Ira Levy

World Screen Weekly, March 27, 2008

Executive Producer and Partner

Breakthrough Films & Television

At the beginning of this year, before the Hollywood writers’ strike ended its 100-day run, both CBS and NBC announced the acquisition of Canadian dramas for broadcast in prime-time slots. It was a further sign that “there’s a real appetite in the States for what Canadians are producing,” according to Ira Levy, the executive producer and partner of Breakthrough Films & Television, one of Canada’s biggest producers.

Levy notes that the company has made several strides in its neighboring American market with titles from across its portfolio, including reality series, factual fare, animated shows for kids, one-hour dramas and TV movies. The breadth of Breakthrough’s catalogue has expanded tremendously since the company was founded as a documentary and kids’ producer in the early ’80s. Expansion into scripted programming was a priority for Levy and the company’s co-founder Peter Williamson. The pair had first met while attending film school in London, so with the move, Levy says, he and Williamson had “circled back to our first love, which was doing scripted drama.”

Among Breakthrough’s drama offerings are Paradise Falls, for Showcase in Canada and here! TV in the U.S., Less Than Kind, a dramedy for CityTV in Canada, and Easton Meets West, a pilot for a family drama for CBC. Levy adds that Breakthrough is developing a tween comedy for Family Channel and a prime-time animation for Canwest Global called Producing Parker. These join a substantial kids’ catalogue, with series like Atomic Betty and Miss BG as well as numerous factual series, among them Plastic Makes Perfect.

At the heart of Breakthrough’s model has been tapping into Canada’s numerous co-production treaties with international markets. Levy compares a successful co-production to a “good marriage. There’s the initial attraction, so there’s a shared sensibility for the project and for how each partner does business. There also has to be a good courtship, so you try to see how you work as partners. Then, like any good marriage, there has to be money. Both partners are going to bring their broadcasters to the table, raise some of the financing, and ultimately you’re going to have a child—the show.”

As Levy sets the priorities for Breakthrough in the coming months, he’ll be looking to take advantage of new opportunities created following a wave of consolidation in the Canadian media market. “The powerhouses like Alliance Atlantis, when they go out of the production business, it creates a vacuum for companies like us to fill. This gives us an even greater opportunity to produce more shows and to have even more diverse content.”

—By Mansha Daswani