News
September 20, 2013
September 20th News Report from your Los Angeles Representative
TORONTO ONTARIO film office - A partnership of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, City of Toronto and FilmOntario.
WEEKLY UPDATE September 20, 2013
from Kelly Graham-Scherer, Los Angeles Representative - torontoontariofilm@gmail.com
I am so pleased to start this report by congratulating Toronto's SK Films, which achieved a clean sweep, winning the awards in every category for which their film, Flight of the Butterflies, was eligible, at the 2013 Giant Screen Cinema Association Achievement Awards.
Flight of the Butterflies won Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Sound, Best Film for Lifelong Learning, Best Marketing by a Distributor, Best Film Launch by a Theatre and Best Educational Program. Thanks to Jonathan Barker and the whole team at SK Films for making Ontario proud!
Here in Los Angeles many film and television industry stakeholders are counting on newly-elected mayor Eric Garcetti to help bring production back to California. As reported in the L. A. Times below, while Garcetti has pledged to make "runaway production" a top priority, he has yet to find the right person to appoint film czar and to act as an industry advocate at city hall. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-onlocation-film-czar20130918,0,4158515.story
Variety this week reported that Jake Gyllenhaal's new movie will benefit from California's tax incentives after moving off the waiting list. The story below illustrates just how oversubscribed the state's $100 million incentives program has become, noting that the film will join 34 recipients chosen from 380 applicants this year. http://variety.com/2013/film/news/jake-gyllenhaals-nightcrawler-gets-california-incentive-exclusive-1200652154/
The L.A. Times this week had a story that is sure to give traditional television network execs pause: as detailed below, a prominent media analyst projects that Netflix will exceed 40 million streaming subscribers by the end of 2015, thanks to its low monthly price and the proliferation of Internet-connected devices. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-netflix-to-exceed-40-million-subscribers-by-2015-20130916,0,5429456.story
If that prediction weren't enough to get traditional TV to take notice, the Times also reported this week that Dish Network has scored another legal win for the AutoHop, its commercial-skipping device that the broadcast networks have been trying to shut down. As detailed below, a federal judge has denied ABC's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the satellite broadcaster from offering AutoHop to its customers. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-autohop-dish-cbs-20130918,0,1354339.story
And finally this week, Reuters published an interesting article on how Canada's thriving domestic film industry is swaying Canadian directors to continue to live and work in their home country even as Hollywood, and the world, come calling. http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/09/13/entertainment-us-toronto-canadians-idINBRE98C0JR20130913
Please feel free to get in touch with me with comments or links for inclusion.
Warmest regards,
Kelly Graham-Scherer
Los Angeles Representative
Toronto/ Ontario Film Office