The 48th International film festival of India has chosen Canada as the Focus Country this year. Through this category, prominent films made by the selected country are screened at the festival. In order to promote the Canadian cinema in the country, the festival on Tuesday also hosted a Canadian delegation, which included Toronto International Film Festival's artistic director Cameron Bailey, actor-filmmaker April Mullen and the Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai Jordan Reeves.
While addressing a press conference, Reeves said they are constantly in touch with a lot of Indian distributors in Mumbai to establish a market for Canadian cinema in the country. He also said there are a lot of Canadian producers who want to invest in Indian films and that they will make sure the entire co-production process gets easy for both the parties. India and Canada also have a audiovisual co-production treaty, which the two countries signed in February 2014. It was subsequently entered into effect on July 1.
When News18 asked Reeves about its outcome, he said, “We have not done a good enough job to explain the treaty to producers and how they can take advantage of that. So beginning this year at FICCI Frames and a little bit later at IFFI as well, we’re organizing a co-production session, where we’ll be speaking in depth about that and we’ll be bringing over a number of Canadians from Telefilm Canada.”
Further talking about his plans to rework on the treaty, Reeves said, “I think we need to improve the information input out there. Also, the government of Canada can play a role working with our Indian counterparts. To find some champions perhaps in Canada who can offer connoisseur services to Indian producers to make things much simpler. So, this is a part of the plan and there is indeed a plan. We’re very enthusiastic about it. We’ll definitely promote the co-production treaty. It’s an important part of our focus. We’re confident that we’ll see some official co-production in near future.”
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