As in the US, nominations give films extra "legs" in Canada. Last year's

Oscar nomination for best screenplay meant that Atom Egoyan's _The Sweet

Hereafter_ re-opened in several Canadian cities and Egoyan was lionized by

various media. Generally speaking, the better a film does elsewhere, the

better chance it has of getting noticed here.

        Canada is a special exception to the general rule about "foreign

films," however. Canada is considered part of the American "domestic"

market for weekly box-office records; perhaps this is why English-Canadian

films are never considered for best foreign film. Only French-language

films from Quebec seem to qualify. In this regard, Le declin de l'empire

americain fared well as a result of its nomination. An American producer

even  bought the rights to re-make it in English. Denys Arcand's next film,

Jesus de Montreal, was not accorded the same prestige; perhaps Jesus of

Malibu seemed too absurd even to LA types.



Gene Walz

University of Manitoba



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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite