The Hollywood Reporter - 12.02.2020

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 99 FEBRUA RY 12, 2020

Recent female-fronted projects
financed in part by Telefilm include
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ Une
Colonie, which earned the best picture
Canadian Screen Award, The Grizzlies
from Miranda de Pencier, who was
named best director by Canada’s
directors guild, and Monia Chokri’s
La Femme de Mon Frère, which
earned the Coup de Coeur jury prize
in Cannes.
The push for greater equality in the
Canadian film industry isn’t limited to
Telefilm. Barbara Williams, execu-
tive vp English services at the CBC,
Canada’s public broadcaster, points
to Tr i c k s te r, an upcoming drama from
co-creator and director Michelle
Latimer about an indigenous teen’s
dysfunctional family, as part of her own
network’s drive to greater gender par-
ity and diversity.
“We are making meaningful change,
but we have a very long way to go,”
Williams says. Her sentiment is echoed
by industry insiders who, despite
gains in recent years, argue that the
Canadian industry’s power structure
still remains largely white and male.
“The pervasiveness of the dialogue
to support gender parity and diversity
and indigenous voices has made a
difference,” says Jan Miller, found-
ing chair of Women and Film and

world of difference in our ability to attract high-end pro-
ductions to Toronto,” Pinewood Studios Group spokesman
Andrew Smith tells THR.
And Randy Lennox, CEO of Bell Media, which owns a
controlling stake in Pinewood Toronto Studios, on Jan. 30
told an Ottawa producers conference that he would
announce by June “a second studio at another major
Canadian city,” without specifying the location.
Elsewhere in Ontario, construction on TriBro Studios in
Pickering, just east of Toronto, is set to start in May, with

completion targeted for September or October 2021. A

separate TriBro Studios facility in Ottawa is set to break

ground in July, with a November 2021 completion.

First Studio City, the latest facility to join the Canadian

shooting craze, has dashed plans for a 400,000-square-

foot studio facility in Markham, just north of Toronto.

Frank Sicoli, chairman and CEO of First Studio City, tells

THR his consortium is set to close a deal for alternative

land elsewhere in greater Toronto on which to build its

planned facility, with a 2022 launch in mind.

Canadian film and TV production equipment rental

giant William F. White International opened four sound-

stages in May at the 152,000-square-foot Whites Studios

Edwards Boulevard facility in west Toronto, with Disney as

a long-term tenant. Last March it also added a fourth stu-

dio facility in Vancouver — Whites Studios Copperwood.

“I’ve never seen this many projects either initiated or

under construction in this country,” says William F. White

International chairman and CEO Paul Bronfman, who is

also chairman of Pinewood Toronto Studios. — E.V.

TV — Atlantic. “But it’s not signifi-

cant enough and we’re not moving

quickly enough.”

And strides at home to support

female filmmaking voices have not

eased the steep challenges facing

Canadian filmmakers when it comes to

securing the all-important financing

from international partners (Canada

has co-production treaties with more

than 60 countries).

“It’s still that slog of needing to do

the hustle and to sell a project based

on the merits of the story, and I don’t

feel like, because it’s a women’s story,

that’s bringing me much of a leg up

anywhere,” Rayne Zukerman, pro-

ducer of The Matchless Six, a true-life

period drama about two working-class

Canadian women competing at the

1928 Summer Olympics.

But one genre has proved unexpect-

edly viable for emerging women

directors: horror.

Ira Levy, a partner and execu-

tive producer at Toronto-based

Breakthrough Entertainment, an

indie producer and incubator of

genre titles, points to a new wave

of female directors who are trans-

forming the Canadian horror film

market. They include Jen Soska and

Sylvia Soska, twins who helmed the

Telefilm-financed remake of David

Cronenberg’s Rabid, which won

best feature film at L.A.’s Shockfest

in 2019; Vancouver-based Gigi Saul

Guerrero, who has a first-look deal

with Blumhouse and will direct the hor-

ror thriller 10-31 for Orion Pictures; and

To r o n t o ’s Lina Rodriguez, director of

the 2016 thriller This Time Tomorrow,

which screened in competition

in Locarno.

“They’re using it as a platform to

tell female-focused stories,” Levy

says, “They’re turning the genre on

its head.” — E.V.

Miranda

de Pencier’s

sports

drama The

Grizzlies

is one of

95 projects

financed by

Telefilm in

2019 with

a woman

in a key

role behind

the camera.

Gender Equality Within Reach for Canada’s Top

Film Financier Te l efilm Canada is in the ‘parity zone,’

but insiders say there’s still work to be done

DIRECTOR

INVESTING IN EQUALITY BEHIND THE CAMERA

By offering financing for projects with women in key roles, Telefilm is on target for 50-50 parity by the end of 2020

Source: Telefilm Canada

SCREENWRITER PRODUCER

2017-2018 2018-2019 2017-2018 2018-2019 2017-2018 2018-2019

% FILMS % INVESTMENT

44% 25% 39% 28% 46% 29% 41% 36% 48% 36% 61% 46%