The Global 100

Welcome to this, the fifth anniversary edition of realscreen's Global 100 (hence the birthday cake on this issue's cover), in which we celebrate the companies making what our readers deem to be the best work in non-fiction film and television.

As with past years, this time around we asked readers to send along the titles of the film and television projects that stood out for them in 2009. We also widened the net somewhat by asking broadcasters to let us know which programs were among their top-rated of the year, and by asking those who voted to consider each non-fiction genre when submitting their input. The intention behind all of this was to arrive at a more diversified list, both in terms of specialty and nationality. Granted, this is an English-language publication, but we're hoping that this approach will encourage more of our international readers to let us know about the work inspiring them in their regions, and the teams behind it. As it stands, the votes that did come in from outside North America and the UK revealed that stories that fall under the traditional documentary umbrella still carry a great deal of weight (and fill slots) internationally. And of course, with factual entertainment on the rise in North America and the UK, companies making waves in that domain figured high in votes from those regions.

Also, as in past years, while we continue to exclude in-house production arms of companies whose main business is broadcasting, there are companies within the list that have ties to, or are owned by larger media entities. On a case-by-case basis, we evaluated such companies according to their production output, whether we deemed them to be suitably independent in terms of producing for other media outlets, and of course, according to your input.

So here we go. As we've said in the past, by asking you, the realscreen reader, to tell us what programs and films resonated the most with you over the course of a year, we aim to come up with a list that will, hopefully, bring some new names to the table as well as acknowledge those who repeatedly raise the bar.

Barry Walsh, Editor

CANADA

EYESTEELFILM | Montreal | www.eyesteelfilm.com

Montreal producer/distributor EyeSteelFilm finished up 2008 on a high note when its RiP!: A Remix Manifesto nabbed the Audience Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. History repeated somewhat in 2009's edition of IDFA, when the hugely-acclaimed Last Train Home, the debut doc feature from Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan, scored the best feature-length documentary prize. The film, a riveting look at a splintering Chinese migrant family attempting to negotiate the balance between tradition and modernity, appeared on a number of our readers' "tops of 2009" lists, including that of Simon Kilmurry, executive director of PBS' 'POV' strand. Kilmurry calls Last Train Home "another home run for the EyeSteelFilm team... a remarkable achievement. An intimate, deeply moving and at times harrowing experience." The sentiment was echoed by Doug Block, filmmaker and founder of online doc community D-Word, who told realscreen, "It's almost astonishing that this is director Lixin Fan's first film."

Employees: 7

Hours: 6

Current/recent titles: Last Train Home, Taqwacore

Upcoming: Atanasoff: Reinventing the Computer, Fortunate Son

INSIGHT PRODUCTIONS | Toronto | www.insighttv.com

Insight Productions' mandate is to create "television programs and specials that showcase and celebrate Canadian talent." In the past the company has done this by taking on international formats such as Canadian Idol and Project Runway Canada as well as award shows and celebrated Canadian dramas. But this year the company created its own reality series that made waves in Canada and is poised to break through as a format in other territories. Battle of the Blades is a series for CBC that teams up NHL hockey players with female figure skaters in an ice dancing competition. The series was a success for the Ceeb, where it drew an average 1.5 million viewers and was picked up for a second season in 2010. Stockholm-based distributor Sparks Network will be bringing the format to MIPTV.

"It's a lot of fun to be on this side of the equation with people wanting to buy our formats," CEO John Brunton told realscreen last November.

Employees: 22 full-time, "hundreds of freelance"

Hours: 39

Current/recent titles: Battle of the Blades, How to Look Good Naked Canada

Upcoming: BOTB 2

CINEFLIX PRODUCTIONS | Toronto | www.cineflixproductions.com

A mainstay of the Global 100, Cineflix was really on the move in 2009. Docuseries Conviction Kitchen was picked up by Planet Green and multiple channels across Europe and LatAm after its initial run on Canada's Citytv. Last year also saw the prodco enter into its first Brazilian coproduction with Nazi Hunters for History Television.

Cineflix Productions used 2009 to bulk up. In May it added Joe Houlihan, former director of programs at Twofour Broadcast, as senior VP of programming and Ian Russell, former commissioning editor at Five, as director of coproduction and executive producer. Then in June it announced the addition of Charles Tremayne, who previously ran East Coast productions for RDF USA, as executive VP of programming. To top it all off, Cineflix also opened a New York office in the fall, headed by Tremayne.

Employees: Approximately 200, with core and freelance staff

Hours: 250

Current/recent titles: American Pickers, Campus PD, Conviction Kitchen, The Unsellables, Manson