It's Christmas in Ottawa, with filmmakers this spring and summer capturing couples smooching under mistletoe, reindeer running amok and Santa Claus leaving presents under evergreens lavishly decorated with lights and ornaments. The Canadian capital has become a hub for holiday films, with more than a dozen each year, or one-third of all Christmas-themed movies screened annually in the month of December in North America, shot here. But while snow is temporary, hefty tax credits last year round -- leading to creative workarounds to create icicle-laden shots amid 90-degree Fahrenheit (32 C) weather.
Amid a boom in demand for Christmas movies, it's all worth it for the quaint, seemingly made-for-the-screen scenery that dots the region, industry professionals tell AFP. "There is a wow factor here," said Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos, film commissioner at the Ottawa Film Office -- pointing to the fairytale architecture of the Chateau Laurier, the Rideau Canal, old courtyards and cobblestone walkways, waterfalls and parks, and Canadian villages that stand in for American small towns. "There are so many spots in Ottawa and the surrounding area that look like where most of these Christmas stories take place," said producer Josie Fitzgerald, shooting her fourth and fifth Christmas films this year.
On the set of "Hocus Pocus Christmas," in Almonte, on the outskirts of Ottawa, director Marita Grabiak says it feels "very much like the small town that I grew up in, in Pennsylvania." Chr.