Jan Miller Leaving Canada's Strategic Partners Co-Production Market

TORONTO – After Lia Rinaldo last week stepped down as festival director, the Atlantic Film Festival has now lost its co-production spearhead.

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Jan Miller on Monday said she is leaving as director of Strategic Partners, which has had the U.S. as a focus country for three years running, after leading the annual Canadian co-production market for 15 years.

“I won’t be back as the director of Strategic Partners for 2013, but just to let everyone know, for 15 years it has been an absolute pleasure to nurture and lead the seed of an idea into a major international, sought-after event right here in Halifax, Nova Scotia,” Miller said in a statement Monday.

Strategic Partners each September operates under the Atlantic Film Festival umbrella.

The co-production forum attracts American and other foreign film producers stopping over in Halifax to forge new co-productions or fill out film budgets as they travel from the Toronto International Film Festival to the IFP Independent Filmmaker Project in New York City.

News of Miller’s unexpected departure follows Atlantic Film Festival director Rinaldo last week signaling she will leave the Canadian event after 22 years in the post.