Canadian Newsfront

Canadian Digital Partnership completes financing

The Canadian Digital Cinema Partnership (CDCP), a joint venture between Cineplex Entertainment and Empire Theatres, announced that it has completed its financing transactions for the deployment of digital projection systems to approximately 1,600 of the partners’ movie theatres across Canada. The...

New Brunswick eyes digital tax credit

Throwing a life preserver to its drowning film industry, New Brunswick is developing a digital-media tax credit while it scraps the existing film tax credit. In an April 14 memo to the New Brunswick film and television industry, the government confirmed that it was withdrawing the 40% film tax...

Cineplex Digital Solutions debuts

Cineplex Entertainment renamed its Digital Display and Communications business as Cineplex Digital Solutions. Acquired in July 2010, the company is an award-winning implementer of digital signage networks and associated products and services, and is found on numerous software platforms in the...

Toronto Film Festival highlights promising actors

The Toronto International Film Festival is spotlighting the most likely Canadian actors to break out onto world cinema screens in 2011. TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey announced the launch of the festival’s “Rising Star” program to discover Canada-based international acting talent....

Sundance picks Six Canadian titles for 2011 Fest

Six Canadian films will be among the titles in competition at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. The Salesman (Le Vendeur), the first feature from writer-director Sebastien Pilote, and Vampire, a Japanese-Canadian co-production written and directed by Iwai Shunji, are among 13 competitors in...

Cineplex acquires Digital Display and Communications

Top Canadian theatre circuit Cineplex Entertainment acquired Digital Display and Communications Inc. (DDC), a leading implementer of digital signage and networks and associated products and services. The total transaction is valued at approximately CA$3.5 million....

Royal Ontario Museum welcomes Meryl Streep

The Royal Ontario Museum welcomed Hollywood icon Meryl Streep to an evening event celebrating the new touring exhibit, “Vanity Fair Portraits: 1913-2008.” The museum was the only Canadian venue chosen to display the portraits. The exhibit, which marks the 95th anniversary of Vanity Fair, has...

Arcand, Cronenberg join Canadian Film and TV Hall of Fame

Ten industry icons including Oscar-winning director Denys Arcand, thrill-master David Cronenberg and renowned actor Christopher Plummer were inducted into the third annual Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes accomplishments in six distinct categories: creative,...

'Lipstick Factor' boosts theatrical box office

Box office continues to be recession-resilient, as Cineplex Entertainment reported a healthy gain in revenue, attendance and earnings for the first quarter ending March 31, 2009. Canada’s largest exhibitor saw revenues of CA$211 million, up 11.2% from the same time last year. Attendance climbed 9...

Where are the female directors?

Why do so few women direct feature films in Canada? In an article by Playback writer Patricia Bailey, research shows that over the last 10 years the number has declined and that today in Quebec roughly 14% of features are being directed by women—two percentage points less than in 1985-1986....