The Canadian Screen Awards combined the Geminis (television) and Genies (film) starting in 2013. The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel report released last week suggested a merger between the Canada Media Fund (television) and Telefilm Canada (film).
Alias Grace has been the best hybrid example of where TV meets film. The first 2 parts of the 6-part series ran as a "film" at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) "fosters, promotes, develops and finances the production of Canadian content and relevant applications for all audiovisual media platforms. The CMF receives financial contributions from the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors."
Telefilm Canada "administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund and the Talent Fund, a private donation initiative, as well as the Canada Feature Film Fund."
51 film professionals signed a letter in 2017 addressing concerns over a merger. "We are deeply concerned that if feature film investments are subsumed within a larger agency with a competing and unsympathetic mandate, its independence and efficacy will quickly erode," according to the letter. "Merging filmmaker-driven Telefilm with broadcaster-driven CMF would deal a devastating blow to Canadian cinema."
The list of film artists on the letter include Denys Arcand, David Cronenberg, Xavier Dolan, Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, Sarah Polley, and Denis Villeneuve.
Mixing television with film juggles unique requirements: TV falls under Canadian content regulation while Canadian film exists in an unregulated market.
Canada Media Fund was responsible for the Made | Nous project promoting Canadian television, film, and digital projects. The Web site launched about a year ago during the Oscars coverage.
Made | Nous is a great example of promoting Canadian TV and film together that might benefit from a merger of the two organisations.
The Made | Nous campaign features Canadian content and projects that feature Canadians, such as Killing Eve and The Shape of Water.
We applauded the promo and the Web site at the time of the launch. There doesn't seem to be any additional updates to the site. Perhaps there will be new content in time for the Academy Awards on Sunday night.
An ad-free CBC just one of the recommendations from a government panel report
The necessity of Canadian films that don't seem Canadian
Telefilm Canada shouldn't limit funding by language but reward films shot in Canada with Canadians
The Canadian Screen Awards have a week to celebrate Canadian television and Canadian film. The actual ceremony on Sunday night has a lot of awards in both categories that don't get shown on television. Canadian television and Canadian film deserve their own space to shine rather than sharing the spotlight.
A merger with Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada might benefit both industries. If the Trudeau Government includes a proposed merger in the legislation, hopefully we will get an explanation on the potential benefits. Canadian film, especially in English, gets lost in the Canadian content shuffle.
CanadianCrossing.com television coverage
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault weighed in on potential licensing for media companies. "If you’re a distributor of content in Canada and obviously if you’re a very small media organization the requirement probably wouldn’t be the same if you’re Facebook, or Google. There would have to be some proportionality embedded into this."
photo credit: Canada Media Fund; Telefilm Canada; Made | Nous
video credit: YouTube/Made_Nous
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