s US$16 million budget came from territories outside of North America. The film grossed close to US$12 million at the global box office, and Bekerman says the posttheatrical release, which includes premium VOD rentals and streaming, has continued to derive revenue from multiple territories.
The film’s problems securing distribution in the U.S. are welldocumented. After being feted in Cannes, cease and desist letters started to arrive from Trump’s lawyers. Despite the positive critical response, “so many distributors were put off,” says Bekerman.
At the eleventh hour, Briarcliff Entertainment stepped in and secured 1,500 screens in the U.S. More or less concurrently, Bekerman launched a Kickstarter campaign, which raised in excess of US$100,000 for marketing. “That helped create a relationship with our audience that we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” he says. “That’s interesting for the future of film distribution.”
The film has had a lukewarm outing at the U.S. box office, passing the US$3 million mark in November.
Bekerman is philosophical about that. There was always a chance Trump supporters would stay away, he acknowledges, while proximity to the election meant “some people were just saturated with images of Trump.” Internationally, robust performances in the U.K. and France have pushed the film towards US$8 million (excluding the U.S.).
Canada has also been a bright spot. Andrew Frank, co-president of distributor Mongrel Media, was an early supporter. “It will come off screen at $600,000, which is a strong number,” he says. “And the results on premium VOD were staggering. We hit our target in under a week. Looking ahead, we have Paramount+ as our TV partner.”
Notwithstanding the controversy around the film, Frank says partnering on The Apprentice has been “a phenomenal experience” overall. “We like original, authentic, brave storytelling. I can’t think of a more perfect film to be in our catalogue.”
Tailored Films’ Ruth Treacy endorses this sentiment. Also a fan of Abbasi’s work, she says, “We’ve been taking steps towards brave and edgier filmmaking. We certainly have no plans to shy away from difficult topics like this.”
Treacy says she believes the international copro model, combined with Abbasi’s approach, gave the film “an outsider perspective and perhaps a willingness to take more risks with the material.” Echoing Bekerman, she says one of the most intriguing aspects of the film is that it is possible to empathize with Trump, even if you don’t share his world view: “He had difficulties. It’s possible to relate to the human issues he faced.”
An awards campaign is underway, though whether awards arbiters will prove any braver than U.S. distributors is moot. There isn’t a lot of money to support it, says Bekerman, but “we believe our movie, our actors and everyone else involved is deserving of recognition.”
Whether or not awards flow, Bekerman says he believes The Apprentice will prove a durable addition to the cinematic canon. “We’re about to see the emergence of a new political narrative. It will be pervasive, and a lot of power players in society will gravitate towards it,” he says. “As that narrative takes shape, this movie will provide an independent perspective.”
The Canada and U.K. coproduction stepped into the global limelight in spring, attracting millions of views in its first four weeks.
BY JAMIE CASEMORE
THE CANADA-U.K. COPRODUCTION GEEK
GIRL DEFIED EXPECTATIONS with a massive audience in its international launch on Netflix this year.
The 10 x 30-minutes series, produced by Toronto’s Aircraft Pictures and London’s RubyRock Pictures, takes inspiration from British author Holly Smale’s Geek Girl book series. The show, directed by Ireland’s Declan O’Dwyer, follows an awkward teenager played by English actor Emily Carey as she becomes noticed by the fashion world and picked out as a model. The lead writers on the series are Smale, Jess Ruston, Sameera Steward and Sarah Morgan.
The series dropped on Netflix worldwide, excluding Canada, on May 30 and landed at No. 7 on its global top 10 for English TV series on the week of its release. It later jumped to No. 2 on its second week and only fell out of the top 10 after week four. According to a Netflix engagement report that covers views from January to June 2024, Geek Girl ranked 68 out of roughly 6,800 titles with 102.3 million hours watched and 18.2 million views accrued in its first month on the platform.
“We knew it was based on a very popular book series, so there was definitely a baked-in audience for it already,” Anthony Leo, co-founder and co-president of Aircraft Pictures, tells Playback. “Don’t ask us how it skyrocketed to that level so quickly, that’s still a mystery to us. But we’re very proud of the work we did on it.”
Fellow Aircraft co-founder and co-president Andrew Rosen, who produced Geek Girl along with Leo, says he believes the simultaneous international release on Netflix partially explains the show’s success.
“We do a lot of kids television,” says Rosen. “You’re selling it to different channels around the world to make up that budget. So, it’s very hard to get that mass viewing all at once. This was one of our first shows that was shown day and date and people could hear about it and spread the word.”
In Canada, the series is exclusively available to stream on multichannel service StackTV on May 30, and was broadcast on Corusowned channel YTV in September. According to Corus, Geek Girl was
the No. 1 first-streamed kids program and a top five first-streamed show on StackTV during the first seven days on the platform. On Nov. 30, the series debuted on Netflix in Canada as well. Netflix’s exclusivity window ends in 2026, said a Corus spokesperson, with second window rights handled by Nelvana. Corus did not disclose its distribution strategy for 2026.
Another important aspect of the series is its portrayal of neurodiversity. After writing the book, Smale was diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia and retroactively realized that she had written her experiences as a person with those conditions into the book’s main character.
This meant that the production had to find a way to portray neurodiversity in a responsible and positive way, which began with making sure the main character was played by a neurodiverse actor.
“That was a really delicate thing to manage properly,” says Zoë Rocha, founder of RubyRock Pictures and creative producer on Geek Girl. “It was really important that we found the right person to embody the character.”
Rocha says that Carey, who is neurodivergent, fit the role perfectly. For the other roles, Rocha says that for any neurodiverse-coded characters it was important that a neurodiverse actor portrayed them.
The series was developed by Waterside Studios, Corus’s former youth scripted division, headed by executive producer Jeff Norton, in collaboration with Nelvana. Norton left Corus in February as part of a restructuring of the broadcaster’s content leadership team.
Norton, who brought the IP to Corus and Netflix, initially discovered the book in 2013 when touring with his novel MetaWars. Norton later optioned the book, but was unable to find a buyer until Corus and Netflix showed interest in the project.
Norton looked to Rocha’s RubyRock Pictures to develop the series and lead the show creatively with Waterside, which served as the studio.
“One of the things [the series] needed to have was the right writer and the right voice,” says Rocha. “We worked really closely with Holly and Jeff to find who those writers would be.”
Rocha says they brought Ruston on board to co-create the series with Smale with the two working on a script that was quickly greenlit. Later, Aircraft Pictures was brought on as the Canadian partner for the U.K. treaty coproduction.
The series was partially filmed in Ottawa, and Leo and Rosen were excited that the city got to portray itself.
“We got a big kick out of that,” says Leo. “Being able to showcase so many Canadian symbols and depict it as a premium location.”
“The crew was thrilled because normally they don’t shoot Ottawa as Ottawa,” adds Rosen. “There was a huge amount of pride in the crew and the local cast.”
Aircraft Pictures had been acquired by Corus in 2022, but in August, Leo and Rosen entered a binding agreement to repurchase Aircraft’s shares from the company as part of an ongoing push from Corus to raise capital to pay down its $1 billion debt.
“I’d like to think that we will work with them again in the future,” says Leo. “The relationships we built will persevere once [Corus] gets through this tough spot, but we would, in a heartbeat, work with them again.”
Outgoing
CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait
reflects on her time at the head of the pubcaster, the state of the industry and what she’ll be doing next.
BY KELLY TOWNSEND
CATHERINE TAIT HAS LEFT HER MARK IN CANADIAN BROADCAST HISTORY as the first woman to lead CBC/Radio-Canada, but she says she wasn’t interested in the job for the sake of legacy.
“You do it because of service and love for public broadcasting,” she tells Playback in an interview in her office at the pubcaster’s Toronto headquarters, ahead of the end of her tenure on Jan. 2, 2025.
Joining on July 3, 2018, Tait soon expanded her reach globally, becoming chair of the Global Task Force for public media in 2019. She says it was “a privilege to be able to take CBC/Radio-Canada to the world stage.”
She also oversaw an “an enormous culture change” after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 to ensure CBC/Radio-Canada reflected all Canadians, which she says is reflected in shows like Sort Of (Sphere Media) and Paid in Full: The Battle for Black Music (Supercollider, Green
Door Pictures, Pink Towel) and its hiring efforts. In its 2023-24 annual report, the public broadcaster reported that 62% of external hires were from Indigenous and/ or racialized communities or persons with a disability, exceeding its target of 41%.
It hasn’t all been rosy. Tait has faced criticism from the public and government officials alike, appearing multiple times to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage over CBC/Radio-Canada’s planned cuts for 2024-25 to make up for a projected $125-million deficit. Not to mention the Conservative Party’s ongoing campaign to defund CBC. But, despite it all, she says she’s optimistic, looking toward working with her successor – TV5 president and CEO Marie-Philippe Bouchard – on the transition.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Playback: You’ve been such a global figure when it comes to advocacy for public media. What do you think are some of your biggest achievements?
Catherine Tait: Early on in my tenure I realized the huge challenge that we all face in public media is the issue of the globalization of the media business in general. Whether it’s entertainment or news and information, social media, all of it is global now, and we as domestic players are really David facing Goliath. That led me to this idea of, ‘We have to collaborate with other like-minded organizations and public broadcasters around the world.’
Whether it was the BBC or ABC in Australia or France Télévisions in Paris, the more I talked to people, the better I understood that we were all facing the same issues: financial pressures, often hostile political environments and coping with how consumers and our audiences have changed their consumption patterns.
We were able to form some important partnerships. Stuff the British Stole (Cream Productions, Wooden Horse WildBear Entertainment), for example, that show came out of a podcast. Paid in Full, the BBC/CBC coproduction, came out of this history of collaboration that we’ve had with the organization.
You mentioned hostile political environments. How do you feel the average politician, across all parties, understands the value and the need for CBC/Radio-Canada?
I actually think that the conversation around CBC/RadioCanada is getting better. The more it became an emotional issue, the more people started thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I care about CBC, I care about Radio-Canada,’ and we’ve seen that in the narrative over the last year.
I’m heartened by how many people over these past six years of my tenure are deeply attached to CBC and the legacy of CBC and of Radio-Canada in their communities. Whether it’s loving a show or loving one of our hosts, or the very fact that they turn to CBC or Radio-Canada in times of need. That connection is what ultimately will win the day for CBC/Radio-Canada. So, despite hostility, I’m very optimistic.
According to recent data from CBC, about 79% of Canadians want to see CBC/RadioCanada in the future and 73% consider it a trusted news source.
That, by the way, is the average, so there are pockets of people who do not feel that way and we need to pay attention to that. We can’t ignore 25% of the population. That’s a point of urgency, in my opinion.
You’ve previously said that one of the things you’d wished you had done was push that sense of urgency. Do you see your successor, Marie-Philippe Bouchard, taking on that responsibility?
Absolutely. The good news is this is a person who has 28 years of experience working at Radio-Canada. She comes in with an enormous advantage of knowing the place in the way that I certainly didn’t [when I started] because I was a producer and I only saw it from the outside looking in. She is going to be very well-positioned to continue the conversations and to defend the value of public broadcasting across the country.
Some of the cuts announced last year included $25 million for travel and sponsorships and $40 million in programming costs. After the government provided $42 million to help stabilize the budget, how much of those planned cuts came to fruition?
At the end of the day we cut 130 people and we eliminated about 200 vacant positions. It was very hard, but it was nowhere near the 800 that we thought we were going to have to do.
I started in this job in 2018 and I’ve been talking about the structural deficit at CBC/Radio-Canada. This was the first time that we actually had to face a cut because we were able to fill the gaps with one-time funds we received. We were in the pandemic, so we were able to quite drastically reduce costs. Nobody was travelling, people were working from home and weren’t going to conferences or having workshops. Everything kind of shrunk. Coming out of the pandemic, like all businesses, we got hit with huge inflation and rising production costs. That’s when we realized we were going to hit the wall.
In terms of the direct impact to independent producers, did you see a reduction in the volume of commissions or production budgets? We had to put a hold on a lot of programming decisions, not just at CBC, but also at Radio-Canada. One of the great things about CBC, having had a background as a comedy producer, is that CBC could give more time to shows to find their legs because you don’t necessarily hit it out of the park in the first season. For those producers who started watching Schitt’s Creek at the beginning and right the way through, you see the evolution of a show and how magic happens over time.
So we did have to cancel some shows and we had to pull back from our big specials, and that’s going to have an impact at the end of the day. I’m very hopeful in the next budget, and coming out of the [Heritage] Minister’s mandate review, that there will be some willingness to address the longer-term financial stability of CBC/RadioCanada. But that’s out of my hands.
When the end of your term was announced, were there any goals or priorities that you set for yourself before finishing out your tenure?
And did you achieve them?
The biggest for me was delivering the National Indigenous Strategy in February and the creation of an Indigenous Office that is funded and reaffirming the central role that the public broadcaster has to play in our journey to truth and reconciliation.
We’re already seeing some of the great initiatives coming out of that. For example, we held the Public Broadcasters International Conference in Ottawa in October. For the first time ever, we dedicated a day to how public media serve Indigenous audiences around the world, not just in Canada. We had the Sámi there, the Māori, the Aboriginal people of Australia talking about language, archives and the right to control your intellectual property as an Indigenous creator.
It was fantastic to have that conversation on a global scale rather than just trying to solve all the problems by ourselves. The Māori have done amazing work in language preservation, as an example.
You’ve had a front seat to the rollercoaster that has been the evolution of the broadcasting sector since 2018. Where do you see things going in 2025?
Well, 2025 is probably more of the same. I would say the real question is in 2035. Think about it, 10 or 15 years ago there was no Facebook, no TikTok, no Instagram, and look how those platforms define our days. So, in the next 10 years, I have to assume that the nerds are going to continue doing what they do creatively, coming up with new platforms and new ways for us to connect.
For CBC/Radio-Canada, there’s a gravitational pull to the legacy assets. [CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO] Mark Thompson has said, ‘How do you invent the future if you’re spending 90% of your time worrying and managing the past?’
It’s not to say television and radio aren’t critical, they still are, but even from 2018 to today, the percentage of people who are watching linear television in the English market has switched over with the number of people that used to be digital-only. That’s a trend that isn’t going to stop. The reality is if you want to be relevant in the future, you have to pay attention to that younger, more diverse group that is more interested in content brands than in delivery brands. Like, does it matter that Schitt’s Creek came from CBC or Netflix? That’s challenging for the future of our industry.
A good, long holiday. [laughs]
People always ask, ‘Will you go back into producing?’ For the right story, sure thing. But I think the thing that I have learned here that was really a gift was that we don’t have to accept that social media and the internet are evil and are hostile to women, toxic, racist and antisemitic. We don’t have to accept that.
I’d like to play a role in advocating for a safer, better online experience. It comes out of the work we did in online harms. We know women and women of colour, doesn’t matter if you’re a public figure or if you’re a journalist, are disproportionately targeted. I feel like I need to look that one in the face a little bit and try to see if I can’t help.
I would just say for the independent producers who read Playback: These feel like dark days. The industry is in crisis, there is no doubt about it. More than ever it matters to have stories originated from Canada owned by Canadian creators, controlled by Canadian producers.
I’ve spent my entire career in this business and I think maybe I lived the golden years and I feel very, very concerned about this next generation of producers who may not have the same advantages. It’s really important that Canadians get a Canadian point of view on what’s going on in the world and what’s going on here at home. We can’t give that away to global companies.
Guy Maddin’s visionary filmography continues to evolve and attract top-tier talent.
BY MARK DILLON
A DYING RUSSIAN STRANGLING A BOLSHEVIK INTRUDER WITH HIS OWN INTESTINES. A state scientist transforming into cinema itself in the Earth’s core. A baroness with transparent prosthetic legs filled with beer. A giant mummified brain nestled in the middle of a German forest.
These are but a few of the weird, indelible images Winnipeg wizard Guy Maddin has contributed to Canadian cinema. They can be found, respectively, in his films Archangel (1990), The Heart of the World (2000), The Saddest Music in the World (2003), and his latest, Rumours
The prolific director has made a career of making miracles out of very little, but after 36 years of helming features for aesthetes tuned into silent and early-sound films, Maddin has taken his biggest swing at courting the mainstream with Rumours, co-directed with brothers Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, his all-round collaborators for the past decade.
The horror-comedy follows G7 leaders who assemble to craft a response to an unnamed global crisis, only to find themselves mysteriously cut off from outside contact in a German wetland. The story is told in straightforward narrative fashion and has a contemporary look –shot digitally in colour – unlike his earlier odes to 1920s cinema on 16mm and Super 8 film.
Does this mark the dawn of a new era for the 68-year-old art house favourite and his younger partners?
“We’ll take it project by project,” says Maddin, speaking with Playback at the office of Canadian distributor Elevation Pictures during the frenzied Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where Rumours had its North American premiere.
If you were to mix a 1,000-year-old bottle of Japanese whisky with a can of Dr Pepper and set it on fire, that might just be Guy. No filmmaker past, present, and I suspect future, comes close to his uniqueness and cinematic influence.
– Cate Blanchett
and I suspect future, comes close to his uniqueness and cinematic influence.
“Working and conversing with Guy is like being on a marshmallow fever dream rollercoaster that moves across time and space. It’s thrilling, and unforgettable. The transition from conversation to the process of filmmaking is utterly seamless. I admire and adore him in equal measure.”
“I’d like to always have an extreme stylistic imprint. That just feels good. I’m a big fan of the filmmakers who wield strong style, whether it was Josef von Sternberg in the old days, or Harmony Korine now,” he says.
Even Rumours’ conventional style is influenced by one of his classic film heroes, Spanish surrealist master Luis Buñuel.
“I was emboldened by his late films, especially The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [1972], which has a flatly lit look and no flashy shots or camera moves,” he notes. “The weirdness is in the content.”
He estimates the budget of Rumours – a copro involving Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures, Germany’s Maze Pictures and the U.S.’s Square Pegs – was US$5 million, his highest to date. That was enough to land Academy Award-winning stars Cate Blanchett, who plays a German chancellor reminiscent of Angela Merkel, and Alicia Vikander, as the European Commission president and past love of fictional Canadian Prime Minister Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis).
Blanchett, asked to characterize Maddin, tells Playback in a statement, “If you were to mix a 1,000-year-old bottle of Japanese whisky with a can of Dr Pepper and set it on fire, that might just be Guy. No filmmaker past, present,
Throughout his career, Maddin has won over big-name performers, particularly actresses, to his passion projects, including Isabella Rossellini in The Saddest Music in the World and Keyhole (2011), the late Shelley Duvall in Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997) and Charlotte Rampling and Geraldine Chaplin in The Forbidden Room (2015).
On attracting stars of this calibre, Maddin says, “I didn’t think they even knew of my existence. I’m well known in nooks and crannies of the biz, but I’m comfortable with no one knowing who I am. Working with stars is fun. It’s just a matter of getting to know people and how they like to work. It’s something I’m still learning. It feels good to be 68 and still learning.”
Quebec star Dupuis is a repeat collaborator, having previously appeared in The Forbidden Room, a hyperstylized fantasy inspired by one of Madden’s top obsessions – lost films from cinema’s early days. (It features an even bigger giant brain.) The Toronto Film Critics Association named it best Canadian film of the year in 2016.
“Guy gave me my three best days of shooting on The Forbidden Room, where the mountains were made of paper-mâché and the trees were moving around me while I was walking on the spot,” says Dupuis. “Guy was dancing with the camera and directing us live. He is an artist in the most noble sense of the word; he takes you where you have never been.”
Maddin walked alongside Blanchett and Dupuis on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet in May for Rumours’ world premiere, which he describes as next-level.
“That was the happiest night of my life,” he says. “I took my daughter and two granddaughters, who had no idea what I did for a living. They were swept up in the glitz and glamour and all the attention their grandfather got. We got a six-minute standing ovation.”
Looking to build on that momentum, U.S. distributor Bleecker Street put some muscle behind its promotional activities, which included a cover ad in The Hollywood Reporter during TIFF. According to Bleecker Street, the movie opened in 630 North American theatres on Oct. 18 and has taken in US$571,909. While not yet finding a huge audience, it has impressed critics, earning an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Maddin’s work has always been aimed at a cerebral crowd. But his initial post-secondary education was not in the arts; he attended the University of Winnipeg and got a degree in economics. A friend persuaded him to sneak into his University of Manitoba film classes and a new passion was born.
“That was 1980, which I count as the year I woke up and found pleasure in what I was studying and what I wanted to do,” he recalls.
He made connections in the local film scene and in 1985 made the short The Dead Father, in which passing away doesn’t stop a dad from meddling in his son’s life. It played at TIFF and allowed Maddin to expand his network. He then made his first feature, Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988), a love triangle fairy tale touching on smallpox, necrophilia and puppet shows.
Shot in black and white in a “part-talkie” aesthetic, it earned a cult following, reportedly turned a profit, and garnered Maddin a Genie nomination for screenwriting. He was off to the races, and followed up in this vein with Archangel and Careful (1992), which tells its mountain village sex drama in an old Technicolor hue.
At this point Maddin considered becoming a Hollywood hired gun, visiting Tinseltown on the invitation of executive Claudia Lewis.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do next,” he recalls. “Claudia arranged for me to meet with some creatives, as well as Madonna’s music video house and a bunch of other companies. But I was a fish out of water. I only knew dead movie stars, not living ones. I just wanted to go home.”
One of his most notable works is The Heart of the World, commissioned by TIFF for its Preludes shortfilm series.
A delirious stylistic blend of Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and Sergei Eisenstein, the six-minute silent centres on a female scientist (Leslie Bais) loved by two brothers (Caelum Vatnsdal, Shaun Balbar) and an evil capitalist (Greg Klymkiw, who has also produced for Maddin). She learns the Earth is due for heart failure and warns a panicked populace.
The film achieved epic scope thanks to fast cutting and the contributions of the hardworking Winnipeg
craftspeople who have been Maddin’s secret weapon. It won a Genie and was named 2000’s best experimental film by the National Society of Film Critics, who had granted the same award to Archangel in 1991.
Jody Shapiro was a producer on the film as well as on The Saddest Music in the World and My Winnipeg (2007), Maddin’s self-described “docu-fantasia” about his relationship to his hometown, which won best Canadian feature at TIFF.
“Guy is a rare collaborator, combining humour, a wild imagination steeped in cinematic history, and a remarkable ability to adapt to any situation, which makes him a joy to support,” says Shapiro. “We’ve had plenty of adventures, and if I’ve learned anything from them, it’s that there’s nothing a little Vaseline on the lens, a few jump cuts and a solid nap couldn’t solve.”
Maddin has received numerous other honours and prizes, including an International Emmy and Gemini Award for Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002), an eye-popping silent collaboration with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He was appointed to the Order of Manitoba in 2009 and the Order of Canada in 2012.
Experimental film, however, is not the road to riches, and over the years Maddin has made ends meet teaching at institutions including Harvard, the University of Toronto and the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
“I like teaching, but it takes up a lot of psychic space and destroys my momentum as a filmmaker,” he says. “When I’m in another city, it makes collaborating with my Winnipeg-bound partners difficult.”
He is past retirement age but has no plans to retire while the creative wheels keep turning. He and the Johnson brothers are currently planning a project steeped in Canadian television history.
“It’s not another old-timey movie,” he says selfmockingly, “but it’s pretty television-obsessed. It could be a movie, but I think a TV-obsessed show should be a TV show.”
Playback’s Canadian Film and 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.
Some more hopeful:
Some were pragmatic:
be lean when times are mean
While others leaned on humour:
We asked a few Canadian industry members what they predict the next “Survive ‘til ‘25” will be... Do you have one to share?
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