Ottawa's Cdn Screen Training Centre to close next month due to lack of funds

OTTAWA - An Ottawa-based film training centre that's offered lectures from some big names in Canadian cinema for nearly 30 years is set to close due to lack of funds.

The non-profit Canadian Screen Training Centre, which brought in teachers and guests including filmmakers Norman Jewison and Sarah Polley, says it will permanently shut down next month.

In a release, the centre says it's been struggling financially since August 2008, when the federal government cancelled a program that funded non-profit training institutions for Canadian film talent.

Tom Shoebridge, the centre's founder and executive director, says the cut "proved to be the death knell for a small organization like the CSTC."

Founded in 1981, the centre offered training and national workshops in areas of screenwriting, directing, producing, acting and new media.

Other notable teachers and guests at the centre over the years have included actress Megan Follows and filmmakers Atom Egoyan, Patricia Rozema and Denys Arcand.