Playback Fall 2023

PLUGGING

IN: HOW USERS AND CRITICS

THINK AI WILL IMPACT THE SCREEN SECTOR

+ How indies are leveraging the festival circuit

TIFF topper Cameron Bailey enters the Hall of Fame

Behind the scenes since the beginning cmpa.ca

We’ve seen a lot in our 75-year history. The one constant? Change. Through it all, the CMPA has been there, supporting Canada’s independent media producers.

AI arrives

The futuristic tech is already in use, despite worries about its impact

Striking out

Indie film experts weigh in on the disrupted fall film market Out to sea Meeting

Unscripted spotlight

Doc producers gear up for high-profile TIFF debuts

William F. White @ 60

Big changes are ahead for the company as it celebrates its 60th year

Hall of Fame: Cameron Bailey

Our latest inductee reflects on some unusual years spent at the helm of TIFF Festival rewind

Canada’s top execs remember their most memorable TIFF discoveries

Atom Egoyan makes his 18th world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival with his latest film Seven Veils, starring Amanda Seyfried (Chloe).

Photo: Amanda Matlovich

Here we go again

NO MATTER HOW LONG I’VE BEEN OUT OF SCHOOL, SEPTEMBER ALWAYS FEELS SIMULTANEOUSLY OPTIMISTIC AND OMINOUS. (Kind of like a pumpkin spice themed New Year’s Eve.) Does this fall feel different to you? It does to me. Everything seems more heady. There is seismic shifting within the Canadian film and TV sector – from Hollywood giants like Lionsgate recently stepping in to take over eOne, to ongoing (...hopeful, yet fraught...) uncertainty about how and when Bill C-11 will finally shake out and create a little stability and predictability.

And then there’s the knock-on effect of the dual strikes in Hollywood, the M&A of the biggest entertainment brands in the world, and the continued morphing of the streaming business… to name just a few uber-impactful things going on. It feels like the market, regulation, technology and labour forces are all intent on simultaneously upending everything we know to be true about this industry.

Cue the ominous music. Enter AI. The debate over exactly how artificial intelligence should be used/not used, reviled/welcomed in film and TV has only just begun. Our cover story this month dives right in. Plus, this issue we also honour two icons of the Canadian industry: Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) guiding light, Cameron Bailey, who is being inducted into the Playback Canadian Film and TV Hall of Fame, and William F. White International (WFW), an institution celebrating 60 years in the business – one that’s behind the scenes on virtually every production of note that takes place in this country.

Bailey and TIFF are a model of visionary leadership. Being in the live events business in recent years has not been for the faint of heart (I know of what I speak…) and having come brilliantly through the thick of the pandemic with last year’s festival to only be whammied by the double writer/actor strikes this year is testing Toronto’s lauded film fest once again. Resilience indeed. We have no doubt that under Bailey’s guidance, a glittering TIFF will thrive and continue to innovate.

And WFW – now folded into the Sunbelt Rentals dynasty – a Canadian success story if ever there was one. Though currently being tested by the ongoing labour disruptions south of the border, WFW’s contributions to the Canadian film and television industry continue to go beyond equipment rentals, supporting education and training opportunities for young filmmakers and crew members, as well as various organizations and festivals. Congratulations to the indomitable Paul Bronfman and team. Sixty looks good on you.

Finally, we’re looking forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming Playback Film Summit (Oct. 24 and 25), a virtual event that will bring us together once again to debate and meet, celebrate and explore the present and future of independent film in Canada. Our program team is hard at work creating an inspiring and exclusive schedule of events. Reach out to us if you’d like to be involved.

So, here’s to the September issue, to meetings and festivals, to boots and sweaters, to travel and creativity, and to working on figuring out the way forward. I’m going in with optimism. Happy New Year, everyone.

Jenn Kuzmyk VP, Publisher - Playback Executive Director, Banff World Media Festival

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

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BY TAIMUR SIKANDER MIRZA

A TOUGH PRESALE MARKET IN THE U.S. BECAME THE CATALYST for a new funding model to bring writer-director-producer Marie Clements’ ambitious hybrid limited series/feature film Bones of Crows to life.

Breaking the mold Sing, Little Bird

The Indigenous-led series tells the story of the multi-generational effect of residential schools in Canada. It was intended to be a large-scale dramatic series when it was first put into development by CBC in 2019. The project was greenlit in 2020 based on a pilot and second episode script by Clements, who linked up with Screen Siren Pictures in Vancouver to further develop the series and secure financing, eventually landing on a 5 x 60-minute episode order.

The goal was to make a high quality series “that would reach the world,” Screen Siren founder Trish Dolman tells Playback. “So we had aspirations in terms of the budgets.”

The financing phase started in late 2020, with CBC as the leading partner alongside the Canada Media Fund and Societé Radio-Canada, with APTN coming on board as broadcast partners licensing French and Cree versions. Other funders included the Indigenous Screen Office, the Independent Production Fund, the Shaw Rocket Fund, the Bell Fund, the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the BC Arts Council.

But the project needed international partners to achieve their aspirations of creating a series with the quality of a premium cable drama. “The U.S. was not really pre-buying within the thick of COVID... so we couldn’t presell it internationally,” says Dolman, adding that even though the script received a lot of positive feedback, “people felt the subject matter was challenging or too Canadian.”

In early 2021, CBC floated the idea of doing a concurrent series and film format for the project to be eligible for Telefilm Canada funding, and the hybrid model was born. “Telefilm loved the [feature] script,” says Dolman. The funder became a leading equity investor and Creative BC completed the financing, while Elevation Pictures joined as the film’s distributor in Canada. About 20% of the project’s overall budget, which was not disclosed, went to the creation of the feature film, while the remaining 80% was directed to the limited series.

Trish Williams, executive director of scripted content at CBC, says one challenge of the model is building audience awareness that the film and series “are different and that there’s a great extended series with additional storylines.” The other is that “with the feature film model, there is a windowing period where it goes theatrical and it goes transactional” and there is a wait.

But she’s optimistic. “Sometimes that’s great, because it builds awareness and buzz, as we’re seeing with Bones of Crows.”

BY KELLY TOWNSEND

A MORE THAN 50-YEAR-OLD SONG FROM A CANADIAN MUSIC ICON HELPED GIVE LITTLE BIRD ITS VOICE.

Oscar-winning Cree artist Buffy Sainte-Marie recorded a 1.5 minute reimagining of her 1967 song “Hey, Little Bird” for the limited series’ title sequence, which series co-creator and executive producer Jennifer Podemski tells Playback was initially never supposed to exist.

“I was building a Little Bird inspiration playlist [while in pre-production]... and I came across this song by Buffy,” says Podemski. “It was such a weird-sounding song and I thought that it really fit the tone of [the series], the very offbeat kind of uncomfortable vibe that [the main character] Esther has.”

Podemski says she determined that the series needed an emotional anchor to ground its story, about an adopted Indigenous woman searching for her biological family, and it fit the bill. So she reached out to Sainte-Marie and sent her some scripts.

“She read everything,” says Podemski. “She got back to me, she’s like, ‘I love this. I want to be a part of it – but I don’t like the song.’”

It turned out that while Sainte-Marie wrote the words to the original, she wasn’t a fan of the arrangement. The two decided to reimagine the song for Little Bird, holding brainstorming sessions over Zoom before Sainte-Marie recorded it from Hawaii.

“She sent me the first version and I listened to it a hundred times and bawled my eyes out every time,” says Podemski, explaining that the song is meant to represent Esther’s emotional journey. “There’s so many layers and so many elements that resonate.”

Podemski pitched the concept to the producing teams of Rezolution Pictures and OP Little Bird, as well as network executives at Crave and APTN lumi, who she says were on board and helped “squeeze money from every crevice” in the budget to bring it to life.

As for whether a full-length version will be released? Don’t hold your breath. Podemski says the reimagined number only exists in its 1.5 minute form. However, she adds that producers are currently in talks to release a Little Bird soundtrack, which would feature the opening song.

The executives and producers behind residential school drama Bones of Crows had to think outside the box to complete financing for the large-scale project.

How music legend Buffy Sainte-Marie lent her voice to Crave and APTN lumi’s emotional limited series.

Above: Little Bird landed on Crave and APTN lumi on May 26.

Right: Buffy Sainte-Marie recorded Little Bird’s opening from Hawaii. Photos courtesy of Bell Media

From left to right: Sierra McRae, Michelle Thrush and Summer Testawich star in Marie Clements’ Bone of Crows

Photo: Farah Nosh

Going overboard

PLANES, TRAINS AND – FERRY BOATS?

Shaftesbury’s crime procedural Departure ventured out to sea for its third season, following a team of investigators as they uncover why a ferry sank off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The 6 x 60-minute season, which premiered on Global on Aug. 7, was produced by Toronto-based Shaftesbury and St. John’s Pope Productions and filmed over 39 days in 2021.

Filming the season’s intense ferry sequences took place across two provinces and three different locations, all done largely using practical effects, series director T.J. Scott tells Playback

BY KELLY TOWNSEND

It took roughly seven days of filming to complete the sequences, both on land and on the water. Three of those days were night shoots on a real ferry off the coast of Petty Harbour, which served as a double for Harbour Cove.

Series producer Patrick Cassavetti says production had some difficulty sourcing a ferry, and once they found one they were limited to three night shoots. “That’s not really enough, but I had a skilled director who knew what he was doing, a really good physical effects team, and we made sure that they had plenty of prep time to get it all rigged and ready before it got dark,” he says.

The storm sequences were shot using practical effects as well, with VFX used sparingly to enhance the storm or water effects. Scarborough, Ont.-based manufacturer Performance Solutions built a miniature

that was 1/10th the size of the actual ferry, coming to approximately 22 feet long.

The miniature was shipped to N.L., where production was able to film exterior storm sequences over two days at a St. John’s wave tank facility used to test how actual boats fare in bad weather. “They were able to duplicate the weather conditions really well, even thunder and lightning within this little wave tank,” says Scott, noting that the four-foot waves created in the tank translated to 40-foot waves onscreen thanks to the scale of the miniature.

The build cost approximately $120,000 to construct, and the total cost of filming with the miniature came to roughly $300,000, says Cassavetti. “But by comparison with a Hollywood approach that’s still cheap,” he adds.

The interior was a little more tricky. Scott says those sequences were shot on two different nights back in Ontario on a gimbal in the backlot of Shaftesbury’s Etobicoke studio. “Each one of those [sequences] are super complex, so we took a few days off in between each to mount new sections of the boat,” says Scott, who estimates that they used hundreds of gallons of water from Lake Ontario per night.

Cassavetti says the overall cost of the ferry sequences came to about $800,000, spread out over a few episodes. The total cost of shooting the season was $3.8 million per episode, he says.

“It was a huge challenge, because they always say, ‘never film on water… It’s slow, it’s arduous, it’s difficult to do,’” says Scott. “For me, that was the fun of it.”

How the Departure team pulled off filming an on-screen boat disaster without a Titanic-sized budget.

The internal sequences for Departure were shot over two nights on a gimbal in the backlot of Shaftesbury’s Etobicoke studio.

Photo by T.J. Scott/Shaftesbury

Unleash your inner turtle

Thinking about using characters in your social promo? Take a page from Paramount Pictures and Snapchat. They used an AR

Lens to promote Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Built with Snap AR’s 3D Body Tracking technology, the lens transformed users into any of the four turtle brothers –each with their own height, build, accessories and catchphrases. Unfortunately, pizza was not included.

Crazy / Brilliant

New adventures in audience (and ROI) building

BY BRENDAN CHRISTIE

Remember video stores?

Now that we can see people in real life again, brands are getting creative!

Arizona Hard tapped into Millennials’ ’90s nostalgia in a recent campaign. The Molson Coors RTD brand opened a speakeasy pop-up themed like a video store in Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood, featuring handcrafted cocktails, ’90s film classics and arcade games. All proceeds were donated to Women in Film & Television Toronto.

DIY festival buzz!

Sure, you could wait for a big festival debut. Or you could just do it yourself. Following its debut at SXSW 2023, the feature doc 299 Queen Street West, covering the history of Canada’s music video broadcast pioneer MuchMusic, will embark on a 13-city “The MuchMusic Experience” tour starting early September. The screenings will be followed by an Intimate & Interactive Q&A with iconic MuchMusic VJs and the film’s director, Sean Menard.

Quebec gets cooking

Quebec will soon have its very own Master Chef! French-language culinary competition

MasterChef Quebec has been commissioned by TVA and will be produced by Pixcom in collaboration with Quebecor Content – with brand integrations as a major ingredient. Like the global format, it will see cooking enthusiasts go head-to-head, serving up dishes for yet-tobe-announced judges. The winner receives $50,000 and the MasterChef trophy.

Netflix expands gaming access

In an effort to get more subscribers to play its streamable video games, Netflix is working on expanding its library to new devices, including TVs and computers. Limited beta tests for the streamer’s updated cloud gaming services have rolled to subscribers in Canada and the U.K. The first wave will focus on compatible TVs, later expanding to Windows and iOS-based computers.

Oh Geez, less than 90 minutes from the Toronto and Hamilton Area. Not far for filmin’. Darn tootin’.

BY SABINA WEX

Seven Veils

ATOM EGOYAN’S 18TH WORLD PREMIERE AT THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (TIFF) ALMOST DIDN’T HAPPEN.

In Seven Veils, Egoyan reconnects with actor Amanda Seyfried (Chloe), who portrays a theatre director (Jeanine) staging her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. But through that work she is confronted with dark memories and trauma from her past.

Egoyan has a long connection to the opera thanks to Niv Fichman, founder of Toronto-based prodco Rhombus Media. Fichman was on the Canadian Opera Company (COC) board in the ’90s and recommended that Egoyan direct the 1996 version of Salome. Egoyan returned to direct another version of the opera for the COC in 2023 – which is when he got the idea for a modern retelling via Seven Veils.

“There are many issues I was dealing with in terms of remounting this, and this character began to emerge,” Egoyan tells Playback. “Jeanine, who was this person? It really felt as though I needed to address all these issues [she was facing] at a personal level – what it meant to remount something that was so controversial and triggering.”

When Egoyan finished writing the early draft of Seven Veils, he immediately called Fichman. Rhombus, then Seyfried, then Telefilm came on board by late 2022. (Ontario Creates arrived in 2023.) The only problem was that the team needed $3 million more for the film’s $9 million budget – and they needed it by Jan. 3.

Why the tight deadline? The team couldn’t afford to recreate Salome from scratch, but they had a production partnership in place with the COC which allowed them access to the set, cast and orchestra already in town. They just needed to film everything before the opera wrapped at the end of February.

Fichman approached several sales agents and financiers about Seven Veils, but they couldn’t commit within the short time frame. On Dec. 31, 2022, Fichman asked L.A.-based XYZ Films partner Nate Bolotin if he wanted to form a financing and sales partnership. And could he get an answer by Jan. 2?

“‘This is really a great opportunity. We can’t pass it up and you guys really need us right now,’” Fichman recalls Bolotin saying to him. “‘We’re going to do this and we’re going to make this work.’”

Fichman wouldn’t disclose the amount XYZ pitched in for sales advances and financing, but with XYZ – and Fichman and Egoyan both deferring a “significant” amount of their fees – Fichman says they secured their budget in time.

With such a tight timeline, there was no time to solicit presales, but the show will go on. On Sept. 8, Seven Veils will have a special premiere at TIFF within the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts –where it was filmed. Egoyan and Fichman both hope that this will make it stand out for sales.

Seven Veils reunites director Atom Egoyan with star Amanda Seyfried, who previously appeared in his 2009 thriller Chloe

Photo: Amanda Matlovich

Despite a helping hand from the Canadian Opera Company, Atom Egoyan’s latest TIFF premiere was nearly a casualty of a too-tight calendar.

TIFF CASE STUDY

Backspot

VAULTING A QUEER-LED FILM ABOUT THE WORLD OF COMPETITIVE CHEERLEADING INTO THE SPOTLIGHT at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) required years of work and a dash of star power.

Toronto filmmaker D.W. Waterson and Backspot star and producer Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs began developing the film in 2017 under their banner Night is Y. A year later CBC was attached and, in 2019, Prospero Pictures came on board. (Full producer credits go to Waterson, Jacobs, Alona Metzer and Prospero’s Martin Katz.)

But Waterson’s feature directorial debut only managed to secure funding when Canadian actor Elliot Page boarded the film as an executive producer under his U.S. prodco Pageboy Productions. Jacobs had brought up the project in a meeting with Page in 2021 where they were discussing modern queer cinema. Page asked for the script and quickly expressed interest in Pageboy getting involved. Bell Media’s Crave came on board in 2022.

“Of course, when you have someone like Elliot come on board and say ‘yes’ to your project, the grant process becomes a hell of a lot easier,” Waterson tells Playback. “So it was after that point that doors started to open. And it was only a year ago that we got funding.” Metzer joined the project once the funding was secured.

Backspot was one of 21 films that received a shared total of $12.8 million through Telefilm’s Production Program fund in 2022, with Ontario Creates and Shaw Rocket Fund also coming on board. It was made on a “low budget,” says the filmmaking team. The production process on the queer cheerleading drama, which wrapped principal photography in March, has been “fast and furious,” Waterson says, ahead of the film’s world bow as part of TIFF’s Discovery programme.

Waterson wanted to make a film with a more serious “blood, sweat and tears” approach to storytelling – a film that shows the high-flying stunts, the injuries and concussions, and the grit of the athletes because “the cheerleading films that we see usually come through the POV of a male director. But also, because they’re just very fluffy.”

Waterson, along with Jacobs and screenwriter Joanne Sarazen, had been “chipping” away at the script for two years to keep it “as grounded and as real as possible.” Getting the look and feel right involved linking up with a local cheer club to get an insight into the athletes’ training and experiences and their lingo, as well as attending competitions. It meant constantly adjusting the script, while keeping in mind that “we’re not going to have the big budget to do everything we visibly see going to these cheer competitions,” notes Waterson, who watched “over 100 [audition] tapes” during casting.

Jacobs, a former provincial champion in gymnastics, could also offer an expert POV, as could co-star Kudakwashe Rutendo, who was a cheer captain in high school.

“Even our costume designer used to be a cheerleader,” says Metzer. “So it felt like there was really a lot of synchronicity. People had the background that they needed to portray that world.”

For Waterson it was vital the production team was aligned with the overall vision of the film, making sure, for example, that the DP understood “what I’m trying to show here: grit, girl being thrown 10 feet in the air, concussions left and right, [athletes] pushing through.”

With shooting taking place at the peak of competition season, finding a gym that met very specific flooring needs and ceiling height became a challenge. “Nobody wanted to give us their cheer floor and building one from scratch was not an option.” says Waterson. It took months of searching and the production team “locked our location weeks ahead of filming,” adds Metzer.

Backspot will be distributed by levelFILM in Canada and international and U.S. rights are currently available and handled by UTA. The film will stream on Crave and broadcast on CBC and also be available on CBC Gem, with those deals facilitated by Prospero. “[Crave and CBC] getting involved and them showing excitement and letting us run free through all stages has been the best part,” says Waterson. But their “number one goal” is securing U.S. distribution.

BY TAIMUR SIKANDER MIRZA

D.W. Waterson’s Backspot got a funding boost when Canadian actor Elliot Page came aboard.

Photo by Sabrina Lantos

Putting the blood, sweat and tears back in cheer.

PROGRAMMER PROFILE

BY KELLY TOWNSEND

Crave

Finding the right home for a Canadian film is no easy feat, but Tory Jennings, director, English content at SVOD and linear pay TV platform Crave and Starz, says the outlet is open to working with producers to find the right path.

Crave has a long history of showcasing Canadian and international cinema thanks to its pay TV origins as The Movie Network (a.k.a. TMN, though it was named First Choice when it launched in 1983), which was acquired by Bell Media in 2013 as part of its takeover of Astral Media.

That work has continued into 2023 with the launch of films such as Anthony Shim’s family drama Riceboy Sleeps (Lonesome Heroes Productions) on July 7 and Brandon Cronenberg’s horror Infinity Pool (Film Forge, Elevation Pictures) on June 30. Its Canadian fare sits side by side with a library of U.S. films such as Dune and The Batman, acquired through Bell Media’s long-term content deal with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Jennings – who has been with the platform since its TMN days at Astral Media – discusses how Bell Media is staying true to Crave’s film origins as it gears up its original series strategy and highlights some recent success stories (see chart on page 13).

Playback: How would you characterize the current Canadian film strategy for Crave?

Tory Jennings: Our roots are in movies, from when we were formerly known as The Movie Network. We’ve always been very involved in pre-licensing feature films for the traditional channels, but also for SVOD. As you know, there are many, many partners needed in order to make feature films. It’s more recently, really, after seeing the success of Letterkenny (New Metric Media) [that we made] the decision to really focus and develop more series for Crave.

U.S. content, like our HBO content, is important for our service, but we also know that it’s extremely important to have our own originals. Right now we’re in a process where we’re juggling both [films and series].

Tory Jennings Director, English content, Crave and Starz

Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool stars Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman.

In terms of the feature films, they’re very important for Crave. Not just on the English but also the Frenchspeaking side. It’s a way for us to continue to work with both established producers and writers and creators, but also up-and-coming talent and regional content that we can work on, and pick up features from all across Canada, speaking to very local audiences.

What are some of the ways you acquire domestic films?

We support Canadian films through two different streams. We pre-license – so, prior to the production we take submissions, and our submission packages are available on the Bell Media website. The script needs to be at its very final stage and the financing for the film [should be] pretty much in place, then we are part of finishing the financing.

If we elect to not pick up [a film for] a pre-buy, but the film’s being made and they’re still looking for a partner, we will still consider it. We’re very active, for example, at all the festivals. Not just Canadian, but also international. We’re always looking to shore up our volume as we juggle and manage the inventory coming to us through our international suppliers.

What can you share about the audience response to Canadian films on Crave?

Some of the Canadian films very much rival and compete on Crave against our blockbuster feature films.

A Man Called Otto [starring Tom Hanks] and Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool premiered on Crave [in June] and were neck and neck in terms of their performance.

Documentaries are a significant element on the commissioning side of things for Crave. What are you looking for when it comes to a good doc pitch?

We’re looking for strong narratives. So it’s really on the strength of the creative and whether we think it will appeal to our audience because, ultimately, that’s the goal. We are managing a growing audience on Crave digital, but also a more traditional pay TV audience. So we’re

looking at both of those and trying to pick projects that appeal ideally to both because there’s overlap, but we do see some differences in viewing patterns between the two.

For [documentary pitches], it’s all dependent on the strength of the idea and whether it warrants a film, let’s say, and ideally a theatrically-released film, because we’re looking for a more premium audience.

There have been instances of documentaries coming in and pitching us for one-offs where we suggest doing it as a series. For example, We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) (90th Parallel Productions) was submitted as a feature and then we worked with the producer and it evolved into a series. So, we’re very open to talking to producers about the content itself, the genesis of the idea and helping them adapt it.

Looking at narrative films, are there any particular genres that are resonating right now?

There’s always a need for more comedies.

We tend to get a large submission of dramas. So, you know, you might have a leg up if you present a comedy or a documentary that’s a little bit lighter or more fun that could be considered a little bit more of a lean-back experience. But it’s very important that we’re telling important dramatic stories as well, so it’s a matter of us ensuring that we’re getting a bit of both.

ALL-TIME TOP 10 MOST-STREAMED CANADIAN MOVIES FOR FIRST WEEK STREAMS

(as of Aug. 6, 2023):

1. Kings of Coke

2. Infinity Pool (2023 Crave release)

3. Crimes of the Future

4. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band

5. The Nest

6. Code 8

7. 13 Minutes

8. 9/11: Cleared for Chaos

9. The Grizzlie Truth (2023 Crave release)

10. 23 Décembre (2023 Crave release)

Kings of Coke from Connect3 and Urbania and directed by Julian Sher was based on D’Arcy O’Connor’s book Montreal’s Irish Mafia

AI: THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE

INDUSTRY STAKEHOLDERS AND EXPERTS AGREE THAT THERE’S NO QUESTION THAT THE FASTPACED RISE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) WILL IMPACT THE FUTURE OF FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION. It’s just a question as to what extent, and who pays the price or reaps the rewards.

Creatives and broadcasters have already begun to experiment with the technology to see how it can be used – both as a cost-saving tool and a way for small shops to do things that couldn’t otherwise be done.

Chris Knight, president and CEO of Ottawa-based culinaryfocused producer and distributor Gusto Worldwide Media, is among the early adopters of the emerging tech. He claims that Gusto’s The Wizard of Sauce is the first TV show to use artificial intelligence to generate on-screen characters.

“AI gives us a way to take characters in new directions and amplify the viewer experience,” Knight tells Playback. The series is hosted by Kyle Crawford, who is joined by AIgenerated characters Professor Saussenheimer, Dr. Sauss and Sgt. Sauce-alot, to deep dive into sauce-making techniques.

To achieve the AI characters, Crawford donned three different costumes and stood in front of a green screen to read the scripted lines of each character, none of which look or sound like him. “We then used AI technology to change his personality and his voice,” says Knight. “The only way you would know it was him is because we give him conspicuous credit at the end of the show – and we paid him for those days.”

Knight says Gusto turned to a large suite of tools that are now easily accessible to creators. To turn ideas into images, for example, they turned to Stable Diffusion XL (a latent text-toimage tool capable of generating photo-realistic images based on a text inputs); Midjourney, which generates images from

natural language prompts; or DALL·E mini, software that does AI model generation.

Photoshop AI also offered a suite of photo editing tools powered by Adobe Firefly generative AI – including Generative Fill, which allows creators to add to, remove or replace images in Photoshop with simple text prompts.

Knight says the team also took advantage of platforms such as real-time voice changing software Voice.ai, as well as D-ID, which allows creators to make and interact with talking avatars using generative AI via D-ID’s API or Creative Reality studio.

All of it added up to a vision of the future, he suggests.

“The old-school way of making content is dead,” he claims. “The world is changing. I’m not saying that the world doesn’t need writers. We employ three full-time writers. I have 45 full-time staff. We create all of our content ourselves. But the characters that we generated for The Wizard of Sauce prior to the advent of AI would have been strictly in the domain of Pixar and Disney and other large animation companies. That’s no longer true.”

Knight says Gusto plans to incorporate AI into two other shows – The Wizard of Whatever, a sequel to The Wizard of Sauce (also hosted by Crawford), and Cirque de Sautée, featuring two clowns preparing classic French and Italian cuisine – with more to follow.

“As we get better at asking the AI system the right questions and it gets more sophisticated in answering them, it’s inevitable that we will continue to push boundaries with AI,” says Knight. “AI is a revolutionary change in the way we structure and tell stories.”

While some have turned to the emerging technology to create projects that they would not have been able to before, others are turning to AI as a way of better engaging audiences.

In the U.S., for example, PBS Kids has plans to build AI into episodes of its upcoming series Lyla in the Loop, allowing

As creators start to push boundaries through their use of AI, the resulting ethical debates about rights, remuneration and transparency are inevitable – but some are already drawing lines as to what is appropriate and what isn’t.

BY CHRISTOPHER GULY WITH FILES FROM RYAN TUCHOW AND BRENDAN CHRISTIE

old-school way of making content is dead.”

for AI-assisted conversations between Lyla and kids watching at home. The goal will be for kids to be able to ask the main character questions and have AI offer appropriate responses. Pennsylvaniabased Mighty Picnic and Hamilton, Ont.-based Pipeline Studios will produce both the 2D-animated series and its AI-enabled episodes.

Ordered this past January and set to launch in February 2024, the 40 x 30-minute series for children aged four to eight centres on a young girl who looks for creative ways to craft new things and learn along the way.

But “no AI utilized [in the series] is generative,” explains Sara DeWitt, SVP and GM at PBS Kids. Instead, she says, “characters in the episodes will respond to users using AI-assisted intent detection. Humans are a critical part of the development of these interactive episodes, as series writers are responsible for creating all pre-programmed character responses.”

At certain times during the interactive episodes, she says, the characters will talk to the camera and give the viewer a prompt question, which are all pre-scripted and recorded like any other part of the action. AI technology then uses intent detection to listen for the answer. Based on that, the story continues with one of several pre-written responses.

“The goal is to support and engage kids in critical thinking alongside the characters,” she explains.

Before PBS Kids launches the episodes, the broadcaster said it plans to investigate their potential efficacy for helping kids learn and stay engaged with the content – which is an ongoing focus for PBS.

“The project and continuing research has been underway since 2019, thanks to National Science Foundation grants, in partnership with the University of California, Irvine and the

University of Michigan, and began with PBS Kids series Elinor Wonders Why (2020),” DeWitt explains. “It is critical to help us continue to deepen our understanding of how children can learn from media in new ways.”

So, whether to take on more ambitious projects or to create engagement that wasn’t possible before, AI tools are already a goto resource for producers. The real question comes down to where the boundaries get drawn.

North of the border, Canadian pubcaster CBC is trying to get ahead of the issue by establishing its guidelines early. Though the outlet is clear that it will take advantage of the benefits of AI, it says it has no plans to use AI for production.

“No CBC journalism will be published or broadcast without direct human involvement and oversight,” stated Brodie Fenlon, editor in chief and executive director of programs and standards for CBC News, in a June 12 blog post.

The CBC was a founding member of Project Origin, an international initiative that aims to make the provenance of original material clear. In early June, the pubcaster also publicly released its principals for AI use, including an assertion that it would not use or present AI-generated content to audiences without full disclosure.

But the CBC is embracing AI in two other ways, says Allison Sugar, the network’s senior director of platform products and digital strategy. “We use it for machine learning and content recommendation systems, helping our online audience find the most relevant content for them,” she says. “We also use it for operational efficiency, such as creating an automated transcript for an audio podcast.”

AI is also being used to tag online stories with metadata, a task normally performed but still reviewed by a reporter, and CBC is looking to employ the technology to convert text-to-speech for the visually impaired and closed-captioning for the hard of hearing.

“AI is increasingly a part of every tool and service on the market and CBC uses a broad range of machine learning methodologies and techniques depending on the use case,” explains CBC executive director of digital strategy, Richard Kanee. “CBC is constantly evaluating these tools against different use cases, as the market is rapidly evolving. As with everything we do, we assess these tools against security, privacy and protection of intellectual property criteria.”

“For us, AI is a capability tool to solve a problem,” sums Sugar.

“The

- Chris Knight, president and CEO, Gusto Worldwide Media

Right: Sara DeWitt, SVP and GM at PBS Kids.

Bottom: 2D-animated Lyla in the Loop

Left: Chris Knight, president and CEO of Gusto Worldwide Media.

Middle: Kyle Crawford hosts The Wizards of Sauce, featuring AIgenerated characters such as Professor Saussenheimer (right).

THE HUMAN FACTOR

AI TOOLS HAVE ALREADY BEGUN TO PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN CONTENT CREATION. But little has been done to assuage the concerns of the people who could lose their jobs to AI-driven automation.

For his part, Anil Verma, professor emeritus of industrial relations and human resource management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, says he’s not worried about robots replacing all of our jobs any time in the foreseeable future – though, he tacks on a few caveats.

“We are embedding the intelligence in machines,” he explains, adding that the technology “has tremendous power to transform the way we do things,” much like computers replaced typewriters.

It could, he offers, mean fewer – if any – background performers on future movie or TV sets, since the capabilities of video and audio AI tools have grown far beyond the deepfakes of only a few years ago. But, in that instance, Verma says the extras should be compensated every time their likeness appears on screen along the lines of “a more equitable profit-distribution stream.”

The challenge the industry is facing, he adds, is for employers and the state to assist the individual and ensure that people are made whole in the AI world.

“It is the future, and we need to adapt to this new technology – and successful adaptation means finding new things for people to do,” says Verma.

Ultimately, however, he believes that “human creativity will always be valued over and above machine creativity.”

While that may turn out to be true, industry union leaders want it codified as soon as possible.

Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) assistant executive director Neal McDougall says creators have obvious questions about the use of AI. “From the human resources perspective: who benefits from it?” he says. “How much do they stand to benefit? And who loses out?

“The question from the creative perspective is that from the outputs we get [from AI-generated works], how much have they lost the humanity that formerly went into them? Even if we don’t notice that immediately, what kind of cumulative effect will that have on society?”

McDougall, a former television screenwriter, says that when social media arrived, it was difficult to predict the ways it would be used and the impact it would have.

“I think that we as a society were less aware and cautious than we could have been before we rushed into that world. And now we see that there is a downside to the social media-fication of everything,” he says. “We need to have more caution and thought about AI than we did about social media.”

And he’s not alone in his concerns.

“Our product is our voice, our face – our image, our likeness, who we are. That’s how we make a living,” says Eleanor Noble, national president of the 28,000-member Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).

“So if producers want to take that and turn it into AI and make mass profits, they’re stealing our product. When that happens, we don’t have control. We haven’t given consent, and we’re not being compensated – and that’s huge,” she says. “It’s immoral and unethical.”

AI technology has become a major point of contention for both the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) in their labour dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

SAG-AFTRA has made the right to digitally replicate a performer’s voice or likeness in order to create a

“It is the future, and we need to adapt to this new technology – and successful adaptation means finding new things for people to do.”

- Anil Verma, professor emeritus of industrial relations and human resource management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

With AI’s strong potential to replace jobs, the new tech has obviously raised the concerns of unions and industry organizations. The time for decisions, they say, is right now.

new work – or to train AI to do the same – mandatory subjects of bargaining during the strike.

In mid-July, AMPTP released a statement in which it said that it agreed with SAG-AFTRA’s position and noted that it proposed first-of-its-kind protections, including “advance, specific consent from the performer required both to create and use digital replicas,” which requires an actor’s written consent “and description of the intended use in the film.”

Noble says the concern among actors is also where their digital images will be stored for later use – an issue that especially involves the aforementioned background performers, who, as she highlights, “aren’t the highest paid on set, and now we’re going to undercut them by stealing their likeness so studios and streaming services can mass produce.”

AMPTP said in July that its AI proposal includes a prohibition on later use of a digital replica unless the performer specifically consents to that new use and is paid for it, and that the studio alliance “explicitly confirmed to SAG-AFTRA that consents needed for later use of digital replicas apply to background actors as well as principal performers.”

SOLUTIONS FOUND IN THE COPYRIGHT ACT?

Noble would like the federal government in Canada to establish guardrails to protect the creative industry

from AI’s encroachment. In 2021, ACTRA participated in a public consultation on a modern copyright framework for AI and the Internet of Things, led by the federal department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

The ACTRA proposal flagged the threat of deepfake technology in content creation, and suggested that the best protection against misuse would be to grant

“Our product is our voice, our face – our image, our likeness, who we are.”

- Eleanor Noble, national president, ACTRA

moral rights solely to audiovisual artists in Canada’s Copyright Act – so copyright could only exist for AI-assisted works, not AI-generated works. In other words: no human, no copyright.

The WGC, which represents about 2,500 Canadian screenwriters, agreed – calling on the federal government to ensure that AI is not recognized for authorship under the Copyright Act. But McDougall stresses that his guild would also like financial support flowing from Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit to remain for the benefit of human creators.

“We must not divert essential limited funding from human artists to AI. These are cultural funds, not technology development funds,” he sums.

In 2022, Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne introduced Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, which

would, if passed by Parliament, make it an offence to use an AI system if it “is likely to cause serious physical or psychological harm to an individual or substantial damage to an individual’s property,” and that it “causes such harm or damage.”

But copyright isn’t included in the proposed law, and that’s an important component of regulating AI, according to Brad Danks, CEO of Vancouverheadquartered OUTtv Media Global, who previously practised entertainment law.

Amending the Copyright Act “is one of the things that we should look at, especially moral rights clauses, but that alone might not be enough of what we need,” he says. “In the end, it might require more than one piece of legislation.”

The goal, says the head of OUTtv, should be to “have more creative people being productive as much as possible in our society, and do it in a sustainable way where production costs are aligned with the economic value of content.”

PUSHING FORWARD

While the government ponders possible visions of the future and industry bodies raise red flags, the industry is already moving forward. “There is such a largely immovable industry built around keeping everything the same, but the world moves on,” offers Gusto president and CEO, Chris Knight.

And that’s the rub. The future is not lingering on a distant horizon. It’s already here.

“I am concerned,” sums WGC’s McDougall. “But I am also cautiously optimistic that human beings can never be fully and truly replaced.

“At least I’m hopeful of that.”

“I am also cautiously optimistic that human beings can never be fully and truly replaced.”

- Neal McDougall, assistant executive director, WGC

The waiting game

BY KELLY TOWNSEND

A HOLLYWOOD-SIZED SHADOW HAS BEEN CAST OVER THE FALL FILM MARKET as distributors and sales agents in Canada mull the challenges – and opportunities – ahead.

Dual strikes from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which were ongoing as of press time, have put U.S. production, including service work in Canada, in a standstill with development on pause and actors unable to film or promote their projects in interviews, on red carpets or at film festivals.

The immediate impact on film studios has led to a shift in windowing strategies. Sony Pictures postponed the release date for Kraven the Hunter by nearly a year, moving from Oct. 6 to Aug. 30, 2024, and reports say Warner Bros. Film Group is mulling a release delay for Dune: Part Two, set to run on Nov. 3.

What is less clear is the impact on the film market, and whether buyers may opt to fill growing gaps in the theatrical release calendar with indie titles. There’s also the matter of SAG-AFTRA’s interim agreements to allow independent productions to be filmed, sold and promoted, with much uncertainty as to whether actors will refuse the waivers to stand in solidarity with their peers.

“It’s definitely a wait and see game,” Jean-Christophe J. Lamontagne, president and founder of distributor and aggregator h264, tells Playback

Canadian distributors and sales agents discuss how a disrupted fall festival season may prove boom or bust for the indie market.

Mia Goth stars in Infinity Pool, a sci-fi horror about a vacation gone wrong.

Photo courtesy of Neon

My Animal, starring Amandla Stenberg and Bobbi Salvör Menuez, had its world premiere at Sundance in January.

The Montreal-based company launched a sales division this June, with a slate that includes Denis Côté’s Mademoiselle Kenopsia (Voyelles Films), launched at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival in August, and Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms (Nemesis Films), which picked up a number of awards at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

Lamontagne says the potential fallout from the strikes were “the talk of the town” at Locarno and Fantasia, but that the market activity at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Venice Film Festival will provide a better scope as to what the real impact will be – for better or for worse.

Pros and cons

“When the majors grind to a halt, the easiest thing for them to do is to turn to the indies,” says Mark Slone, president of Torontobased distributor Photon Films and Media. However, he warns that it may prove to be a “double-edged sword” for projects with U.S. talent unavailable to promote them, since companies won’t have the advertising budgets to make up for it.

Hilary Hart, co-president of Toronto-based distributor Game Theory Films, has similar concerns. The company has a number of films selected for TIFF, including the drama Seagrass (Experimental Forest Films, Ceroma Films) from Vancouver filmmaker Meredith Hama-Brown, starring U.S. actor Ally Maki.

“Even if [actors] do get a waiver, they’re going to be concerned about the image of solidarity and would prefer not to do anything, which would be understandable,” says Hart. “Then we have to figure out how we build the publicity campaign without them.”

On the flip side, a more robust buying environment for indie films would be well-timed for producers, who’ve been feeling the pinch from a difficult distribution landscape, made worse by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Meanwhile, Canadian talent will be waiting in the wings to fill the red carpets left empty by their U.S. counterparts, potentially providing more press coverage than previous years.

William Woods, president of indie outfit Woods Entertainment and co-president of Game Theory Films, is a co-writer and producer on the TIFF-bound Platform competition title The King Tide, directed by Christian Sparkes. The film is also a sales title, with Altitude Films seeking U.S. and international buyers while at the festival.

“You never want to have someone’s downfall be your advantage, but if there are outlets that can’t produce as many movies because of the strikes, maybe there’s an opportunity for the acquisitions market to be a little bit stronger,” says Woods. “But I don’t think that has proven out yet.”

“Young-skewing independent film is good for Canada.”

– Mark Slone, president, Photon Films

Red Rooms is a psychological thriller starring Juliette Gariépy.

The King Tide is the sole Canadian film selected for TIFF’s 2023 Platform programme.

Mademoiselle Kenopsia is written and directed by Denis Côté and stars Larissa Corriveau.

Photo: Vincent Biron

Market disruption

Slone says the core difficulties in the indie market have been a reduced buying environment and a change in moviegoing behaviours. The pandemic triggered a “pause in acquiring content” for media companies, and “until consumers revolt about the lack of choice, it’s the reality [for the indie industry],” he says.

When it comes to presales, Slone says a distributor such as Photon Films needs “a certain level of musthaves” before getting involved. The top considerations, he says, are whether a film has a clear target audience and a plan to attract them, followed by how well a director can articulate their vision.

“So much of [the indie sector is] filmmaker-driven, not star-driven,” he says. “A filmmaker has to be able to articulate, ‘here’s the movie I want to make, and here’s who I picture sitting in the cinema watching my movie.’ And if those two things can align, that’s our starting point.”

As for the impact on windowing strategies, Slone says they’re already too disrupted in the indie market. “COVID completely upended all sort of remaining sense of windowing as an orderly affair. And now... the ‘do what you feel’ or ‘do what you and your partners can live with’ [method] has become the norm, as opposed to the standardized windowing.”

From a sales perspective, Lamontagne says h264 is “cautious” about its dealmaking to ensure a distribution partner is on board to support a theatrical release. “We’re working closely with distributors to really see what their strategies are,” he says. “It’s not always about who puts up a bigger minimum guarantee, but who’s going to be doing great work on the ground, to not just release a film straight to VOD or television.”

For films that are landing theatrical releases, Slone says they’re faced with the additional challenge of a shift in audiences.

“The traditional older audience is not yet coming back and, frankly, we can’t say for sure they ever will,” he says. “Maybe Netflix has become familiar enough to that audience that they’re not as interested… for indie [filmmakers] who play to that segment a lot, it’s troubling.”

A March 2023 study from UTA surveying U.S. consumers from ages 15 to 65 said that less than half of consumers from the Boomer generation have returned to a movie theatre since the pandemic began, about 41%.

In comparison, 77% of respondents from Gen Z said they’ve returned to theatres, followed by Millennials at 68% and Gen X at 58%. The survey listed rising costs and health and safety risks as the top reasons consumers have yet to return.

Shifting gears

Rather than sit on their laurels, distributors are adapting their strategies alongside changing moviegoing habits. Slone points to recent Canadian films such as BlackBerry (Rhombus Media, Zapruder Films), Infinity Pool (Film Forge, Elevation Pictures) and Riceboy Sleeps (Lonesome Heroes Productions) as examples of films that resonate with younger viewers interested in “non-mainstream or studio” films.

Photon Films is marketing to that segment as well with the upcoming release of Jacqueline Castel’s queer horror My Animal, starring Amandla Stenberg and produced by Canada’s Andrew Bronfman and Michael Solomon.

“Young-skewing independent film is good for Canada, and I think that we can continue to parlay that,” says Slone, referring to Oscar-nominated international titles such as Triangle of Sadness or Aftersun as examples of projects that are art films geared to younger audiences.

Hart says Game Theory ran a grassroots campaign for Anthony Shim’s semi-autobiographical Riceboy Sleeps, the story of a Korean mother and son as they adapt to life in Vancouver. The campaign included finding ambassadors to speak to the film which, in turn, generated engagement with the film on TikTok, with users discussing how the film personally resonated with them.

“[We received] feedback from the marketing team saying that is what’s working for younger generations: not feeling like they’re being advertised to, but finding a way to get the film in front of people who are then going to tell their peers about it in a very sincere way,” says Hart.

Films like My Animal and Infinity Pool are also part of a growing market interest in genre fare,

Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant stars Sara Montpetit in a vampire twist on a coming-of-age story.

“[Actors are] going to be concerned about the image of solidarity.”

– Hilary Hart, co-president, Game Theory Films

according to Lamontagne. He says h264 received an “overwhelming” response to Red Rooms – about a woman obsessed with a serial killer – following its debut at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic and awards success at Fantasia.

Another h264 sales title, Ariane Louis-Seize’s Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant (Art et essai) – which counts Game Theory as its Canadian distributor – has also piqued buyer interest thanks to its unique tale of a vampire unwilling to kill humans for food. Hart says they’re hoping that the title’s quirky twist on the vampire genre will attract viewers who don’t typically tune in to French-language films out of Quebec.

Hope lies close to home

Regardless of the strike fallout, Slone says what may truly turn the tide for Canadian indie film is how Bill C-11, a.k.a. the Online Streaming Act, will be implemented following its passage in April.

He says it is imperative that the CRTC “includes movies as distinct as opposed to just general screen content” when setting modernized regulations for streaming services under the Broadcasting Act. The Commission is currently reviewing hundreds of suggestions from the industry on how to modernize the Act, with a hearing scheduled for November.

Slone points to the rise of pay TV channels such as HBO in the U.S. and The Movie Network and Super Channel in Canada as an example. When those channels fell under regulation to fund development for films, Slone says those were the “prime years” for Canadian film.

“We got all those great [films from] Atom Egoyan, Guy Madden, John Greyson and Léa Pool,” says Slone, also citing extra funds from presales and stronger marketing abilities from the platforms.

“I think this is that opportunity again [with streamers],” he adds. “The ecosystem can restore its health with the infusion of new money, [as long as] C-11 is carefully and thoughtfully implemented with film in mind.”

Riceboy Sleeps is written, directed and produced by Vancouver filmmaker Anthony Shim.

BY AMBER DOWLING

CANADIAN FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES WILL STEP INTO THE GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT when the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off in September. And for some nonfiction filmmakers, those additional eyeballs are more critical than ever.

TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers tells Playback there were more than 800 international feature documentary submissions for this year’s festival, more than 90 of which were Canadian. (Up from 716 and 76 in 2022.)

“One reason, from what we gathered from talking to filmmakers, is that a number of films that got slowed down during COVID,” he says. “In the last year they’ve geared back up and were able to finish, in addition to the films that started last year.”

According to the programmer, the number of Canadian films eventually selected for the 2023 lineup was on par with previous years. In the Docs program those include marblemedia’s Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe, Seeing Red 6 Nations’ Boil Alert, and Cineflix Productions’ queer doc Summer Qamp.

But this year there will also be prominent nonfiction films on offer outside the dedicated TIFF docs stream, namely Visitor Media’s Swan Song, about Karen

Canadian audiences are increasingly watching homegrown unscripted stories, even while funding for stand-alone docs is drying up.

What difference can a festival like TIFF make?

Ballet legend Karen Kain stars in Visitor Media’s Swan Song

Kain’s 2022 production of Swan Lake for the National Ballet of Canada (debuting as a Special Presentation) and Gimme Sugar’s Hate to Love: Nickelback, which makes its world premiere as one of this year’s Gala Presentations.

“That is probably an unusually high representation – to see so many Canadian documentaries spread across multiple sections,” says Powers.

According to the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), that sort of representation makes sense, given the findings of its most recent research. On Sept. 12 the organization releases its seventh edition of Getting Real – its economic profile of the Canadian documentary production industry – and according to DOC executive director Sarah Spring, one key takeaway is that Canadians are watching more homegrown documentary films.

According to the report, between 2017-18 and 2020-21 fiscals the average weekly viewing hours of Canadian long-form docs in English Canada went from 10.5 million to 11.2 million, while in French Canada it jumped from 2.2 million to 5.1 million.

“We have a very strong international presence, but Canadians also love watching our own docs,” she says. “Once Canadian docs are released, they travel for years. Their impact is felt for generations.”

However, while the report shows that viewer appetite for long form docs is up, funding is down. “Broadcasters have shifted from funding features and one-offs in favour of documentary series,” she says.

According to the report, production volume of doc series in 2016-17 was $154.9 million. That jumped to $270.4 million by 2020-21. Over that same time, oneoff docs dropped from $68.4 million to $45 million and features dropped from $29.6 million to $19.4 million. Project-wise, documentary series also increased (from 142 to 217) while single episodes and one-offs dropped from 214 to 149. Features dropped from 60 to 35 during that same time frame. Notably, feature docs in 2016-17 accounted for 5.1% of total Canadian production volume, but by 2020-21 that had dropped to 2.4%.

“You can see it almost disappearing,” says Spring. “A lot of filmmakers are making films without adequate funding, or they’re not funding it here. If 90 films were submitted to TIFF, there’s a lot of talent out there being under served by the current broadcasting and funding sector.”

LEVERAGING MARKET BUZZ

For filmmakers whose projects are debuting at TIFF, a buzzworthy launch is an important step when it comes to appealing to international buyers. It can also be a first step for new filmmakers when it comes to securing future project funding. But doc makers have also begun investigating new ways to fund their projects.

“TIFF programmed my first short that I made in school,” says Swan Song director Chelsea McMullan

of her 2006 project Plume. “It opens up the world of funding and other opportunities. This feels like we’re growing within the festival itself, now with Swan Song being a feature presentation.”

ZDF and ARTE will broadcast the feature in Germany, France and other European territories.

The interest the festival garners can also be a launch pad for international acclaim and recognition, Powers adds. He points to Sarah Polley’s 2012 entry Stories We Tell, Brigitte Berman’s 1985 Oscar-winning

Alberta’s Camp fYrefly is the unique backdrop for Cineflix feature Summer Qamp

marblemedia celebrates a Canadian icon in Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe

project Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got, and Jennifer Baichwal’s 2006 film Manufactured Landscapes as three examples of films that established themselves at TIFF before going on to international acclaim – and that’s especially important when the stories that are being told are uniquely Canadian.

“Mr. Dressup is a name that won’t be familiar to most people outside of Canada, but will be a real discovery film this year,” Powers says. “Summer Qamp is being represented by Submarine [Entertainment], a sales agent that has a long track record of selling films out of TIFF, so that will be one to watch. Swan Song is represented by Dogwoof, another sales agent that has made a lot of big sales at TIFF over the years. Those are some significant factors and those films are going to be able to leverage the festival.”

For Mr. Dressup director Rob McCallum, a premiere at TIFF “is everything” in terms of publicity and film growth when introducing Ernie Coombs and his beloved children’s character to the world. “I can’t think of a bigger stage to unveil a doc, especially one that is so richly tied to Canadian history with its roots on CBC and about a show that really informed the country,” he says.

“There isn’t always an equal playing field with how many feature-length documentaries get into the local movie theatres. Very few get to play, and the ones that do certainly don’t always have the longevity that some of our narrative offerings do,” he continues. “So to premiere at a festival like TIFF on the big screen, that sends a big message. You can’t put a number on that or quantify it. It’s a massive thing for all doc lovers and makers out there.”

Producer and marblemedia co-founder Mark Bishop says his main goal at TIFF is building excitement and publicity around the film ahead of a festival run and premieres on Prime Video and CBC. But they’re also working on a licensing and merchandising campaign he says has already garnered a lot of interest since the TIFF announcement, with a line of consumer products coming out around the fall launch in conjunction with CBC.

“We’re working with Segal Licensing, Wexworks and CBC to extend our licensing and merchandise program into North American retailers – through brick and mortar and online opportunities,” explains Bishop, who also served as EP on Mr. Dressup. “Retro brands are on trend and we believe that our merchandising program will make fans of Ernie Coombs, Casey and Finnegan, hearts sing with authentic merchandise from the documentary.”

According to Cineflix Media EP Tanya Blake and Cineflix Productions president J.C. Mills, who both serve as EPs on Summer Qamp, their inboxes have been flooded since the film was announced at TIFF. The film is fully financed and will debut on Super Channel in Ontario and TVA in Quebec. But, coming out of TIFF, they hope to bolster international sales and enter other festivals. They also hired a PR company to help with the push.

“Submarine is viewed as one of the top sales agents in the world for what we do in docs,” says Mills. “For them to come on gives us instant credibility in the marketplace.” He adds they’re still contemplating the best ways to use the world premiere for additional publicity, and are also considering potential merchandising and other opportunities.

Many feel we’re at a pivotal moment for Canadian feature docs. Festival interest could present a chance for Canadian funders to correct some of the findings from DOC’s report and align itself with viewer habits.

“With the streamers, we’ve seen this rise in interest in documentaries. That is a real opportunity,” says Bishop. “For many years, documentaries – especially in Canada – have been challenging to finance,” he continues. “It’s challenging getting broadcasters on board, challenging to raise enough financing, having to look outside. Now we have more homes and more opportunities. People love to dive into these stories, and opportunities like TIFF bring people together and spark a real national conversation.”

Boil Alert from Seeing Red 6 Nations explores the personal stories behind the First Nations’ fight to get drinkable water.

Gimme Sugar explores our conflicted feelings in Hate to Love: Nickelback.

ALBERTA

When it comes to attracting productions to the province and its plethora of diverse locations, Alberta is projecting a united front – with Alberta Film Commissioner, Mark Ham, working closely with both Calgary Economic Development and the Edmonton Screen Industries Office to ensure crews filming in the area have a positive and welcoming experience. “We’ve moved to a tax credit system, which is more compatible with what’s done in other jurisdictions,” Ham explains.

“But more significantly, the per-project cap has been lifted, and that’s allowed us to compete for larger scale projects.” Since 2019, Alberta has seen over 50 productions completed in the province: home to such Academy Award-winning productions as Unforgiven, The Revenant, Brokeback Mountain and Legends of the Fall, as well as blockbuster hits Jumanji: The Next Level, Inception, Interstellar and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Most recently, an exciting 24 Emmy nominations for HBO’s The Last of Us while Predator film prequel Prey received an impressive six nominations. 2023 LMGI Award nominations include HBO’s The Last of Us (Outstanding Locations in a Contemporary Television Series) and the Alberta Film Commission’s Outstanding Film Commission nod.

ALBERTA FILM COMMISSION

Phone: 780-422-8584

Toll free: 1-888-813-1738

Mark Ham , Alberta Film Commissioner mark.ham@gov.ab.ca

Marla Touw , Location and Production Services Support marla.touw@gov.ab.ca

NORTHERN ONTARIO

CALGARY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Luke Azevedo , Vice President, Creative Industries, Operations & Film Commissioner lazevedo@calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com

Lissa Craig , Manager, Creative Industries lcraig@calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com

Erin O’Connor , Business Development Manager, Programming, Calgary Film Centre eoconnor@calgaryfilmcentre.com

EDMONTON SCREEN INDUSTRIES OFFICE

Tom Viinikka , CEO tomv@edmontonscreen.com

Dorian Rowe , Edmonton Film Commissioner drowe@edmontonscreen.com

From humble beginnings, and an initial world-stage appearance nearly two decades ago, Northern Ontario’s motion picture production industry today brims with established talent, the latest amenities, and lucrative incentives. Exhibiting exceptional and sustainable growth, Northern Ontario’s promising industry-bred six major production centres; each offering distinct advantages and looks. Picture your next project in Greater Sudbury, North Bay, Parry Sound, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, and Timmins. Productions could receive up to $2 million of production support through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) – in addition to the Ontario Film & TV Tax Credits (and the 10% bonus for shooting in Northern Ontario). Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION), through free consultations, guides incoming producers toward advantageous funding, resources, and locations. Explore Northern Ontario’s production landscape through the Film & TV Project Pitch Exchange and discover new leads for cost-effective and creative filmmaking. Recent acclaimed projects that leveraged Northern benefits include Amaze Film + Television’s The Lake, New Metric Media’s Shoresy, Piazza Entertainment’s SkyMed Season 2, and feature films My Animal, Zombie Town, Everything’s Going to be Great, and Fitting In (FKA Bloody Hell).

Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION)

Devin Mahesh, Director of Industry Development and Production Services dmahesh@cionorth.ca

Greater Sudbury Sudbury Film Office film@greatersudbury.ca

North Bay

Adrienne Mazzuchelli, Economic Development Officer filming@northbay.ca

Parry Sound

Vladimir Shehovtsov, Regional Economic Development Officer vshehovtsov@parrysound.ca

Sault Ste. Marie

Josh Rogers, Film, TV & Digital Media Coordinator j.rogers@cityssm.on.ca

Thunder Bay

Erin Simmons, Digital & Travel Media Officer erin.simmons@thunderbay.ca

Timmins

Noella Rinaldo, Director of Community Economic Development noella.rinaldo@timmins.ca

Filmed in Alberta - Ghostbusters: Afterlife Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Playback’s 2023 Canadian Locations Showcase takes you to high-growth regions, studios and service-providers from across the country.

KINGSTON

For expanded profiles & additional listings, please visit:

Kingston, Canada is an ideal filming location for production companies. The city, nicknamed “Limestone City” for its historic stone buildings, offers a supportive production environment with impressive backdrops. Productions have taken advantage of locations such as the historic City Hall, Fort Henry, and Kingston Penitentiary, which have been featured in various films and TV shows. Kingston’s quaint downtown and suburban settings can also stand in for American locations. The city’s tourism infrastructure, including a variety of nightlife, dining, and accommodation options, creates a welcoming environment for filmmakers. Kingston even offers incentives to offset expenses for non-local crew members, as well as an extensive locations database powered by the Reel-Scout platform. The city is actively working on developing its local talent and workforce, collaborating with educational institutions and offering workshops. While purpose-built studios are being explored, Kingston currently provides suitable venues for productions of various sizes. With its proximity to Toronto and Montreal, Kingston is ready to host your next production. Learn more about shooting in Kingston: filminkingston.ca

Donnie MacIntyre Film Commissioner

donnie@tourismkingston.com

416-528-5306

Jillian Fathers Production Coordinator

jillian@tourismkingston.com

613-530-6682

OTTAWA

Canada’s capital city has stood in for Washington D.C. with its many embassies and government buildings, a European backdrop using courtyards and restaurants, a New York setting complete with office buildings and urban parks, and a snowy Christmas town as seen in the Canadian Screen Award-winning film Christmas Jars and countless projects from the likes of Hallmark, Lifetime and OWN. As far as tax credits go, Ottawa is eligible for the same 35 per cent tax incentive that is applicable to eligible Ontario productions, as well as an additional 10 per cent for production outside of the Greater Toronto Area. Provincial tax incentives are generally combined with the federal Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (16 per cent) or the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (25 per cent), and international productions can claim 21.5 per cent for labour and production costs. With several waterways like the Rideau Canal (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, 300 heritage buildings, and unique attractions like the Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum, Ottawa has un-matched offerings for the screen industries.

Ottawa Film Office

613.695.1955

info@ottawa.film

Stephanie Davy Senior Manager, Communications & Operations sdavy@ottawa.film

Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos Ottawa Film Commissioner spdesaintsardos@ottawa.film

CANADIAN LOCATIONS SHOWCASE 2023

LONDON

London, Ontario is gaining recognition as a prime production destination with its diverse range of locations, accessible resources, and emerging talent. The city’s streets were transformed into 1980s New York City for the Apple TV+ series The Changeling, showcasing London’s versatility. The London International Airport has doubled for JFK, San Francisco, and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. With well-preserved early 20th-century buildings and unique details, London captures the essence of an old American city. It offers a fresh look for productions seeking something new, and its proximity to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) makes it easily accessible. The city is targeting large projects, as well as medium-sized productions that struggle to find space in the GTA. Its film-friendly locations include downtown areas, the London International Airport, and educational facilities like Fanshawe College and Western University. Scenic sites such as the Thames River and parks add to the city’s allure. London boasts a strong local crew and talent base, making it a desirable filming destination.

Andrew Dodd Manager, Film London

519-661-4957

adodd@ledc.com

SASKATCHEWAN

Saskatchewan is experiencing a surge in production activity due to new financial incentives and upgrades to its premier studio. The Creative Saskatchewan Feature Film and Television Production Grant Program has increased its project support funding from $10 million to $12 million for the 2023-24 cycle. This has resulted in an increase in interest from producers, with 28 film and television productions committed to in 2022-23. Notable projects include the comedy series Our Big Punjabi Family, the romantic drama feature Summer at Charlotte’s, and the firefighter documentary series Guardians of the North. Saskatchewan’s diverse landscapes, including its beautiful north, quaint villages, and vibrant cities, offer a variety of locations for filming. Creative Saskatchewan provides support to producers in finding the ideal areas to film and offers a digital locations gallery on its website: creativesask.ca/film-commission.

Erin Dean CEO

Erin.dean@creativesask.ca

(306) 798-9800

Remi Dufour Director of Film Finance and Economic Reporting

Remi.dufour@creativesask.ca

(306) 798-9800

Stephanie Proulx Soundstage and Locations Coordinator

Stephanie.proulx@creativesask.ca

(306) 798-7980

Sandra Panko Film Analyst

Sandra.panko@creativesask.ca

(306) 798-9800

Omnifilm Entertainment is best known for its multiple original Canadian primetime series like CBC’s Arctic Air, hit kids/ family programming like Disney Channel series Gabby Duran & the Unsittables, and its post-production work on projects like Fakes and Warrior Nun for Netflix. Now Omnifilm Entertainment is expanding further into providing production services to clients worldwide. The Vancouver-based production company is leveraging its experience across multiple genres to help outside clients produce premium drama and comedy series in a service capacity. Omnifilm offers turn-key services which include sourcing top quality crews and studio space, navigating production tax credits and financial incentives, providing creative consultation, handling physical production, and completing all stages of post-production work in its own Vancouver-based facility. Omnifilm has already successfully provided production services for multiple U.S. studios, overseeing more than $200 million in production in the last several years. Check out their work on Disney Channel series Mech X-4 to see all of these capabilities come to life.

Brian Hamilton Executive Producer brian@omnifilm.com

Nicole Shizuka Oguchi Head of Physical Production nicole@omnifilm.com

Phil Klapwyk Business Development Executive phil@omnifilm.com

Giuliana Bertuzzi Head of Production Finance jules@omnifilm.com

Cathy Schoch Head of Business Affairs cathy@omnifilm.com

Elizabeth Schofield Head of Scripted Development elizabeth@omnifilm.com

Brendan Smith Head of Post Production brendan@omnifilm.com

Eli Sullivan Chief Financial Officer eli@omnifilm.com

The City of Toronto congratulates city-builder Cameron Bailey on his induction to

Playback’s Canadian Film & Television Hall of Fame

TORONTO LOVES FILM

A fond farewell and a new beginning

Above: (a) From very humble beginnings, WFW has grown into the go-to supplier for much of Canadian film and TV production; (b) behind the scenes on James Cameron’s epic Titanic; (c) WFW has made a giant commitment to virtual productions with a new 22,500 square foot studio; (d) recreating (muddy) history on the set of Passchendaele; (e) getting literal on Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water; (f) WFW’s new Islington Avenue HQ in Toronto; (g) hard at work on set in the early days. All photos courtesy of WFW.

William F. White International has its eyes set on new horizons in its 60th year.

BY MARC GLASSMAN

INDUSTRY GIANT WILLIAM F. WHITE INTERNATIONAL (WFW), THE PREMIER SUPPLIER OF FILM EQUIPMENT AND STUDIO SPACE IN CANADA, has received a unique 60th birthday gift: it’s being renamed Sunbelt Rentals Film and Television. While that’s hardly a surprise, given that U.K., U.S., and Canadian-based equipment supplier Sunbelt Rentals has owned WFW since 2019, what’s interesting is how sanguine the principals at WFW are at the prospect.

Chief operating officer and EVP of WFW Garin Josey says there has been “a really elegant, well thought out transition, where our clients and team will understand the greater strength of what Sunbelt as a film and TV global brand brings, while at the same time embracing our history.”

Having been at WFW for 23 years, Josey is very protective of the company and its image. But he’s just as bullish about the future of Sunbelt – which includes being a major supplier of state-of-the-art film and VR equipment in the U.K., U.S. and Canada.

Josey’s reasoning is based on experience: he says WFW and its employees have been treated brilliantly since Sunbelt’s takeover in December 2019... which was possibly the worst time to buy a business anywhere in the world. Despite the devastating rise of COVID mere months later, he says Sunbelt was endlessly supportive of WFW’s staff and crew with no permanent employee being laid off during the pandemic.

Josey and Paul Bronfman, who recently stepped down as senior advisor and co-chairman after his 34-year tenure at the company, know that Sunbelt’s patience is being tested again as another crisis – labour stoppages – has hit hard, with WFW and every company in the film and television business being badly affected. Bronfman is characteristically forthright: “It’s the perfect storm. There hasn’t been an actors and writers strike simultaneously since 1960. We are, along with other businesses, collateral damage.”

The impact at WFW, which controls over 1.55 million square feet of studio space and rents a significant volume of film and television production equipment in Canada, has been devastating, according to Josey.

“Productions that were underway have paused and so have those that were being planned,” he explains. “Many have extended their start dates, if they even have one, to the tail end of this calendar year or early into next. There is so much uncertainty right now. In North America, I think everyone in our business, whether you’re on set, supplying equipment like we do, or supplying studios like we do, is being dramatically impacted. That includes postproduction visual effects. It is literally COVID all over again for us.”

Despite all that, he remains upbeat, thanks to new opportunities the company is creating in the U.K., with its ”significant” local client base largely protecting Sunbelt U.K. Film and TV Group from the impact of the dual U.S. strikes, according to Josey.

Sunbelt, listed publicly as Ashtead Group PLC, boasts itself online as the U.K.’s largest equipment rental provider. The company generated US$9.7 billion in global revenue in fiscal 2022/23, and employed more than 25,000, according to its annual report. And its remit goes far beyond film. According to its website, it offers a “range of products and services, such as general tools, air compressors and accessories, compaction and earth moving, climate control services, power and HVAC, pump solutions, remediation and restoration and flooring solutions.”

Plus, WFW got a boost in the region thanks to Sunbelt Rental U.K.’s recent purchase of four companies: PKE Lighting, which provides television and photographic lighting and equipment; Movietech Camera Rentals, a camera rental specialist; the succinctly described Alpha Grip; and Media Access Solutions, which provides heavy machinery and work platforms.

“We’ve now got a strategy similar to what we’ve got in WFW, which is multiple lines of business providing turn-key service,” says Josey.

Continuing traditions and new priorities

One of the areas Josey is especially keen to have Sunbelt tackle are “green” issues. “Everyone’s talking about sustainability,” he says. “With Sunbelt, we are going to take a huge leap forward in that area, both on alternative power with regards to battery systems [as well as emerging technologies in the clean energy space]. We are in the clear position to be a leader in that space, both for film and TV.”

WFW is already an industry leader in Canada when it comes to helping develop crews that thrive technically and, especially in recent years, are notably more diverse in background. Expect that involvement to continue.

For example, the company is a supporter of POV Film, which trains members of the BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, newcomer and refugee communities to become media workers.

“They offer studio space. They also offer us equipment. They offer some training sessions,” says Hamza Bangash, POV’s program director. “Recently, we were shooting a documentary thesis project on an Amira camera. They allowed us to go over hours. They offer a huge level of care and professionalism and support during all steps of production. It’s really a game changer for the new kind of diverse future of the film industry.”

WFW also plans to continue its commitment to the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) and the cinematography community; one that goes back to Bronfman’s partnership with Oscar-winning cameraman Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and his Hungarian company, Sparks, back in 1991.

Executive director Susan Saranchuk says, “CSC Toronto is physically in William F. White’s building. We have our own large room with a big logo on the door that is a gift from them to us, which is fantastic. We hold most of our workshops there. They have supported us through equipment for all our educational programming, and they’ve heavily supported our awards over the years as well.”

One area that WFW plans on continuing to expand is in the area of virtual production. WFW has become a leader in the field and there are no plans to take the foot off the gas. Says Josey, “We think technology is going to continue to improve to make it even more cost effective for our clients to utilize.”

WFW’s key partnership with Pixomondo, a leader in the VR field that has already garnered Academy and Emmy awards, has led to the creation of the immense Stage Six studio for VR at WFW, which is shaped like a horseshoe (72 feet across) with a ceiling height of 24 feet. The effect is awesome with its stage being 22,500 square feet with an LED volume of 5,500 square feet.

“We recently had a massive virtual production workshop at WFW’s stage and on their virtual wall. And it was huge,” says CSC’s Saranchuk “If it wasn’t for WFW, there’s no way we could have done it – and it was spectacular.”

Bangash’s experience with having POV work at the new facility was similarly uplifting. “We do some of our workshops at WFW. We have a workshop where we give locations PA training. It was incredible for the students to be in a space where they’ve got equipment from Titanic and all these huge productions. I see their eyes open and it really gives them a scope of what it means to be a part of this industry.”

Filmmakers can expect WFW’s commitment to a virtual future to continue. “We are looking at opportunities to expand beyond Canada in the virtual production space,” says Josey. “We’re excited to be on the cutting edge of technology in the film and TV space.”

So, all things considered, maybe it’s not all that surprising that Josey finds himself feeling pretty optimistic on this the 60th anniversary of the company.

“The future looks amazing,” he says. “We’re moving forward with global film and television branding throughout the remainder of this year.”

Garin Josey, chief operating officer and EVP

Paul Bronfman recently stepped down as senior advisor and co-chairman after a 34-year tenure at the company.

Championing a festival for all

BY MARK DILLON

IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (TIFF) CEO CAMERON BAILEY TOOK THE REINS FROM FORMER HEAD PIERS HANDLING. Needless to say, there’s been just a little added stress in that time.

In 2020, Bailey and former TIFF co-head Joana Vicente had to shift the festival mostly online due to the pandemic. That concern has faded in the rearview: screenings for the forthcoming 48th installment (Sept. 7 to 17) will all be in-person.

But there is a new threat hanging over the festival. As of this writing, simultaneous strikes by actors union SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America may result in the diminished presence of A-list talent, who drive mainstream media coverage and much ticket-buyer interest. One would think Bailey, who assumed full control following Vicente’s 2021 departure, might be feeling a little snake bitten.

“You want to have a year with nothing unusual happening,” he acknowledges to Playback from his office in the downtown TIFF Bell Lightbox. “But that may never happen. Many things can affect what we do, and we have no control over the environment. It’s how we respond that matters. And part of my job is to make sure we’ve got a great team here that can respond. We’re doing that right now.”

Crises are nothing new for the festival. Bailey’s predecessor Handling, who started as TIFF executive director and CEO in 1994, had to navigate 9/11 in 2001 and SARS two years later. The former chief commends Bailey and his colleagues for their agility in the face of recent challenges.

Photo: Luis Mora

Cameron Bailey has introduced TIFF audiences to films from all over the world, while catering to broad tastes.

“Rotating online was wonderful,” Handling says. “I applaud Cameron and TIFF for that quick shift because it was relatively seamless. They did the best job they could have done.

“Holding together the morale of the organization, making tough decisions, working out the financial future and dealing with sponsors requires real diplomacy. Everyone loves the festival and wants it to succeed. You just have to steer it and reassure people that it’s going to still be there in the future. Cameron and the team have done a very good job.”

That team now numbers 168 employees, ramping up to nearly 800 during the festival. Handling adds that the key to success as CEO is hiring the best people and letting them loose. And that’s why he brought on Bailey in 2005 as a year-round programmer focusing on films from South Asia and Africa before he moved up the ranks.

That marked Bailey’s second tour at TIFF, having originally served as a freelance festival programmer from 1990 to 1997. Along the way he tried his hand at screenwriting, co-scripting features The Planet of Junior Brown (1997) and A Winter Tale (2007). He had earlier made a name for himself as a film critic for Toronto alternative weekly Now starting in 1988 and continuing for nearly two decades.

Now a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Bailey still calls on that critical muscle when helping decide what movies make the cut for the festival – which this year will screen approximately 220 features and 55 shorts out of nearly 8,200 submissions – and chipping in program notes.

“I want audiences to understand the draw of a film and I analyze what makes it interesting and what makes it work,” he says. “Our programming team is very trained and knowledgeable in the history and

global culture of cinema. We have two PhDs in cinema studies. So when we talk about films, it’s a high-level discussion, and having been a critic helps.”

One of his biggest accomplishments during his first festival go-round was the launch of the Planet Africa sidebar in 1995, highlighting that continent’s cinematic output. Four years earlier, he and Handling, then TIFF artistic director, ventured to the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Bailey made connections in the local industry and upon his return began selecting African films for TIFF.

“I became aware of a knowledge gap our audience had because they hadn’t been exposed to films from Africa or even the African Diaspora,” he notes. After Handling took over as TIFF head, they agreed on the need for a section that would assemble these works.

Bailey was born in London and grew up in England and Barbados before coming to Toronto at age eight.

“I hadn’t been inside a movie theatre until then, and even then it was rare. I was more into books,” recalls the Western University graduate in English Language and Literature. “It was only at university that I switched on to movies. I took a film course in my second year and that blew my head open.”

He and sister maxine bailey were raised by their mother Luciene. Although Bailey says the family matriarch was not a film buff, she did love a good story. Incidentally, maxine also became a powerful figure in Canadian cinema, currently serving as executive director of the Canadian Film Centre.

“Even as a child, Cameron was smart and thoughtful and grew up surrounded by strong women, which appears to have made him a great listener, sympathetic and able to appreciate great storytelling,” maxine tells Playback

Bailey interviewing director, writer, actor and comedian Taika Waititi for a 2018 TIFF Master Class.

Courtesy of Getty images

And that appreciation spans the art house and the multiplex. Bailey says he is most proud that TIFF is a public-facing institution, both in its annual festival and its year-round cinematic offerings at the Lightbox.

“I came into it as somebody who loves the highest achievements in the art of cinema but also commercial action movies and genre films,” he says. “That openness to a full range of films is something I’ve tried to promote here in terms of how we hire and what we celebrate. I never wanted it to be elitist.”

He says the festival is in a good place in both its diversity of content and scope. It was in growth mode until the 2010s when it became, as he says, “unwieldy and not serving each film as well as we wanted it to.” And so TIFF cut down its number of films by approximately 16% in 2017 and this year will maintain that level, which Bailey calls “a good number for us.”

Where he does want to see growth is on the business side of the festival, which is regarded as one of

the “Big Five” festivals in the world alongside Cannes, Sundance, Venice and Berlin.

“We have become a unique marketplace in terms of being in North America but not in the U.S., and being plugged into Asia, Europe, Latin America and the whole world,” he notes. “That’s unique to a city where half the people are from somewhere else and have ties to somewhere else. We can take better advantage of Toronto as a global cultural and business hub when it comes to buying and selling films.”

And that’s just one thing on Bailey’s to-do list. While being recognized by the Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame is cause for reflection, he insists, “It’s not done. I feel like I still have some things to contribute here.”

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.

“That openness to a full range of films is something I’ve tried to promote here in terms of how we hire and what we celebrate. I never wanted it to be elitist.”

Top Discoveries at TIFF

Everyone knows that the Toronto International Film Festival is one of the top destinations on the global film circuit for distributors and buyers. It’s where the deals that drive the industry in Canada get done. But, whether you’re a film exec or just an average audience member, it really comes down to those special film moments – those times when you find yourself sitting breathlessly in a theatre, totally absorbed by the remarkable artistry unspooling on the screen before you. So, Playback asked a few of Canada’s top execs about the most important films they’d discovered at TIFF.

Jenna Bourdeau Senior director,

acquisitions, CBC

For whatever reason, American Beauty (1999) blew my mind. I found it profoundly tragic – a sense of melancholy in the performances, writing and soundtrack (notably Plastic Bag Theme) and also it was just so inventive in tone. The film tapped into an aching and powerful loneliness, possibly more relevant today than ever. And, more recently, Moonlight (2016). Just wow. One of my first jobs in the industry was at the Canadian Film Centre – the year Vincenzo Natali’s first feature Cube (1997) was sold into the U.S. It was a huge deal at the time – a Canadian film selling into the U.S. theatrical market. I vividly remember the buzz and excitement. It was a catalyst for wanting to work in distribution/acquisitions.

Geneviève Bouchard Director, fiction acquisition, Bell Media

As a genre fanatic, nothing beats a sold-out late-night or midnight screening crowd. The glorious return of Halloween (2018), Drive (2011), I, Tonya (2017) and Pearl (2022) are communal experiences that stick out. We come to this place for magic, as that Nicole Kidman AMC spot goes!

Emmanuelle Dessureault

Head of fiction and film content, CBC/Radio-Canada

Director, theatrical releasing, filmed entertainment, Cineplex

I’ve been attending the festival for most of my career at Cineplex and I love finding the smaller gems as well as experiencing the big ones on the big screen. The festival makes films like Giant Little Ones (2018) just as spectacular as Dune (2021). Plus, I’ll never forget when Michael Shannon tried on my leather jacket at a party once because I accidentally dropped it and he was cold.

Sometimes, I go to see a movie because I know the film will eventually be submitted to us. I get into the theatre without expecting anything, without having read reviews – just knowing a few details, such as the name of a director or actor. It’s a neutral state of mind. And then the “movie magic” happens, and I am moved, having felt strong emotions and been given a new perspective on the world. A Prophet (2009) by Jacques Audiard, Parasite (2019) by Bong Joon-Ho and I, Tonya by Craig Gillespie come to mind. But when I went to see Call Me By Your Name (2017) by Luca Guadagnino, that was my best TIFF movie experience. It moved me deeply and I was not prepared for that. Timothée Chalamet was a revelation. After six TIFFs, it still stands out as one of the best films I’ve seen there.

Media

Even at 200 features, the festival has twice as many films as any other major festival. It keeps our acquisitions team very busy! In 2018, I saw American Dharma, Errol Morris’s interview with Steve Bannon. It really delves deep into the origins and methods of the extremism we are seeing today.

VP, acquisitions and strategy, Vortex Media

Paul Schrader’s First Reformed (2017), from both a personal and professional standpoint. Even a pastor needs a pastor. My favourite TIFF experience was in 2010 at the premiere of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. After the credits rolled, Aron Ralston stood up in the audience and the Ryerson Theatre exploded with the loudest and wildest standing ovation I have ever witnessed. People were cheering, crying and celebrating the human spirit. That’s what it’s all about.

For more film industry news and analysis, plus great TIFF memories, be sure to visit playbackonline.ca

Gurbani Marwah

Andrew Frank Co-president, Mongrel

Matt Orenstein