Telefilm Canada Highlights Global Sales Achievements

MONTREAL: Telefilm Canada is reporting a 21-percent increase in the revenues from the international distribution of Canadian TV and film projects at international markets where the organization leads a Canada Pavilion, such as MIPCOM and the Cannes Film Festival.

According to the 2008 International Markets report, aggregated sales and presales for Canadian film and TV at international markets reached close to C$14 million last year. Plus, on-going and working negotiations at international markets created an additional C$71 million in likely sales. This is a total of C$85 million, a 21-percent rise from 2007.

Telefilm invested about C$1.2 million to support Canadian companies at international markets. MIPTV has been the successful market over the last three years in terms of the percentage of participants achieving sales: 96 percent of participating companies saw some sales activity. MIPTV also generated the highest volume of sales, at C$5.2 million. The report also indicates that co-production and co-venture partnerships increased by 20 percent over the previous year, with 65 Canadian companies involved in 115 deals with 21 different countries.

“With an important increase in international sales for Canadian producers and distributors, we are happy to see the Canadian audiovisual industry benefiting from Telefilm’s strategic support abroad,” stated Michel Roy, the chair of Telefilm’s Board of Directors. “Over the past few years, we have made a priority of forging alliances with foreign partners and promoting co-production activities across international markets, as they help build industry capacity and ensure its long-term viability."