 | |
| Company type | Crown corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film |
| Founded | 1967; 59 years ago (1967) |
| Headquarters | Montreal,Quebec, Canada |
| Products | Supporting the audiovisual industry in Canada |
| Website | www |
Telefilm Canada is a CanadianCrown corporation that supports Canada's audiovisual industry. Headquartered inMontreal, Telefilm Canada provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices inVancouver, British Columbia;Toronto, Ontario;Montreal, Quebec; andHalifax, Nova Scotia. The primary mandate of the corporation is to finance and promote Canadian productions through its various funds and programs.
As one of the principal instruments for supporting Canada's audiovisual industry, Telefilm Canada's primary mandate is to provide support and promote all stages of screen-based content through its various funds and programs. It also fosters the commercial, cultural, and industrial success of Canadian productions and to stimulate demand for those productions both at home and abroad.[1] It also administers the programs of theCanada Media Fund.
The organization is also responsible for choosing Canada'sannual submission to theAcademy Awards for theBest International Feature Film award.
Telefilm Canada administers the Canadian government's coproductions, while supporting Canadian filmmakers and their international counterparts to coproduce films and television programs that enjoy the status of national productions in each of the respective countries.[2]
Headquartered inMontreal, Telefilm Canada provides bilingual services to its clients through four offices located in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.
The Atlantic Regional office, in operation since 1984 from Halifax, servicesNew Brunswick,Newfoundland,Nova Scotia andPrince Edward Island.
The Quebec Regional office is located in the Montreal head office and serves the province ofQuebec.
The Ontario Regional office, in operation since 1968 from Toronto, serves bothOntario andNunavut.
The Western Regional office, in operation since 1984 from Vancouver, serves the Western provinces ofBritish Columbia,Alberta,Manitoba,Saskatchewan, theNorthwest Territories and theYukon.[3]
In 1967, the Canadian government founded the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), allocating$10 million in support of the country's feature film industry.Michael Spencer[4] was named the first executive director of the CFDC, which by then included offices in Montreal and Toronto.
By 1976, the Canadian government had increased the CFDC's budget to $25 million annually, at which point it decided to finance the corporation with an annual parliamentary appropriation. Spencer was replaced by Michael McCabe in May 1978. Notable films produced with the agency's support includedGoin' Down the Road (1970),The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974),Shivers (1975),Why Shoot the Teacher (1977),In Praise of Older Women (1978).
The early 1980s sees the CFDC's budget increased yet again and the creation of the Canadian Broadcast Program Development Fund to revitalize Canadian television programming. At the time, approximately 85% of all prime time programming on Canadian television is imported from other countries—namely the US.Under the direction of André Lamy, in 1984 the CFDC is renamed "Telefilm Canada" to better reflect the organization's full range of activities in both the film and television industries.
With the creation of the Feature Film Fund aimed at supporting feature films by Canadian filmmakers and the Feature Film Distribution Fund that makes credit lines available to Canadian distributors, Telefilm Canada takes a central role in the development and growth ofCanadian cinema around the world.
Now under the executive direction ofFrançois Macerola, the Canada Television and Cable Production Fund is created. The Fund is a private-public partnership between the federal government of Canada and the cable and satellite television industry, with Telefilm administering the Equity Investment component of the Fund.By the end of the 1990s, in 1998, Telefilm Canada creates a five-year, $30-million multimedia fund, aptly-named The Multimedia Fund, with which to support Canadian work in the digital age. The Fund helps Canadians in multimedia to compete effectively in the new technologies arena.
With the new millennium, the Canadian government implemented a new Canadian Feature Film Policy, From Script to Screen, that effectively created the Canada Feature Film Fund (CFFF) to be managed by Telefilm Canada.
Beginning April 1, 2001, with an annual budget of $100-million, the CFF's primary objective is to build larger audiences in Canada and abroad for Canadian feature films with improved distribution and marketing.Also that year, Telefilm Canada announces guidelines for the Canada New Media Fund, replacing the Multimedia Fund. Budgets grow from $6 million, to $9 million, and now sit at $14 million annually. The latter half of the decade brings about other changes for Telefilm.
In 2005, theminister of Canadian Heritage announced a new collaboration between the organization and the Canadian Television Fund and, with it, renewed funding ofCA$100 million for Canadian television programming. While the Board of the Canadian Television is responsible for the governance of all programs, Telefilm heads up the administration and delivery of the CTF programs.[5]
The2012 Canadian federal budget cut funding for theNational Film Board of Canada and Telefilm Canada by 10%. Today, following a new four-year plan, Telefilm has made stimulating demand for Canadian screen-based content one of its top priorities.[6]
In April 2022, Christa Dickenson announced that she would step down as executive director and CEO effective September 9, 2022.[7]
Media related toTelefilm Canada at Wikimedia Commons