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