News
January 17, 2014
Weekly Update from Film Ontario, January 17, 2014
TORONTO ONTARIO film office - A partnership of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, City of Toronto and FilmOntario.
WEEKLY UPDATE January 17, 2014
from Kelly Graham-Scherer, Los Angeles Representative - torontoontariofilm@gmail.com
Happy Friday everyone,
As Los Angeles remains in the thrall of awards season, California industry stakeholders are also lobbying hard to gain support for a recently-introduced bill that would expand the state's incentives for film and television production. FilmL.A. Inc., a nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and the county, released a report this week that provided a detailed examination of filming trends from 1993 to 2013 across nine production categories. The report, which made a big splash in the trades, found that while location filming for feature films rose by double digits last year, it remained 50% down from its peak in 1996, while production of TV dramas was down nearly 40% from its 2008 peak. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-on-location-20140114,0,7107787.story#axzz2qaXLc1BV
The Times also published a companion piece to the one above shortly after the Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday, noting that only one of the nine best-picture nominees was actually filmed in California. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/oscars/la-et-ct-oscar-nominees-locations-california-20140116,0,442927.story#axzz2qaXLc1BV
New York, on the other hand, was trumpeting its role in several Oscar-nominated films. As detailed below, in a widely syndicated piece from an on-line affiliate of the New York Post, Governor Mario Cuomo was quick to issue a press release congratulating nominees who accessed that state's film and television incentives program. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/cuomo_congratulates_oscar_nominees_who_used_new_york_ movie_money_filmed_in_state.html
And finally this week, the Ontario screen-based industry is still reeling from the recent loss of one of its founding fathers: the Globe and Mail this week ran an eloquent eulogy for much-loved Cinespace founder Nick Mirkopoulos. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/nick-mirkopoulos-was-a-major-player-in-forging-hollywood-north/article16293018/
Please feel free to distribute this e-mail widely and to get in touch with me with comments or links for inclusion.
Warmest regards,
Kelly Graham-Scherer
Los Angeles Representative
Toronto/ Ontario Film Office