This article primarily discusses the English-language cinema in Canada. For information on French-language cinema in Canada, see also Cinema of Quebec.

Canadian cinema refers to the filmmaking industry in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Canada is home to several film studios centres, primarily located in its three largest cities: Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, and Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

. Industries and communities tend to be regional and niche in nature. Approximately 970 Anglophone-Canadian and 620 Francophone-Canadian feature-length films have been produced, or partially produced by the Canadian film industry since 1911.

The most critically acclaimed filmmakers from English Canada include David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg

David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...

, Guy Maddin

Guy Maddin

Guy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...

, Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...

, Allan King

Allan King

Allan Winton King, OC was a Canadian film director.-Life:During the Depression, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School in Kitsilano, Vancouver...

, and Michael Snow

Michael Snow

Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...

. The most critically acclaimed filmmakers from French Canada include Claude Jutra

Claude Jutra

Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director and writer. The Prix Jutra are named in his honor because of his importance in Quebec cinema history. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec....

, Gilles Carle, Denys Arcand

Denys Arcand

Georges-Henri Denys Arcand, is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions...

, Jean Beaudin

Jean Beaudin

Jean Beaudin is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He has directed 20 films since 1969. His film J.A. Martin Photographer, was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, where Monique Mercure won the award for Best Actress. The film also won best Film, he won best Director, and Mercure...

, Robert Lepage

Robert Lepage

Robert Lepage, is a playwright, actor, film director, and stage director from Québec City, Québec, and is one of Canada's most honoured theatre artists.- Life and work :...

, Denis Villeneuve

Denis Villeneuve

Denis Villeneuve is a Canadian film director and writer. In his early career he won Radio-Canada's youth film competition "La Course Europe-Asie" in 1990-91. He is a three-time winner of the Genie Award for Best Director, for Maelström in 2001, Polytechnique in 2010 and Incendies in 2011...

 and Michel Brault

Michel Brault

Michel Brault, OQ is a Quebec cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s...

. Some Canadians migrate to the American industry in search of successful careers - Canadian filmmakers such as Norman Jewison

Norman Jewison

Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont is a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. Highlights of his directing career include In the Heat of the Night , The Thomas Crown Affair , Fiddler on the Roof , Jesus Christ Superstar , Moonstruck , The Hurricane and The...

, Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman is a Canadian/American film director, screenwriter, and producer, best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking , Juno , and Up in the Air . As of February 2, 2010, he has received three Academy Award nominations, two of which are for Best Director...

, Paul Haggis

Paul Haggis

Paul Edward Haggis is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director. He spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.-Early life and education:...

 and James Cameron

James Cameron

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

 have all received accolades and awards from the world's most prestigious honorary organizations, and have enjoyed commercial success as well. James Cameron, in particular, wrote and directed the highest and second-highest grossing films ever, Avatar and Titanic

Titanic (1997 film)

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...

, respectively.

Early history

The first films that were shot in Canada were made at Niagara Falls; Lumière, Edison, and Biograph all shot there in 1897. James Freer

James Freer

James Freer was a Canadian film-making pioneer.Born in Bristol, England Freer was a newspaper reporter who emigrated to Manitoba, Canada in 1888 and became a farmer, settling south of Brandon, Manitoba. Less than two years after the Lumiere Brothers exhibited the first film in France, Freer...

 is recognized as the first Canadian filmmaker. A farmer from Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, his documentaries were shown as early as 1897 and were toured across England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in an effort to promote immigration to Manitoba.

The first fiction film, Hiawatha, The Messiah of the Ojibways, was made in 1903 by Joe Rosenthal and the first Canadian feature film, Evangeline

Evangeline (1913 film)

Evangeline is a 1913 Canadian drama film based on the epic poem of the same name. Directed by Edward P. Sullivan and William Cavanaugh, it is the first feature-length film in Canada.-Cast:* Laura Lyman as Evangeline Bellefontaine...

, was produced by the Canadian Bioscope Company in 1913 and shot in Nova Scotia.

In 1917, the province of Ontario established the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau, "to carry out educational work for farmers, school children, factory workers, and other classes." The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau followed in 1918.

In 1938, the Government of Canada

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

 invited John Grierson

John Grierson

John Grierson was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. According to popular myth, in 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film.-Early life:Grierson was born in Deanston, near Doune, Scotland...

, a British film critic and film-maker, to study the state of the government's film production and this led to the National Film Act of 1939 and the establishment of the National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

, an agency of the Canadian government. In part, it was founded to create propaganda in support of the Second World War, and the National Film Act of 1950 gave it the mandate "to interpret Canada to Canadians and to other nations." In the late 1950s, Québécois filmmakers at the NFB and the NFB Candid Eye series of films pioneered the documentary processes that became known as "direct cinema

Direct Cinema

Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...

" or cinema vérité

Cinéma vérité

Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...

.

Federal government measures as early as 1954, and through the 1960s and 1970s, aimed to foster the development of a feature film industry in Canada; in 1968 the Canadian Film Development Corporation was established (later to become Telefilm Canada

Telefilm Canada

Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....

) and an effort to stimulate domestic production through tax shelters peaked in the late 1970s (see Meatballs

Meatballs (film)

Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for the first film appearance of Bill Murray in a starring role and for launching Reitman into a distinguished career of financially successful comedies including Stripes and Ghostbusters , both starring Murray...

 below).

Contemporary production and distribution

As in all cinema, the line between broadcast and cinema continues to be blurred in Canada as the means of production and distribution converge.

A typical Canadian film production is made with money from a complex array of government funding and incentives, government mandated funds from broadcasters, broadcasters themselves, and film distributors. International co-productions are increasingly important for Canadian producers. Smaller films are often funded by arts councils (at all levels of government) and film collectives.

The National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

 is internationally renowned for its animation and documentary production. More recently it has been criticized for its increasingly commercial orientation; only one third of its budget is now spent on the production of new films.

Much of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's film industry services American producers and films driven by American distribution, and this part of the industry has been nicknamed "Hollywood North

Hollywood North

Hollywood North, an allusion to Hollywood, Los Angeles, United States, a notable film centre in the world, is a colloquialism used to describe film production industries and or film locations north of its namesake...

".

The major production centres are Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

; Vancouver is the third largest film and television production centre in North America after Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Alliance Atlantis

Alliance Atlantis

Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. was a Toronto-based media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Shannon and Sydney.Alliance Atlantis was acquired by Canwest...

 (acquired by CanWest Global Communications

CanWest Global Communications

Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate brand Canwest, was a major Canadian media company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place...

 in 2007) is the major Canadian distributor of American and international films and in 2003 it ceased to produce films (and almost all television) to focus almost exclusively on distribution. Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

 has also become a major distributor in recent years.

Distribution continues to be a problem for Canadian filmmakers, though an established network of film festivals also provide important marketing and audience exposure for Canadian films. The major festival is the Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

, considered one of the most important events in North American film, showcasing Hollywood films, cinema from around the world, and Canadian film. The smaller Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...

 features films from around the world, and festivals in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Sudbury (Cinéfest

Cinéfest

Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, also known as Cinéfest is an annual film festival in Sudbury, Ontario. It is the fourth largest film festival in Canada....

), and Halifax (Atlantic Film Festival

Atlantic Film Festival

The Atlantic Film Festival is an international film festival held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Held annually, the ten-day celebration of film and video from Atlantic Canada and around the world is committed to screening an inspiring and engaging collection of films and videos from Canada and the...

)—among other cities—are also important opportunities for Canadian filmmakers to gain exposure among film audiences. Very often, however, a Canadian film's largest opportunity to achieve a significant audience comes from negotiating television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 carriage rights with a broadcaster such as CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

, TMN

The Movie Network

The Movie Network is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service, owned by Astral Media. The service is licensed to operate east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories...

/Movie Central

Movie Central

Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...

 or Showcase.

Problems in the Canadian film industry

Of all Canadian cultural industries, English-Canadian cinema has the hardest time escaping the shadow of its American counterpart. Between the marketing budgets of mainstream films, and the largely US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-controlled film distribution networks, it has been nearly impossible for most distinctively Canadian films to break through to a wide audience. Although Canadian films have often received critical praise, and the National Film Board has won more Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 than almost any other institution (for both their animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 and documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 work), in many Canadian cities moviegoers do not even have the option of seeing such films, as they have poor distribution and are not shown at any theatres. One This Hour Has 22 Minutes

This Hour Has 22 Minutes

This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...

 sketch parodied an Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...

-like director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 whose films had won numerous international awards, but had never actually been released or exhibited.

Almost all Canadian films fail to make back their production costs at the box office. For example, Men With Brooms

Men with Brooms

Men with Brooms is a 2002 Canadian romantic comedy film, starring and directed by Paul Gross. Centred on the sport of curling, the offbeat comedy tells the story of a reunited curling team from a small Canadian town as they work through their respective life issues and struggle to win the...

 made CA$

Canadian dollar

The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

1,000,000 in its general domestic release, which by Canadian standards is fairly high. However, it was made on a budget of over CA$7,000,000. French-Canadian films, on the other hand, are often more successful—as with French-language television, the language difference makes Quebec audiences much more receptive to Canadian-produced films. In most years, the top-grossing Canadian film is a French-language film from Quebec. (See also Cinema of Quebec.) By comparison, Australian films

Cinema of Australia

Cinema of Australia, more commonly referred to as the Australian film industry, refers to the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of films in Australia. Film production commenced in Australia in 1906 with the production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film made...

, made in a country with a smaller population than Canada's, more frequently make their money back from the domestic market. Many do comparatively better; the best known example is Mad Max

Mad Max

Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and revised by Miller and Byron Kennedy over the original script by James McCausland. The film stars Mel Gibson, who was unknown at the time. Its narrative based around the traditional western genre, Mad Max tells a story...

, made with the then unknown Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

, and with a budget of A$

Australian dollar

The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

350,000, and which made A$5.6 million in its domestic release alone.

Although many Canadians have made their names in Hollywood, they have often started their careers in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, despite Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 or Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 being thriving filmmaking centres in their own right. Some actors or directors who have started their early careers in Canada include: David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg

David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...

, John Candy

John Candy

John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...

, Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

, Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...

, Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...

, Mike Myers

Mike Myers (actor)

Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...

, Ivan Reitman

Ivan Reitman

Ivan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...

, Derek Harvie

Derek Harvie

Derek Kevin Harvie is a Canadian entertainment writer and producer. Harvie grew up in Ottawa, and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in film and literature....

, Seth Rogen

Seth Rogen

Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...

, Eugene Levy

Eugene Levy

Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...

, Tom Green

Tom Green

Michael Thomas "Tom" Green is a Canadian actor, rapper, writer, comedian, talk show host and media personality. Best known for his shock humour brand of comedy, Green found mainstream prominence via his MTV television show The Tom Green Show...

, Scott Mosier

Scott Mosier

Scott A Mosier is an American-Canadian film producer, editor, podcaster and actor best known for his work with director Kevin Smith, with whom he co-hosts the weekly podcast, Smodcast.-Early life:...

, and Paul Haggis

Paul Haggis

Paul Edward Haggis is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director. He spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.-Early life and education:...

. However, despite these successes, several actors have favoured moving to Los Angeles to further pursue their careers.

Canada's difficulties in the film industry are often difficult to explain. The following explanations have been proposed for why Canadian films and television have often failed completely to find an export market:

• Films labelled as American films could often be better described as collaborations between Canada and the US. In addition, films which are sometimes designated as "American" productions often involve a higher-percentage of Canadian participation but the "American" designation is favoured for tax purposes. Also, unlike other countries who tend to have citizens with discernible accents, the American media too rarely highlights or identifies actors, actresses, directors or producers as Canadian in origin, leaving the false perception that few Canadians work in the industry.

• Canada's film industry competes directly with that of the United States. Production costs between the two countries are similar (they are lower in Australia) meaning that Canadian films often need a budget equal to that of an American film of similar quality. Canadian film studios rarely, if ever, have the budgets to make films that can directly compete with the most popular Hollywood fare. Instead, the vast majority of Canadian films are character-driven dramas or quirky comedies of the type that often appeal to critics and art house film audiences more than to mass audiences.

• During the 1970s, Canada's tax policy encouraged making films merely to obtain a significant tax credit. As such, many films were produced merely for tax purposes, and quality became unimportant. For example, producers of Canadian films were allowed to take a fee out of the production costs, something that is not allowed in the United States, where producers may only take a fee once the film earns back its production costs (the exact situation that drove the plot line in The Producers
  The Producers (1968 film)
  The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop...
  
  ).

• While British, Australian and American filmmakers embrace their cultural heritage in film, Canadian films often have no discernible connection to Canada. It often comes as a surprise to many people that movies like Porky's
  Porky's
  Porky's is a 1982 comedy film about the escapades of teenagers at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida in 1954. It was released in the United States in 1982, and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day and Porky's Revenge! and influenced many writers in the teen film genre...
  
  , children of a Lesser God
  Children of a Lesser God
  Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Randa Haines and written by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff. An adaptation of Medoff's Tony Award-winning stage play of the same name, the film stars William Hurt and Marlee Matlin as two employees at a school for the deaf:...
  
   and The Art of War
  The Art of War (film)
  The Art of War is a 2000 Canadian-American action film directed by Christian Duguay, and starring Wesley Snipes, Michael Biehn, Anne Archer and Donald Sutherland...
  
   were partially produced in Canada, as they are indistinguishable from films made entirely in the United States.

• When there are major Canadian productions, the lead roles often go to American or British actors. For example, in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, both the role of Duddy and his father went to American-born actors (the then unknown Richard Dreyfuss
  Richard Dreyfuss
  Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
  
   and the established character actor Jack Warden
  Jack Warden
  Jack Warden was an American character actor.-Early life:Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Laura M. and John Warden Lebzelter, who was an engineer and technician. He was of Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry...
  
   respectively). Joseph Wiseman
  Joseph Wiseman
  Joseph Wiseman was a Canadian theater and film actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, his role as Manny Weisbord on Crime Story, and his career on Broadway...
  
  , who played Duddy's uncle, was born in Montreal, but had not lived or worked in Canada in over forty years. Although this phenomenon is not as common today as it was in the 1970s, Canadian films do still sometimes cast famous foreign actors: Michael Caine
  Michael Caine
  Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
  
   starred in the 2003 film The Statement, Helena Bonham Carter
  Helena Bonham Carter
  Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
  
   played the lead role in 1996's Margaret's Museum
  Margaret's Museum
  Margaret's Museum is a critically acclaimed 1995 British-Canadian dark film drama, directed by Mort Ransen and based on Sheldon Currie's novel The Glace Bay Miners' Museum....
  
   and Olivia Newton-John
  Olivia Newton-John
  Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
  
   has a starring role in the forthcoming Score: A Hockey Musical
  Score: A Hockey Musical
  Score: A Hockey Musical is a 2010 Canadian musical film, written and directed by Michael McGowan.-Synopsis:Seventeen-year old Farley Gordon has led a sheltered life, home-schooled and isolated by his parents. His closest friend is Eve, their next door neighbour. When his skill at hockey is...
  
  .

• Unlike radio and television, which both have strict Canadian content
  Canadian content
  Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
  
   regulations, there is no protection for Canadian content in movie theatres. The distribution networks for Canadian movie theatres are largely controlled by the American studio system, and Canada is in fact the only non-U.S.
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   country that is considered part of the domestic market by Hollywood studios. As a result, the marketing budgets and screening opportunities for Canadian films are limited. In many cities outside of Canada's largest metropolitan markets, the local movie theatres almost never book a Canadian film, and even in many of the major markets Canadian films are usually only available in repertory
  Repertory
  Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
  
   theatres. Once again, the exception is Quebec, which has many French-Canadian produced films running on multiple screens all over the province alongside both French-produced films and dubbed or subtitled American films.

• In a phenomenon which can be likened to the theory of cultural cringe
  Cultural cringe
  Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries...
  
  , a considerable number of Canadians reflexively dismiss all Canadian films as inherently inferior to Hollywood studio fare. This is not necessarily connected to reality, as many good films have been made in Canada and many bad ones have been made in Hollywood, but the idea nevertheless presents a significant hurdle to Canadian filmmakers seeking to build an audience for their work.

Case Studies: Porky's and Meatballs

For many years the most successful Canadian film of all time at the Canadian box office was Porky's

Porky's

Porky's is a 1982 comedy film about the escapades of teenagers at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida in 1954. It was released in the United States in 1982, and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day and Porky's Revenge! and influenced many writers in the teen film genre...

; it was produced by a Canadian team (though directed by an American and shot in Florida), but only with one of the major American studios backing distribution. (Porky's record was widely reported as broken in 2006 by the bilingual police comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a 2006 Canadian comedy-thriller buddy cop film about an Ontarian and a Québécois police officer who reluctantly join forces. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French...

, but that assessment does not take inflation into account. Porky's still retains its status as the most successful Canadian film internationally.)

Meatballs

Meatballs (film)

Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for the first film appearance of Bill Murray in a starring role and for launching Reitman into a distinguished career of financially successful comedies including Stripes and Ghostbusters , both starring Murray...

 makes an excellent case study on common criticisms of the Canadian film industry. Produced and shot entirely in Canada on a budget of CA$1,600,000, it was a tremendous hit, one of the most financially successful Canadian films of all time.

As with Children of a Lesser God

Children of a Lesser God

Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Randa Haines and written by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff. An adaptation of Medoff's Tony Award-winning stage play of the same name, the film stars William Hurt and Marlee Matlin as two employees at a school for the deaf:...

, although it takes place in a summer camp

Summer camp

Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....

, there is nothing recognizably Canadian about the location or the characters, except for a Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...

 sweater.

The starring role went to American comedian Bill Murray

Bill Murray

William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...

 in his earliest featured film role. The chief love interest was played by Canadian Kate Lynch

Kate Lynch

Kate Lynch is a Genie Award-winning actress whose career spans four decades. In 1980 she won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Meatballs...

, who won the Genie Award that year for Best Actress. The casting of Americans in the "Tax-Shelter Era", as well as today, often caters to an American audience. However, it provided Murray with his breakout role, which quickly led to major roles in Where the Buffalo Roam

Where the Buffalo Roam

Where the Buffalo Roam is a 1980 American semi-biographical comedy film which loosely depicts Hunter S. Thompson's rise to fame in the 1970s and his relationship with Chicano attorney and activist Oscar Zeta Acosta. Art Linson directed the picture, while Bill Murray portrayed the author and Peter...

, Caddyshack

Caddyshack

Caddyshack is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Ramis, and Douglas Kenney. It stars Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe, Cindy Morgan, and Bill Murray...

, and Stripes

Stripes (film)

Stripes is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, and John Candy. It also featured several actors in their first significant film roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, John Diehl, and Judge Reinhold. It was one...

.

Almost all of its box office gross was in the United States, where it took in US$43,000,000. It received a much more limited release in Canada. Despite its success, the sequel, Meatballs II, was made in the United States with a largely American cast. It was quickly forgotten, along with its Canadian produced follow-up, Meatballs III. None of the sequels even reached US$6 million in general release.

Current developments

The Department of Canadian Heritage

Department of Canadian Heritage

The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage |department]] of the Government of Canada with responsibility for policies and programs regarding the arts, culture, media, communications networks, official languages , status of women, sports , and multiculturalism...

 gave Telefilm Canada

Telefilm Canada

Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....

 more funds in 2001 to help develop the Canadian film industry, with the goal of having Canadian feature films obtain 5% of the domestic box office by 2005. Telefilm divided this between English films then capturing 4% of the market and French films at 12%. At first, the new initiative did not seem to be making much progress: at the end of 2003, English films represented only 1% of the domestic box office, while French films made up 20%. The overall goal of the Canada Feature Film Fund now is to have Canadian feature films capture 5% of the domestic box office by 2006, one year behind schedule.

According to Telefilm Canada, From Script to Screen, the two year old feature film policy created to improve the success rate of Canadian films, is seeing results. Before the initiative, the market share for Canadian films was 1.4% and is now 3.6%. Furthermore, the French-language cinema accounts for 20% of the market.

In recent years, there has been a cultural resurgence in Canada's aforementioned documentary stream. Films exploring Canada's identity and role on the world stage have become popular. Due to a political and social split between their American counterparts, Canadian independent documentaries have begun garnering a cult status. Current examples are Mark Achbar's award winning and top grossing Canadian feature documentary The Corporation, and Albert Nerenberg's underground hit Escape to Canada. These films not only nurture homegrown talent, inspiring local industry but also creating a unique voice for Canada itself.

Notable films

For all the industry's challenges, quite a few Canadian films have succeeded in making a cultural impact. Some of the most famous or important Canadian films include:

• Anvil! The Story of Anvil
  Anvil! The Story of Anvil
  Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a 2008 documentary film about the Canadian heavy metal band, Anvil. The film is directed by screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, whose previous credits include The Big Tease and The Terminal....
  
  
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (film)
• Away From Her
  Away From Her
  Away from Her is a 2006 Canadian film which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and also played in the Premier category at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival...
  
  
• Atanarjuat
  Atanarjuat
  Atanarjuat is a 2001 Canadian film directed by Zacharias Kunuk. It was the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut...
  
   (The Fast Runner)
• Barney's Version
  Barney's Version (film)
  Barney's Version is a 2010 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Richard J. Lewis, based on the novel of the same name by Mordecai Richler...
  
  
• Black Christmas
  Black Christmas (1974 film)
  Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher film directed by Bob Clark and written by A. Roy Moore, and largely based on a series of murders that took place in Quebec, Canada around Christmas time. The film's score is by Carl Zittrer. It was distributed by Ambassador Film Distributors in Canada and...
  
  
• Black Robe
  Black Robe (film)
  Black Robe is a 1991 film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay was written by Northern Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore, who adapted it from his novel of the same name....
  
   (dir. by Australia's Bruce Beresford
  Bruce Beresford
  Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
  
  )
• Bon Cop, Bad Cop
  Bon Cop, Bad Cop
  Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a 2006 Canadian comedy-thriller buddy cop film about an Ontarian and a Québécois police officer who reluctantly join forces. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French...
  
  
• Brand Upon The Brain!
• Breakaway
  Breakaway
  -Albums:* Breakaway , or the title song, "Break Away" * Breakaway , or the title song * Breakaway , or the title song...
  
  
• Les Boys
  Les Boys
  Les Boys is a 1997 Quebec-made comedy film directed by Louis Saia. It has spawned three sequels and by any measure is the most successful Quebec made film series of all time, and one of the most successful Canadian-made film series of all time.-Plot:The plot revolves around the players on a...
  
  
• Careful
• Chloe
  Chloe (film)
  Chloe is a 2009 erotic thriller directed by Atom Egoyan, a remake of the 2004 French film Nathalie.... This version stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried in the title role...
  
  
• The Company of Strangers
  The Company of Strangers
  The Company of Strangers is a Canadian film, released in 1990. It was directed by Cynthia Scott, and written by Scott, Sally Bochner, David Wilson and Gloria Demers...
  
  
• Le Confessionnal (The Confessional)
• The Corporation
• Cowards Bend the Knee
  Cowards Bend the Knee
  Cowards Bend the Knee is a 2003 film by Guy Maddin, starring Darcy Fehr and Melissa Dionisio.The 64 minute film is a reworking of an autobiographical project originally imagined as a peep-show. It is divided into ten short sections, giving it the same sort of episodic quality as old silent matinee...
  
  
• Crash
  Crash (1996 film)
  Crash is a 1996 Canadian/British drama thriller film written and directed by David Cronenberg based on the J. G. Ballard 1973 novel of the same name. It tells the story of a group of people who take sexual pleasure from car accidents, a notable form of paraphilia. The film generated considerable...
  
   (1996)
• C.R.A.Z.Y.
  C.R.A.Z.Y.
  C.R.A.Z.Y. is a 2005 French-language Canadian film from Quebec. The film was directed and co-written by Jean-Marc Vallée. It tells the story of Zac, a young gay man dealing with homophobia and heterosexism while growing up with four brothers and a conservative father in 1960s and 1970s...
  
  
• Cube
  Cube (film)
  Cube is a 1997 Canadian science fiction psychological thriller/horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film was a successful product of the Canadian Film Centre's First Feature Project....
  
  
• Cypher
  Cypher (film)
  Cypher , is a 2002 science fiction thriller film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. The film was written by Brian King and directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film was shown in limited release in theaters in the USA, and released on DVD on August 2nd 2005.-Plot:Morgan Sullivan, a recently...
  
  
• Dead Ringers
  Dead Ringers (film)
  Dead Ringers is a 1988 psychological horror film starring Jeremy Irons in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. Director David Cronenberg co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Snider; their script was based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland...
  
  
• Le Déclin de l'empire américain (The Decline of the American Empire)
• De Père en Flic
  Father and Guns
  Father and Guns is a Canadian comedy film, released in 2009. Directed by Émile Gaudreault, the film stars Michel Côté and Louis-José Houde as Jacques and Marc Laroche, feuding father and son police officers who are forced to reevaluate their relationship when they're paired up on an undercover...
  
   (Father and Guns)
• Down to the Dirt
  Down to the Dirt
  Down to the Dirt is a 2006 film based upon Newfoundland author Joel Hynes' first novel of the same name. The movie has been shot largely in Newfoundland. The film won two awards at the Atlantic Film Festival, one for the best feature film and other for the best screenplay.- Plot :Keith Kavanagh is...
  
  
• Duct Tape Forever
  Duct Tape Forever
  Duct Tape Forever is a 2002 comedy film based on The Red Green Show. It was written by Steve Smith, the actor who plays Red Green.-Plot:...
  
  
• Eastern Promises
• Existenz
  EXistenZ
  eXistenZ is a 1999 body horror/science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law....
  
  
• Exotica
  Exotica (film)
  Exotica is a 1994 Canadian film set primarily in and around the Exotica strip club in Toronto, Canada. It was written and directed by Atom Egoyan. Music used includes "Montagues and Capulets".-Synopsis:...
  
  
• The Five Senses
• FUBAR: The Movie
  FUBAR: The Movie
  FUBAR is a 2002 mockumentary film, directed by Michael Dowse, based on the lives of two lifelong friends and head-bangers living out their lives, constantly drinking beer. FUBAR debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in the 'Park City at Midnight' category, which previously launched such films as...
  
  
• Ginger Snaps
• Goin' Down the Road
  Goin' Down the Road
  Goin' Down the Road is a 1970 Canadian film directed by Donald Shebib and released in 1970. It chronicles the lives of two men from the Maritimes who move to Toronto in order to find a better life. It starred Doug McGrath, Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood and Cayle Chernin...
  
  
• The Grey Fox
  The Grey Fox (film)
  The Grey Fox is a 1982 Canadian film written by John Hunter and directed by Phillip Borsos. It is based on the true story of Bill Miner, an American stagecoach robber who staged Canada's first train robbery on September 10, 1904. The film stars Richard Farnsworth as Miner...
  
  
• H
  H (1990 film)
  -Plot summary:H is about two heroin addicts, Michele, Pascale Montpetit and Snake, Martin Neufeld, who struggle to withdraw from the drug. They do it “cold turkey”. Snake nails the apartment door shut: they are determined to come clean. Michele awakens to discover she has been “betrayed” by her...
  
  
• The Hanging Garden
  The Hanging Garden
  The Hanging Garden is a 1997 British/Canadian movie written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald that is about the duality of life and death and the way seemingly very different choices in life can lead to similar outcomes....
  
  
• Hard Core Logo
  Hard Core Logo
  Hard Core Logo is a 1996 Canadian mockumentary adapted by Noel Baker from the novel of the same name by author Michael Turner. Director Bruce McDonald illustrates the self-destruction of punk rock...
  
  
• Highway 61
  Highway 61 (film)
  Highway 61 is a 1991 film by Canadian director Bruce McDonald.- Synopsis :The film stars Don McKellar as Pokey Jones, an orphaned barber in a small town near Thunder Bay, Ontario who dreams of becoming a jazz musician...
  
  
• How She Move
  How She Move
  How She Move is a 2007 drama film directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid and starring Rutina Wesley, Clé Bennett and Romina D'Ugo. The film showcases the street culture of step dancing...
  
  
• I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
  I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
  I've Heard the Mermaids Singing is a 1987 theatrical-release feature film, directed by Patricia Rozema. The title is taken from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot.-Plot:...
  
  
• Incendies
  Incendies
  Incendies is a 2010 Quebec film written and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play, Scorched, Incendies follows the journey of twin brother and sister as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother's life. The film premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals...
  
  
• Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions)
• Le Violon Rouge (The Red Violin)
• J'ai tué ma mère
  J'ai tué ma mère
  J'ai tué ma mère is a French Canadian film, released in 2009. Written and directed by Xavier Dolan, it is an exposé on the complexity of the mother and son bond. The film attracted international press' attention when it won three awards from the Director's Fortnight program at the 2009 Cannes Film...
  
   (I Killed My Mother)
• Jésus de Montréal (Jesus of Montreal)
• Johnny Mnemonic
  Johnny Mnemonic (film)
  Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk film, loosely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson. The title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information, is played by Keanu Reeves. The film portrays Gibson's dystopian view of the future with the world...
  
   (filmed in Canada]
• Kissed
  Kissed
  Kissed is a 1996 Canadian film, directed and co-written by Lynne Stopkewich, based on Barbara Gowdy's short story "We So Seldom Look On Love"...
  
  
• L'Âge des Ténèbres

• Last Night
• Léolo
  Léolo
  Léolo is a 1992 film by Quebecois director Jean-Claude Lauzon.The film tells the story of Léo Lauzon , a young boy living in a Montreal tenement with his dysfunctional family. He uses his active fantasy life and the book L'avalée des avalés by Québécois novelist Réjean Ducharme to escape the...
  
  
• Lilies
  Lilies (film)
  Lilies is a 1996 Canadian film directed by John Greyson. It is an adaptation by Michel Marc Bouchard and Linda Gaboriau of Bouchard's own play Les feluettes. It depicts a play being performed in a prison by the inmates.-Expository narration:...
  
  
• The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
  The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
  The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1976 Canadian-French film directed by Nicolas Gessner and starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. It was written by Laird Koenig, based on Koenig's 1974 novel of the same title; Koenig also wrote a stage play based on his book...
  
  
• Mambo Italiano
  Mambo Italiano (film)
  Mambo Italiano is a 2003 comedy-drama/indie film, set in Montreal, Québec, Canada, and directed by Émile Gaudreault. The screenplay was written by Gaudreault and Steve Galluccio, based on Galluccio's theatrical play by the same name...
  
  
• Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
  Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
  Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media is a documentary film that explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a linguist, intellectual, and political activist...
  
  
• Margaret's Museum
  Margaret's Museum
  Margaret's Museum is a critically acclaimed 1995 British-Canadian dark film drama, directed by Mort Ransen and based on Sheldon Currie's novel The Glace Bay Miners' Museum....
  
  
• Maria Chapdelaine
  Maria Chapdelaine
  Maria Chapdelaine is a novel written in 1913 by the French writer Louis Hémon, who was then residing in Quebec.-Adaptations:The novel has had three film adaptations, two French and one Québécois: in 1934, by Julien Duvivier, with Madeleine Renaud , and Jean Gabin , partly filmed in Péribonka; in...
  
  
• Meatballs
  Meatballs (film)
  Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for the first film appearance of Bill Murray in a starring role and for launching Reitman into a distinguished career of financially successful comedies including Stripes and Ghostbusters , both starring Murray...
  
  
• Men with Brooms
  Men with Brooms
  Men with Brooms is a 2002 Canadian romantic comedy film, starring and directed by Paul Gross. Centred on the sport of curling, the offbeat comedy tells the story of a reunited curling team from a small Canadian town as they work through their respective life issues and struggle to win the...
  
  
• Mon oncle Antoine
  Mon oncle Antoine
  Mon oncle Antoine is a 1971 National Film Board of Canada French language drama film. Québécois director Claude Jutra co-wrote the screenplay with Clément Perron and directed what is one of the most acclaimed works in Canadian film history.The film examines life in the Maurice Duplessis-era...
  
  
• My Bloody Valentine
  My Bloody Valentine (film)
  My Bloody Valentine is a 1981 Canadian slasher film released in the wake of the popularity of the slasher genre that had overtaken the 1970s...
  
  
• My Winnipeg
  My Winnipeg
  My Winnipeg is a feature film directed by Guy Maddin. Starring Ann Savage, the film is a surrealist-inflected pseudo-documentary about Winnipeg, Maddin's home town...
  
  
• New Waterford Girl
  New Waterford Girl
  New Waterford Girl is a Canadian drama-comedy film, released in 1999. The film was directed by Allan Moyle, and written by Tricia Fish.New Waterford Girl stars Liane Balaban as Agnes-Marie "Moonie" Pottie, a teenager in New Waterford, Nova Scotia who dreams of life beyond her small-town home...
  
  
• Neighbours
  Neighbours (film)
  Neighbours is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film uses the technique known as pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects...
  
  
• Once Upon a Time in the East
  Once Upon a Time in the East
  Once Upon a Time in the East is a 1974 Canadian drama film directed by André Brassard. It was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Denise Filiatrault - Hélène* Michelle Rossignol - Pierrette* Frédérique Collin - Lise Paquette...
  
  
• One Week
  One Week (2008 film)
  One Week is a 2008 Canadian film directed by Michael McGowan and starring Joshua Jackson, Liane Balaban, and Campbell Scott. The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on September 8, 2008 and was released theatrically on March 6, 2009....
  
  
• Outrageous!
  Outrageous!
  Outrageous! is a Canadian comedy film, released in 1977. The film was directed and written by Richard Benner, and based on a short story by Margaret Gibson. The film stars Craig Russell as Robin Turner, a drag queen, and Hollis McLaren as Liza Conners, Turner's schizophrenic roommate...
  
  
• Passchendaele
  Passchendaele (film)
  Passchendaele is a 2008 Canadian war film from Alliance Films, written, co-produced, directed by, and starring Paul Gross. The film, which was shot in Calgary, Alberta, Fort Macleod, Alberta, and in Belgium, focuses on the experiences of a Canadian soldier, Michael Dunne, at the Battle of...
  
  
• Porky's
  Porky's
  Porky's is a 1982 comedy film about the escapades of teenagers at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida in 1954. It was released in the United States in 1982, and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day and Porky's Revenge! and influenced many writers in the teen film genre...
  
  
• Pour la suite du monde
  Pour la suite du monde
  Pour la suite du monde is a 1963 Canadian documentary film directed by Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault. It was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival....
  
   (For Those Who Will Follow)
• Prom Night
• The Rocket
• The Saddest Music in the World
  The Saddest Music in the World
  The Saddest Music in the World is a 2003 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin. It stars Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox and Ross McMillan....
  
  
• Saint Ralph
  Saint Ralph
  Saint Ralph is a 2004 Canadian drama film written and directed by Michael McGowan. Its central character is a teenaged boy who trains for the 1954 Boston Marathon in the hope a victory will be the miracle his mother needs to awaken from a coma....
  
  
• Scanners
  Scanners
  Scanners is a 1981 science-fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan...
  
  
• Snow Walker
  The Snow Walker
  The Snow Walker is a 2003 Canadian film based on the short story "Walk Well, My Brother" by Farley Mowat. It was written and directed by Charles Martin Smith and starred Barry Pepper, James Cromwell, and Annabella Piugattuk....
  
  
• Splice
  Splice (film)
  Splice is a 2009 Canadian/French science fiction horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. The story concerns experiments in genetic engineering being done by a young scientist couple who attempt to introduce human DNA into their work of splicing animal...
  
  
• Strange Brew
  Strange Brew
  The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew is a 1983 Canadian comedy film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors. Max von Sydow co-stars....
  
  
• Sunshine
  Sunshine (1999 film)
  Sunshine is a 1999 historical film written by Israel Horovitz and István Szabó, directed and produced by István Szabó. It follows three generations of a Jewish family during the changes in Hungary from the beginning of the 20th century to the...
  
  
• The Sweet Hereafter
  The Sweet Hereafter
  The Sweet Hereafter is a 1991 novel by American author Russell Banks. It is set in a small town in the aftermath of a deadly school bus accident that has killed most of the town's children...
  
  
• The Take
• Tales from the Gimli Hospital
  Tales from the Gimli Hospital
  Tales from the Gimli Hospital, directed by Guy Maddin, is a black-and-white 1988 psychodrama which incorporates elements of surrealism, black comedy, and expressionism.-Plot synopsis:...
  
  
• Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
  Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
  Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is an award-winning 1993 film about the piano prodigy Glenn Gould played by Colm Feore. The film's screenplay was written by François Girard and Don McKellar....
  
  
• Ticket To Heaven
  Ticket to Heaven
  Ticket to Heaven is a 1981 Canadian film about the recruiting of a man into a group portrayed to be a cult, and his life in the group until forcibly extracted by his family and friends. The film was directed by Ralph L. Thomas...
  
  
• Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
• Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day
  Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day
  Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day is a 2009 Canadian mockumentary comedy/crime film directed by Mike Clattenburg. It is the second film based on the Canadian television series Trailer Park Boys, following 2005's Trailer Park Boys: The Movie...
  
  
• Touch of Pink
  Touch of Pink
  Touch of Pink is a 2004 film directed and written by Ian Iqbal Rashid. and takes its name from the Cary Grant film That Touch of Mink.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• Videodrome
  Videodrome
  Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and singer Deborah Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small cable station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring...
  
  
• Water
• waydowntown
  Waydowntown
  waydowntown is a film directed by Gary Burns, released in 2000 which explores office driven culture. The film takes place in Calgary, Alberta, where many downtown buildings are connected by a network of skywalks called Plus 15. As a result, the hustle and bustle of the main street has been...
  
  
• Wavelength
• Whale Music
  Whale Music (film)
  Whale Music is a 1994 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Richard J. Lewis. It is based on the comic novel of the same name by Paul Quarrington .-Plot:...
  
  
• Winter Kept Us Warm
  Winter Kept Us Warm
  Winter Kept Us Warm is a Canadian romantic drama film, released in 1965. The title comes from the fifth line of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land....
  
  
• Un Zoo la nuit (Night Zoo)

See Also:

• Canadian Film Award
  Canadian Film Award
  The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually except in 1974 when Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation that year....
  
  
• Genie Award for Best Motion Picture
  Genie Award for Best Motion Picture
  The Genie Award for Best Motion Picture is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian motion picture.-1st Genie Awards:*The Changeling *Cordélia...
  
  
• Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction
  Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction
  The Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian film director.-1st Genie Awards:*Bob Clark, Murder by Decree*Peter Carter, Klondike Fever...
  
  

Directors

Canadian film tends to be more director-driven than star-driven, and have much more in common with the European auteur model of filmmaking than with the Hollywood star system. The most famous Canadian film directors are very often the real star power of their films, more so than the actors they cast.

Notable Canadian film directors include:

Name	Lifetime	Notable works as Director
Paul Almond Paul Almond Paul Almond, is a Canadian former television and motion picture screenwriter, director and producer, and since 1990 has been a novelist.-Life and career:...	b. 1931	Isabel Isabel (film) Isabel is a 1968 Canadian film written, directed and produced by Paul Almond. -Synopsis:Learning of her mother's serious illness, Isabel returns to her family's farm on the Gaspé Peninsula. Her mother dies before she can get there, and when her aged uncle Matthew asks her to stay on and help him...   »  The Act of the Heart The Act of the Heart The Act of the Heart is a 1970 Canadian film written, directed and produced by Paul Almond.- Synopsis :Martha Hayes , a devoutly religious young woman from Québec's Côte-Nord who fancies herself as some kind of a saint, arrives in Montréal to serve as nanny to Russell , the son of a widowed...   »  Journey Journey (1972 film) Journey is a 1972 Canadian film written, directed and produced by Paul Almond.-Synopsis:Journey is the allegorical story of a young woman's struggle - outside the normal framework of space and time - to find herself....
Denys Arcand Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand, is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions...	b. 1941	La maudite galette  »  Réjeanne Padovani  »  Le déclin de l'empire américain Le Déclin de l'empire américain The Decline of the American Empire is a 1986 Québécois comedy/drama film directed by Denys Arcand. It was followed by a sequel, The Barbarian Invasions in 2003.-Synopsis:...   »  Jésus de Montréal  »  Les invasions barbares Les Invasions barbares The Barbarian Invasions is a 2003 French Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Denys Arcand. It is the sequel to Arcand's earlier film The Decline of the American Empire and is followed by Days of Darkness. The film was produced by companies from both Canada and France, including Telefilm Canada,...
Frédéric Back Frédéric Back Frédéric Back, OC, CQ is a Canadian artist and film director of short animated films.-Biography:Born in Saarbrücken, The Territory of the Saar Basin, he emigrated to Canada in 1948...	b. 1924	Tout rien  »  Crac Crac Crac is a 1981 animated short film produced, written and directed by Frédéric Back. The story follows the experiences of a rocking chair, from its creation from a tree through its time as a member of a Canadian farming family....   »  L'homme qui plantait des arbres The Man Who Planted Trees (film) The Man Who Planted Trees is a 1987 Canadian short animated film directed by Frédéric Back. It is based on the story of the same name by Jean Giono...   »  Le fleuve aux grandes eaux
Jean Beaudin Jean Beaudin Jean Beaudin is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He has directed 20 films since 1969. His film J.A. Martin Photographer, was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, where Monique Mercure won the award for Best Actress. The film also won best Film, he won best Director, and Mercure...	b. 1939	Jeux de la XXIe olympiade  »  J.A. Martin, photographe J.A. Martin Photographer J.A. Martin Photographer is a 1977 Canadian drama film directed by Jean Beaudin. It was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, where Monique Mercure won the award for Best Actress...   »  Cordélia Cordélia Cordélia is a 1980 Canadian French language film based on the book La lampe dans la fenêtre by Pauline Cadieux. It was directed and written by Jean Beaudin.- Plot :...   »  Le matou Le Matou Le Matou is a 1985 Canadian/French French-language drama film based on the homonymous novel of Yves Beauchemin.- Plot :Florent and his wife Elise always had one dream: to own a restaurant...   »  Being at Home with Claude Being at Home with Claude Being at Home with Claude is a 1992 Canadian drama film directed by Jean Beaudin and based on the play by René-Daniel Dubois.The film stars Roy Dupuis as Yves, a gay man who has just murdered his lover Claude , and is attempting to explain his reasons to the police investigator .At the 13th Genie...
Louis Bélanger Louis Bélanger Louis Bélanger is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He has a degree in Communications from UQAM. He is a close friend and collaborator of filmmaker Denis Chouinard; both men created several short films together before branching off into their own careers with feature films...	b. 1964	Post Mortem  »  Gaz Bar Blues
Charles Binamé Charles Binamé Charles Binamé is a Quebec director. He was born in Belgium and came to Montreal with his family at a young age. In 1971, he began work as an assistant director with the National Film Board of Canada. During the 1980s, he directed commercials in England...	b. 1949	Eldorado  »  Le coeur au poing  »  Séraphin: un homme et son péché Séraphin: un homme et son péché Séraphin: un homme et son péché is a Quebec film released in 2002. The script is based on a novel by Claude-Henri Grignon...   »  Maurice Richard Maurice Richard (film) Maurice Richard is a French language Canadian biopic about the ice hockey player Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. It was released in English Canada as The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story. It was released in the United States as The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard and was distributed by...
Phillip Borsos Phillip Borsos Phillip Borsos was Canadian film director and film producer.Borsos showed an early interest in film-making while attending high school in Maple Ridge, B.C...	1953-1995	The Grey Fox  »  Bethune: The Making of a Hero
Michel Brault Michel Brault Michel Brault, OQ is a Quebec cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s...	b. 1928	La lutte  »  Pour la suite du monde Pour la suite du monde Pour la suite du monde is a 1963 Canadian documentary film directed by Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault. It was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival....   »  Entre la mer et l'eau douce Entre la mer et l'eau douce Between Salt and Sweet Water , also known as Drifting Upstream, is a 1967 Québécois film directed by Michel Brault, co-written by Brault, Gérald Godin, Marcel Dubé, Claude Jutra and Denys Arcand....   »  Les ordres  »  Les noces de papier
Donald Brittain Donald Brittain Donald Brittain, O.C. was a film director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada.Fields of Sacrifice is considered Brittain's first major film as director....	1928-1989	Memorandum Memorandum (film) Memorandum is a one-hour 1965 documentary co-directed by Donald Brittain and John Spotton, following a Jewish Holocaust survivor on an emotional pilgrimage back to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Produced by John Kemeny for the National Film Board of Canada, the film received several awards...   »  Volcano Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry is a 1976 Canadian documentary film about writer Malcolm Lowry. Written and directed by Donald Brittain and John Kramer, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature....   »  Paperland Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed is a 1979 documentary film critiquing bureaucracy, written and directed by Donald Brittain and produced by the National Film Board of Canada and CBC-TV.-Genie Awards:...   »  The Champions The Champions (documentary miniseries) The Champions is a three-part Canadian documentary mini-series on lives of Canadian political titans and adversaries Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque....   »  Canada's Sweetheart Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks is a Canadian docudrama, written and produced by Donald Brittain. It aired in 1985 on CBC Television....
Gary Burns	b. 1960	Kitchen Party Kitchen Party (film) Kitchen Party is a 1997 film written and directed by Gary Burns . The movie cast a number of then-unknown young Canadian actors, including Scott Speedman, Laura Harris, and Tygh Runyan, and was released on September 8, 1997 at the Toronto Film Festival.- Plot summary :In the bored suburban...   »  waydowntown Waydowntown waydowntown is a film directed by Gary Burns, released in 2000 which explores office driven culture. The film takes place in Calgary, Alberta, where many downtown buildings are connected by a network of skywalks called Plus 15. As a result, the hustle and bustle of the main street has been...   »  Radiant City Radiant City Radiant City is a National Film Board of Canada filmreleased in 2006 at the Toronto Film Festival, about suburban sprawl and the fictional Moss family who live in the suburbs, written and directed by Gary Burns and Jim Brown....
Gilles Carle	1928-2009	La vie heureuse de Léopold Z La vie heureuse de Léopold Z La vie heureuse de Léopold Z is a 1965 comedy-drama by Gilles Carle that played a key role in efforts to create a popular national cinema in Quebec....   »  La vraie nature de Bernadette The True Nature of Bernadette The True Nature of Bernadette is a 1972 Canadian drama film directed by Gilles Carle. It was entered into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:*...   »  La mort d'un bûcheron The Death of a Lumberjack The Death of a Lumberjack is a 1973 Canadian drama film directed by Gilles Carle. It was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Carole Laure - Marie Chapdeleine* Willie Lamothe - Armand St. Amour* Daniel Pilon - François Paradis...   »  La tête de Normande St-Onge  »  Les Plouffe Les Plouffe Les Plouffe is a Canadian drama film, based on a novel, about the titular Plouffe family, set during World War II.-Awards:...
Marcel Carrière Marcel Carrière Marcel Carrière is a Canadian film director and sound engineer.-Biography:Marcel Carrière joined the NFB in 1955 after studying electronic engineering and developed his skills as a sound engineer while working on wildlife films, the Candid Eye series and the work of the newly formed French Unit...	b. 1935	La lutte  »  Pour la suite du monde Pour la suite du monde Pour la suite du monde is a 1963 Canadian documentary film directed by Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault. It was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival....   »  Avec tambours et trompettes  »  O.K. ... Laliberté  »  Ti-mine, Bernie pis la gang...
Jack Chambers Jack Chambers John "Jack" Chambers was a Canadian artist and filmmaker. Born in London, Ontario, Chambers' painting style shifted from surrealist-influenced to photo-realist. He began working with film in the 1960s, completing six by 1970...	1931-1978	Circle  »  The Hart of London The Hart of London The Hart of London is a 1970 experimental Canadian film directed by Jack Chambers. Stan Brakhage proclaimed it as "one of the greatest films ever made". Shot in black and white and colour, the film is preoccupied with the tensions between nature and the city of London, Ontario.-Bibliography:*...
Denis Chouinard Denis Chouinard Denis Chouinard is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He has a degree in Filmmaking from Cégep de Saint-Laurent and a degree in Communications from UQAM. He is a close friend and collaborator of filmmaker Louis Bélanger; both men created several short films together before branching off...	b. 1964	Clandestins  »  L'ange de goudron
F. R. Crawley F. R. Crawley Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley, OC was an Academy Award winning film producer from Canada.-Career:Crawley was known for making avant-garde films with his wife Judith Crawley...	1911-1987	The Loon's Necklace  »  Newfoundland Scene
David Cronenberg David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...	b. 1943	Videodrome Videodrome Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and singer Deborah Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small cable station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring...   »  Dead Ringers Dead Ringers (film) Dead Ringers is a 1988 psychological horror film starring Jeremy Irons in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. Director David Cronenberg co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Snider; their script was based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland...   »  Naked Lunch Naked Lunch (film) Naked Lunch is the 1991 Canadian/British/Japanese film adaptation, directed by David Cronenberg, of William S. Burroughs' novel of the same name...   »  Crash Crash (1996 film) Crash is a 1996 Canadian/British drama thriller film written and directed by David Cronenberg based on the J. G. Ballard 1973 novel of the same name. It tells the story of a group of people who take sexual pleasure from car accidents, a notable form of paraphilia. The film generated considerable...
Fernand Dansereau Fernand Dansereau Fernand Dansereau is a Canadian film director and film producer.-Biography:After five years working as a reporter for the Montreal daily Le Devoir, Dansereau joined the NFB in 1955. He was a founding member of the NFB's French Unit and until 1960, he wrote and directed several feature films and...	b. 1928	Astataïon ou Le festin des morts  »  Faut aller parmi l'monde pour le savoir  »  Doux aveux  »  La brunante
Xavier Dolan Xavier Dolan Xavier Dolan , sometimes credited as Xavier Dolan-Tadros, is a Québécois actor and filmmaker, the son of Geneviève Dolan, a teacher, and Manuel Tadros, a Quebecois actor and singer of Egyptian descent...	b. 1989	J'ai tué ma mère J'ai tué ma mère J'ai tué ma mère is a French Canadian film, released in 2009. Written and directed by Xavier Dolan, it is an exposé on the complexity of the mother and son bond. The film attracted international press' attention when it won three awards from the Director's Fortnight program at the 2009 Cannes Film...   »  Les amours imaginaires
Georges Dufaux Georges Dufaux Georges Dufaux was a Canadian documentary film director and cinematographer.-Biography:...	1927-2008	À votre santé  »  Au bout de mon âge  »  Les jardins d'hiver  »  Gui Daò - Sur la voie  »  10 jours...48 heures
Christian Duguay Christian Duguay (director) Christian Duguay is a Canadian director. He directed the Emmy nominated miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil, which aired on the CBC in May 2003. He is best known for directing the action films Screamers starring Peter Weller and Roy Dupuis and The Art of War starring Wesley Snipes and Michael...	b. 1957	Screamers  »  The Assignment  »  Joan of Arc  »  Hitler: The Rise of Evil Hitler: The Rise of Evil Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a Canadian TV miniseries in two parts, directed by Christian Duguay and produced by Alliance Atlantis. It explores Adolf Hitler's rise and his early consolidation of power during the years after World War I and focuses on how the embittered, politically fragmented and...
Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...	b. 1960	Speaking Parts Speaking Parts Speaking Parts is a 1989 Canadian drama film from Atom Egoyan. It earned a Best Motion Picture nomination, including five others, at the 1989 Genie Awards.- Plot :...   »  Exotica  »  The Sweet Hereafter The Sweet Hereafter (film) The Sweet Hereafter is a 1997 Canadian film written and directed by Atom Egoyan. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Russell Banks.-Plot:...   »  Felicia's Journey Felicia's Journey Felicia's Journey is a 1999 film starring Elaine Cassidy and Bob Hoskins, based on a prize winning 1994 novel by William Trevor. It was directed by Atom Egoyan...   »  Ararat Ararat (film) Ararat is a 2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Atom Egoyan based loosely on the Siege of Van during the Armenian Genocide, an event that is disputed by the government of Turkey. In addition to exploring the human impact of that specific historical event, the film also examines the...   »  Chloe Chloe (film) Chloe is a 2009 erotic thriller directed by Atom Egoyan, a remake of the 2004 French film Nathalie.... This version stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried in the title role...
Robert Favreau Robert Favreau Robert Favreau is a French Canadian film director and film editor.His film Les muses orphelines earned him Genie Award and Jutra Award nominations for Best Director...	b. 1948	Les muses orphelines  »  Un dimanche à Kigali A Sunday in Kigali A Sunday in Kigali is a 2006 Canadian feature film set during the Rwandan genocide.Directed by Robert Favreau, it relates the story of Bernard Valcourt, a documentary film maker and journalist who falls in love with a young Rwandan woman, Gentille, who works at the Hôtel Des Mille Collines...
Thom Fitzgerald Thom Fitzgerald Thomas "Thom" Fitzgerald is an award winning American-Canadian film director as well live theater director.-Life:Fitzgerald was born and raised in New Rochelle, New York. His parents divorced when he was five years old. He moved with his mother and brother, Timothy Jr., to Bergenfield, New Jersey,...	b. 1968	The Hanging Garden The Hanging Garden The Hanging Garden is a 1997 British/Canadian movie written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald that is about the duality of life and death and the way seemingly very different choices in life can lead to similar outcomes....   »  Beefcake Beefcake (film) Beefcake is a docu-drama homage to the muscle magazines of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s—in particular, Physique Pictorial magazine, published by Bob Mizer of the Athletic Model Guild. It was inspired by a picture book by F...   »  3 Needles 3 Needles 3 Needles is a 2005 Canadian drama film directed by Thom Fitzgerald. The title, refers to the three main characters who make a deal with the Devil in order to survive a global epidemic...
André Forcier André Forcier André Forcier is a Quebec film director and screenwriter. His work has been linked to Latin American magic realism by its use of fantasy but is firmly rooted in Quebec's reality....	b. 1947	Bar Salon  »  Au clair de la lune  »  Une histoire inventée Une histoire inventée Une histoire inventée is a 1990 Canadian drama film.-Plot:Toni is the director of a staged rendition of Othello in Montreal. It is a pet project of his, financed by his mafia uncle. Unbeknownst to him, the audiences are also rounded up and paid by the same uncle...   »  Le vent du Wyoming
Beryl Fox Beryl Fox Beryl Fox is a Canadian documentary film director and film producer.-Biography:After graduating from the University of Toronto she was hired by the CBC and worked there from 1962 to 1966, first as a script assistant and researcher and then as a film director. Fox had a gift for understanding...	b. 1931	One More River  »  Summer in Mississippi  »  The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam  »  Saigon: Portrait of a City  »  Last Reflections on a War
François Girard François Girard François Girard is a French-Canadian director and screenwriter particularly noted for his innovative film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. Born in Quebec, Girard's career began on the Montreal art video circuit...	b. 1963	Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is an award-winning 1993 film about the piano prodigy Glenn Gould played by Colm Feore. The film's screenplay was written by François Girard and Don McKellar....   »  The Red Violin The Red Violin The Red Violin is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed by François Girard. It spans three centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners...
Jacques Godbout Jacques Godbout Jacques Godbout, CQ is a Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet. By his own admission a bit of a dabbler , Godbout has become one of the most important writers of his generation, with a major influence on post-1960 Quebec intellectual life.-Biography:Born in...	b. 1933	YUL 871  »  Kid Sentiment  »  La gammick  »  Deux épisodes dans la vie d'Hubert Aquin  »  Alias Will James
John Greyson John Greyson John Greyson is a Canadian filmmaker, whose work frequently deals with gay themes. Greyson is also a video artist, writer and activist; he is currently a professor at York University, where he teaches film and video theory and film production and editing.-Background:Greyson was born the son of...	b. 1960	Zero Patience Zero Patience Zero Patience is a 1993 Canadian musical film written and directed by John Greyson. The film examines and refutes the urban legend of the alleged introduction of HIV to North America by a single individual, Gaëtan Dugas...   »  Lilies Lilies (film) Lilies is a 1996 Canadian film directed by John Greyson. It is an adaptation by Michel Marc Bouchard and Linda Gaboriau of Bouchard's own play Les feluettes. It depicts a play being performed in a prison by the inmates.-Expository narration:...   »  The Law of Enclosures The Law of Enclosures (film) The Law of Enclosures is a Canadian drama film, released in 1999. The film was written and directed by John Greyson, and based on the novel The Law of Enclosures by Dale Peck....   »  Fig Trees Fig Trees Fig Trees is a 2009 Canadian operatic documentary film written and directed by John Greyson. It follows South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat and Canadian AIDS activist Tim McCaskell as they fight for access to treatment for HIV/AIDS. It was also inspired by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's...
Gilles Groulx Gilles Groulx Gilles Groulx was a Canadian film director. He grew up in a working-class family with 14 children. After studying business in school, he went to work in an office but found the white-collar environment too stultifying...	1931-1994	Golden Gloves  »  Le chat dans le sac Le chat dans le sac Le chat dans le sac is a 1964 drama film by Gilles Groulx, which played a seminal role in the development of Quebec cinema...   »  Où êtes-vous donc?  »  Entre tu et vous  »  24 heures ou plus...
Claude Jutra Claude Jutra Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director and writer. The Prix Jutra are named in his honor because of his importance in Quebec cinema history. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec....	1930-1986	Les mains nettes  »  À tout prendre  »  Wow Wow (film) Wow was a Québécois movie in 1970 directed by Claude Jutra and starring Danielle Bail. It was produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 1969.-Sequel:...   »  Mon oncle Antoine Mon oncle Antoine Mon oncle Antoine is a 1971 National Film Board of Canada French language drama film. Québécois director Claude Jutra co-wrote the screenplay with Clément Perron and directed what is one of the most acclaimed works in Canadian film history.The film examines life in the Maurice Duplessis-era...   »  Kamouraska Kamouraska (film) Kamouraska is a 1973 Québécois film directed by Claude Jutra, based on the novel by Anne Hébert, who also worked as screenwriter.-Synopsis:The film is set in rural Québec in the 1830s....
Ron Kelly Ron Kelly (filmmaker) Ron Kelly is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He began his career with the CBC film unit, directing many short and documentary films between 1952 and 1964. He traveled to France, Spain and Mexico producing and directing documentaries independently from 1956 to 1958...	b. 1929	The Open Grave Horizon (Canadian TV series) Horizon was a Canadian current affairs television series which aired on CBC Television from 1963 to 1964.-Premise:Most episodes of the series featured documentaries from various producers on various topics, with the notable exception of the fictional treatment in "The Open Grave" which was...   »  The Gift  »  The Last Man in the World Wojeck Wojeck is a Canadian dramatic television series, which aired on the CBC from 1966 to 1968. It was the first successful drama series on English Canadian television....   »  Waiting for Caroline Waiting for Caroline Waiting for Caroline is a 1967 Canadian drama film directed by Ron Kelly and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.-Plot:Caroline is torn between two cultures, the English-speaking community of Vancouver where she grew up and the French-speaking Québec where she is currently living...
Larry Kent Larry Kent (filmmaker) Larry Kent is a Canadian filmmaker.-Biography:Larry Kent emigrated from South Africa to Vancouver, Canada in 1957 and immersed himself in the world of theatre....	b. 1937	The Bitter Ash  »  Sweet Substitute  »  When Tomorrow Dies  »  High High (1967 film) High is a film released in 1967, directed by Larry Kent and starring Lanny Beckman, Astri Thorvik, Peter Mathews, Joyce Cay, and Denis Payne...   »  Mothers and Daughters
Allan King Allan King Allan Winton King, OC was a Canadian film director.-Life:During the Depression, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School in Kitsilano, Vancouver...	1930-2009	Warrendale Warrendale Warrendale is a 1967 documentary film by Canadian filmmaker Allan King. It was originally produced for broadcast on CBC Television, but was never shown due to King's refusal to edit out the copious profanity in the footage....   »  A Married Couple  »  Who Has Seen the Wind  »  Termini Station Termini Station (film) Termini Station is a Canadian drama film, released in 1989. It was directed by Allan King, and written by Colleen Murphy.The film stars Colleen Dewhurst and Megan Follows as Molly and Micheline Dushane, a mother and daughter living in a small Northern Ontario town...   »  Dying at Grace
Wolf Koenig Wolf Koenig Wolf Koenig is a Canadian film director, producer, animator, cinematographer, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema at the NFB.-Early life:...	b. 1927	City of Gold  »  The Days Before Christmas  »  Glenn Gould: On & Off the Record  »  Lonely Boy Lonely Boy (film) Lonely Boy is a 1962 cinema verite documentary about former teen sensation Paul Anka. The film takes its name from Anka's hit song, Lonely Boy, which he performs to screaming fans in the film...   »  Stravinsky
Roman Kroitor Roman Kroitor Roman Kroitor is a Canadian filmmaker who is known as an early practitioner of Cinéma vérité, as co-founder of IMAX, and as creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic animation system...	b. 1927	Paul Tomkowicz: Street-railway Switchman  »  Universe  »  Lonely Boy Lonely Boy (film) Lonely Boy is a 1962 cinema verite documentary about former teen sensation Paul Anka. The film takes its name from Anka's hit song, Lonely Boy, which he performs to screaming fans in the film...   »  Stravinsky  »  Labyrinth In the Labyrinth In the Labyrinth was a groundbreaking multi-screen presentation at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It used 35mm and 70mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens and was the precursor of today's IMAX format.The film split elements across the five screens and also combined them for a...
Jean-Claude Labrecque Jean-Claude Labrecque Jean-Claude Labrecque, is a director and cinematographer who learned the basics of filmmaking at the Quebec Film Office and the National Film Board of Canada.-Career:...	b. 1938	60 cycles  »  La visite du général de Gaulle au Québec  »  Les smattes  »  Les vautours  »  La nuit de la poésie Trilogy
Arthur Lamothe Arthur Lamothe Arthur Lamothe is a French Canadian film director and film producer.-Biography:Lamothe immigrated to Canada in 1953 and immediately got a job as a lumberjack in the Abitibi region of northern Quebec. In 1954 he began studying economic science at the Université de Montréal...	b. 1928	Bûcherons de la Manouane  »  Poussière sur la ville  »  Le mépris n'aura qu'un temps  »  La conquête de l'Amérique
Micheline Lanctôt Micheline Lanctôt Micheline Lanctôt is an actress, film director, screenwriter, and musician.-Biography:Lanctôt's post-secondary education was in music, fine arts and theatre at Collège Jésus-Marie in Outremont, and in art history before switching to film animation, which she...	b. 1947	L'homme à tout faire  »  Sonatine  »  Deux actrices
Ryan Larkin Ryan Larkin Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic 1969 Oscar-nominated short Walking and the acclaimed Street Musique . He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.-Home life and education:Ryan Larkin's father was an airline mechanic...	1943-2007	Syrinx  »  Cityscape  »  Walking Walking (1968 animated film) Walking is a 1968 animated film by Canadian directed and produced by Ryan Larkin, composed of animated vignettes of how different people walk....   »  Street Musique
Jean-Claude Lauzon Jean-Claude Lauzon Jean-Claude Lauzon was a Canadian filmmaker. Born to a humble family in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Lauzon worked a variety of odd jobs after dropping out of high school. He went on to study film at the Université du Québec à Montréal at the behest of Andre Petrowski, a member of the National Film...	1953-1997	Piwi  »  Un zoo la nuit  »  Léolo Léolo Léolo is a 1992 film by Quebecois director Jean-Claude Lauzon.The film tells the story of Léo Lauzon , a young boy living in a Montreal tenement with his dysfunctional family. He uses his active fantasy life and the book L'avalée des avalés by Québécois novelist Réjean Ducharme to escape the...
Caroline Leaf Caroline Leaf Caroline Leaf is a Canadian-American filmmaker and animator.Leaf made her first film, Sand, or Peter and the Wolf, in 1968 at Harvard University. The short was made by dumping sand on a light box and manipulating the textures frame-by-frame.Her second film, Orfeo , had her painting directly on...	b. 1946	The Owl Who Married a Goose  »  The Street The Street (film) The Street is a 1976 animated short by Caroline Leaf, based on a short story of the of same name by Mordecai Richler.Set on Saint Urbain Street in Montreal, the explores the reactions of Jewish family in the early 20th century to the death of a grandmother.Animated using paint on glass animation,...   »  The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa  »  Two Sisters Two Sisters (animated short) Two Sisters is a 1991 animated short by Caroline Leaf, produced by the National Film Board of Canada.Made using the drawn on film animation technique, the film was etched by Leaf directly onto tinted 70 mm film. The film tells the story of two sisters who live a self-contained existence until the...
Jacques Leduc Jacques Leduc Jacques Leduc is a Canadian film director and cinematographer.-Biography:Leduc began his career in 1961 working as a film critic for the magazine Objectif. The following year, at the age of 21, he was hired as a camera assistant by the NFB...	b. 1941	On est loin du soleil  »  Tendresse ordinaire  »  Le dernier glacier  »  Trois pommes à côté du sommeil  »  La vie fantôme
Jean Pierre Lefebvre Jean Pierre Lefebvre Jean Pierre Lefebvre is a French Canadian filmmaker. He is widely admired as "the godfather of independent Canadian cinema," particularly among young, independent filmmakers....	b. 1941	Abel Trilogy  »  Les maudits sauvages  »  Les dernières fiançailles  »  Avoir 16 ans  »  Les fleurs sauvages
Robert Lepage Robert Lepage Robert Lepage, is a playwright, actor, film director, and stage director from Québec City, Québec, and is one of Canada's most honoured theatre artists.- Life and work :...	b. 1957	Le Confessional Le Confessional The Confessional is a 1994 mystery / drama film directed by Robert Lepage.The film is set in Quebec City, in two distinct time periods. In the present day, Pierre Lamontagne searches for his brother Marc to help unravel a family mystery...   »  Nô Nô (film) Nô is a 1998 film by director Robert Lepage. It was based on one segment in Lepage's play Seven Streams of the River Ota.The title is a pun which reflects the film's dramatic structure, linking the 1980 Quebec referendum to Japanese Nō theatre.-Plot:The film is set in 1970 at the height of the FLQ...   »  Possible Worlds Possible Worlds (film) Possible Worlds is a 2000 Canadian film adaptation of the play of the same name. The film is directed by Robert Lepage, and stars Tom McCamus and Tilda Swinton...   »  La face cachée de la lune
Richard J. Lewis Richard J. Lewis Richard J. Lewis is a television and film director born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.From 2002 to 2009, Lewis worked on the CBS television crime`drama series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as writer, director and co-executive producer....		Whale Music Whale Music (film) Whale Music is a 1994 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Richard J. Lewis. It is based on the comic novel of the same name by Paul Quarrington .-Plot:...   »  Barney's Version Barney's Version (film) Barney's Version is a 2010 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Richard J. Lewis, based on the novel of the same name by Mordecai Richler...
Arthur Lipsett Arthur Lipsett Arthur Lipsett was a Canadian avant-garde director of short experimental films.In the 1960s he was employed as an animator by the National Film Board of Canada . Lipsett's particular passion was sound. He collected pieces of sound from a variety of sources and fit them together to create an...	1936-1986	Very Nice, Very Nice Very Nice, Very Nice Very Nice, Very Nice is a 7 minute long avant-garde film made by Arthur Lipsett in 1961, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada....   »  Free Fall  »  21-87 21-87 21-87 is a 1963 Canadian abstract film created by Arthur Lipsett that lasts 9 minutes and 33 seconds.The short film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, is a collage of snippets from discarded footage found by Lipsett in the editing room of the National Film Board , combined with his own...   »  A Trip Down Memory Lane A Trip Down Memory Lane A Trip Down Memory Lane is a 1965 experimental film by Arthur Lipsett, created by editing together images and sound clips from over fifty years of newsreel footage....   »  N-Zone
Colin Low Colin Low (filmmaker) Colin Archibald Low, CM, RCA is a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker.Born in Cardston, Alberta, Low attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Calgary Institute of Technology, now known as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology...	b. 1926	The Romance of Transportation in Canada The Romance of Transportation in Canada The Romance of Transportation in Canada is a 1952 animated short directed by Colin Low animated by Wolf Koenig and Robert Verrall and narrated by Guy Glover. Eldon Rathburn composed the film score...   »  Corral Corral (film) Corral is a 1954 National Film Board of Canada documentary by Colin Low, partly shot in the Cochrane Ranch in what is now Cochrane, Alberta....   »  City of Gold  »  Universe  »  Circle of the Sun Circle of the Sun Circle of the Sun is a 1960 short documentary film on Kainai Nation, or Blood Tribe, of Southern Alberta, which captured their Sun Dance ritual on film for the first time. Tribal leaders, who worried the traditional ceremony might be dying out, had permitted filming as a visual record.The film was...
Guy Maddin Guy Maddin Guy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...	b. 1956	Careful  »  The Heart of the World The Heart of the World The Heart of the World is a short film written and directed by Guy Maddin, produced for the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. It is a homage to silent films, and as such, it is black and white, grainy, and without dialogue, and contains many references to styles and movies of the silent era...   »  The Saddest Music in the World The Saddest Music in the World The Saddest Music in the World is a 2003 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin. It stars Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox and Ross McMillan....   »  Brand Upon the Brain!  »  My Winnipeg My Winnipeg My Winnipeg is a feature film directed by Guy Maddin. Starring Ann Savage, the film is a surrealist-inflected pseudo-documentary about Winnipeg, Maddin's home town...
Francis Mankiewicz Francis Mankiewicz Francis Mankiewicz was a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. In 1945, his family moved to Montreal, where Francis would spend all his childhood. He was a relative of Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Herman J...	1944-1993	Le temps d'une chasse  »  Les bons débarras  »  Les beaux souvenirs  »  Les portes tournantes Les Portes tournantes Les Portes tournantes is a Canadian-French French-language drama film.-Cast:* Monique Spaziani - Céleste* Gabriel Arcand - Madrigal Blaudelle* Miou-Miou - Lauda* François Méthé - Antoine...
Bill Mason Bill Mason Bill Mason was an award-winning Canadian naturalist, author, artist, filmmaker, and conservationist, noted primarily for his popular canoeing books, films, and art as well as his documentaries on wolves. Mason was also known for including passages from Christian sermons in his films...	1929-1988	Paddle to the Sea Paddle to the Sea Paddle-to-the-Sea is a 1941 children's book, written and illustrated by American author/artist Holling C. Holling. It was recognized as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1942....   »  The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes is a 1968 Canadian short film. It is a humorous geography lesson where a tour of the Great Lakes is made by a lone canoeist who experiences most of the cataclysmic changes of ages of lake history...   »  Blake Blake (film) Blake is a 1969 short documentary by Bill Mason about his friend and fellow filmmaker Blake James, who pilots his own plane. The film was produced by the National Film Board of Canada . Awards for the film included two Golden Sheaf Awards and an Etrog Award for Best Film under 30 minutes...   »  Death of a Legend Death of a Legend Death of a Legend was the first of three documentary films by Bill Mason about wolves, helping to dispel the image of wolves as "evil" and demonstrating their role in maintaining the balance of nature. Released in 1971, Death of the Legend was the first documentary to feature footage of wolves...   »  Cry of the Wild Cry of the Wild Cry of the Wild is a 1972 feature-length documentary film by Bill Mason and his second of three films about wolves. The film is a personal account of the two years Mason spent shooting his first film on wolves, Death of a Legend, incorporating footage from the earlier film...   »  Song of the Paddle  »  Waterwalker Waterwalker Waterwalker is a 1984 documentary film by Bill Mason, a Canadian outdoorsman, painter, canoeist and environmentalist, who made many films on the art of canoeing and on the appreciation of nature...
Bruce McDonald	b. 1959	Roadkill  »  Highway 61  »  Dance Me Outside Dance Me Outside Dance Me Outside is a 1995 drama film directed and co-written by Bruce McDonald. It was based on a book by W.P. Kinsella,-Plot:Set on the Kidabanesee reserve in Northern Ontario. Silas Crow is a young man confused about his direction in life; he wants to take an automobile mechanic's course in...   »  Hard Core Logo Hard Core Logo Hard Core Logo is a 1996 Canadian mockumentary adapted by Noel Baker from the novel of the same name by author Michael Turner. Director Bruce McDonald illustrates the self-destruction of punk rock...   »  The Tracey Fragments The Tracey Fragments (film) The Tracey Fragments is a 2007 drama film directed by Canadian Bruce McDonald and written by Maureen Medved, based on her novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Page in the title role, is produced by Sarah Timmins and executive produced by Paul Barkin....
Michael McGowan Michael McGowan (director) Michael McGowan is a Canadian filmmaker who wrote directed the feature films One Week and Saint Ralph...	b. 1966	Saint Ralph  »  One Week One Week (2008 film) One Week is a 2008 Canadian film directed by Michael McGowan and starring Joshua Jackson, Liane Balaban, and Campbell Scott. The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on September 8, 2008 and was released theatrically on March 6, 2009....
Norman McLaren Norman McLaren Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...	1914-1987	Begone Dull Care Begone Dull Care Begone Dull Care is a visual music animated film directed by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart.Using drawn on film animation, McLaren and Lambart paint and scratch directly onto film stock to create a visual representation of Oscar Peterson's jazz music...   »  Neighbours  »  Blinkity Blank Blinkity Blank Blinkity Blank is a 1955 animated short film by Norman McLaren, engraved directly onto black film leader, Blinkity Blank features a soundtrack combining improvisational jazz from composer Maurice Blackburn along with graphical sounds created by McLaren scratching onto the film's optical...   »  Rythmetic Rythmetic Rythmetic is a 1956 Canadian short animated film directed by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. At the 6th Berlin International Film Festival it won the Silver Bear award....   »  A Chairy Tale A Chairy Tale A Chairy Tale is a 1957 animated short film co-directed by Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra, and starring Jutra and a most uncooperative chair....   »  Mosaic  »  Pas de Deux Pas de Deux (film) Pas de deux is a 1968 short dance film by Norman McLaren, produced by the National Film Board of Canada.The film was photographed on high contrast stock, with optical, step-and-repeat printing, for a sensuous and almost stroboscopic appearance...
Deepa Mehta Deepa Mehta Deepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...	b. 1950	Sam and Me  »  Fire  »  Earth Earth (1998 film) Earth is a 1998 film directed by Deepa Mehta. It is based upon Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India, . Earth is the second part of Mehta's Elements trilogy...   »  Water  »  Heaven on Earth Heaven on Earth (film) Heaven on Earth a.k.a Videsh is a 2008 Canadian film directed and written by Deepa Mehta. Preity Zinta plays the leading role of Chand, a young Indian Punjabi woman who finds herself in an abusive arranged marriage with an Indo-Canadian man, played by theatre actor Vansh Bhardwaj...
Peter Mettler Peter Mettler Peter Mettler is a Canadian film director and cinematographer.-Biography:Peter Mettler was born in 1958 to Swiss parents and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...	b. 1958	Scissere  »  The Top of His Head The Top of His Head The Top of His Head is a Canadian comedy-drama film, released in 1989. Written and directed by Peter Mettler, the film stars Stephen Ouimette as Gus, a satellite dish salesman whose life is turned upside down when he meets Lucy , a politically radical performance artist.The film's soundtrack, The...   »  Picture of Light  »  Gambling, Gods and LSD  »  Petropolis
Robert Morin Robert Morin Robert Morin is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer.-Biography:Robert Morin is known for his very personal, dark, and pessimistic "interior views" of family, crime, law enforcement, and human suffering...	b. 1949	Requiem pour un beau sans-coeur  »  Yes Sir! Madame...  »  Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleur  »  Le nèg'  »  Journal d'un coopérant
Allan Moyle Allan Moyle Allan Moyle is a Canadian film director. He is best known for directing the films Pump Up the Volume and New Waterford Girl .-Biography:His first major film was Times Square...	b. 1947	The Rubber Gun The Rubber Gun The Rubber Gun is a 1977 film directed by Allan Moyle. It stars Stephen Lack and Pierre Robert. It was nominated for two Genie Awards in 1980.-Cast:*Stephen Lack as Steve*Pierre Robert as Pierre*Peter Brawley as Peter*Allan Moyle as Bozo...   »  Pump Up the Volume Pump Up the Volume (film) Pump Up the Volume is a 1990 comedy-drama film written and directed by Allan Moyle and starring Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis.- Plot summary :...   »  New Waterford Girl New Waterford Girl New Waterford Girl is a Canadian drama-comedy film, released in 1999. The film was directed by Allan Moyle, and written by Tricia Fish.New Waterford Girl stars Liane Balaban as Agnes-Marie "Moonie" Pottie, a teenager in New Waterford, Nova Scotia who dreams of life beyond her small-town home...
Vincenzo Natali Vincenzo Natali Vincenzo Natali is an American-Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing science fiction films such as Cube, Nothing and Splice.-Early life:...	b. 1947	Cube Cube (film) Cube is a 1997 Canadian science fiction psychological thriller/horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film was a successful product of the Canadian Film Centre's First Feature Project....   »  Cypher Cypher (film) Cypher , is a 2002 science fiction thriller film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. The film was written by Brian King and directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film was shown in limited release in theaters in the USA, and released on DVD on August 2nd 2005.-Plot:Morgan Sullivan, a recently...   »  Splice Splice (film) Splice is a 2009 Canadian/French science fiction horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. The story concerns experiments in genetic engineering being done by a young scientist couple who attempt to introduce human DNA into their work of splicing animal...
Don Owen	b. 1935	Nobody Waved Goodbye Nobody Waved Goodbye Nobody Waved Good-bye is a 1964 black-and-white National Film Board of Canada production directed by Don Owen, starring Peter Kastner, Julie Biggs and Claude Rae. It was followed twenty years later by a sequel, Unfinished Business, with the same director and two lead actors.-Awards:Despite the...   »  Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen is a 1965 documentary about Leonard Cohen, co-directed by Don Owen and Donald Brittain, and written by Brittain...   »  Notes for a Film About Donna & Gail  »  The Ernie Game The Ernie Game The Ernie Game is a 1967 Canadian drama film directed by Don Owen.Called "One of the most innovative examples of personal cinema to come from English Canada in the Sixties" by the Cinematheque Ontario, The Ernie Game was part of a proposed trio of works intended to celebrate the Canadian Centennial...
Pierre Patry Pierre Patry Pierre Patry is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Pierre Patry began his career in the theatre as an actor and a playwright and is a founding member of the Canadian Association of Amateur Theatre. He joined the NFB in 1957 as a writer on the Panoramique series...	b. 1933	Trouble fête  »  Caïn  »  La corde au cou
Peter Pearson Peter Pearson (director) Peter Pearson is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Pearson studied Political science and Economics at the University of Toronto and Television Production at Ryerson University before attending film school in Rome. Upon his return to Canada his first job was as a journalist for...	b. 1938	The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar is a 1968 Canadian dramatic film directed by Peter Pearson and written by Joan Finnigan. The 49 minute drama stars Chris Wiggins and Kate Reid, along with Margot Kidder in her first feature role....   »  Paperback Hero Paperback Hero (1973 film) Paperback Hero is a 1973 Canadian movie, directed by Peter Pearson, which starred Keir Dullea and Elizabeth Ashley. It is set in Saskatchewan and portrays the life of a big-fish minor-league hockey player in a little-pond town...
Pierre Perrault Pierre Perrault Pierre Perrault was a Québécois documentary film director. He directed 20 films between 1963 and 1996. He was one of the most important filmmakers in Canada although largely unknown outside of Québec...	1927-1999	L'Isle-aux-Coudres Trilogy  »  L'Acadie, l'Acadie  »  Un royaume vous attend  »  La bête lumineuse La bête lumineuse La bête lumineuse is a 1982 Canadian documentary film directed by Pierre Perrault, about a group of hunters who gather annually to hunt moose near Maniwaki, Quebec...   »  L'oumigmag ou l'objectif documentaire
Clément Perron Clément Perron Clément Perron was a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Biography:...	1929-1999	Jour après jour  »  Taureau  »  Partis pour la gloire
Jeremy Podeswa Jeremy Podeswa Jeremy Podeswa is a Canadian/American film and television director. He is best known for directing the films The Five Senses and Fugitive Pieces . He has also worked as Director on the television shows Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck, The Tudors, Queer as Folk, and the HBO World War II miniseries The...	b. 1962	The Five Senses The Five Senses (film) The Five Senses is a 1999 Canadian drama film directed, written and produced by Jeremy Podeswa.- Plot :The Five Senses is about interconnected stories linked by a building which examine situations involving the five senses. Touch is represented by Ruth Seraph, a massage therapist who is treating...   »  Fugitive Pieces Fugitive Pieces (film) Fugitive Pieces is a 2007 drama film directed by Jeremy Podeswa, who also adapted the film from the award-winning novel of the same name written by Anne Michaels. The film tells the story of Jakob Beer, who is orphaned in Poland during World War II and is saved by a Greek archeologist...
Sarah Polley Sarah Polley Sarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...	b. 1979	I Shout Love  »  All I Want for Christmas  »  Away From Her Away From Her Away from Her is a 2006 Canadian film which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and also played in the Premier category at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival...
Anne Claire Poirier Anne Claire Poirier Anne Claire Poirier is a Canadian film producer, director and screenwriter. She is one of the most important female filmmakers in Canadian history; her documentary film De mère en fille is the first feature film ever directed by a French-Canadian woman...	b. 1932	De mère en fille  »  Les filles du Roy  »  Le temps de l'avant  »  Mourir à tue-tête A Scream from Silence A Scream from Silence is a 1979 Canadian drama film directed by Anne Claire Poirier. It competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Julie Vincent - Suzanne* Germain Houde - Le violeur* Paul Savoie - Philippe...   »  Tu as crié: Let me go
Léa Pool Léa Pool Léa Pool is a Swiss-Canadian filmmaker who has also taught film at UQAM. She is openly lesbian. Her 1986 film Anne Trister was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival. Her 1999 film Emporte-moi was entered into the 49th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Special...	b. 1950	La Femme de l'hôtel La Femme de l'hôtel La Femme de l'hôtel is a 1984 Canadian French-language drama film directed by Léa Pool.-Plot:* Andrea Richler is a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, she has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman...   »  Anne Trister Anne Trister Anne Trister is a 1986 Canadian drama film directed by Léa Pool. It was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Albane Guilhe as Anne* Louise Marleau as Alix* Lucie Laurier as Sarah* Guy Thauvette as Thomas...   »  À corps perdu À corps perdu À corps perdu is a 1988 Canadian/Swiss French-language drama film.- Plot :Pierre is a photojournalist from Montreal who's working on a reportage in Nicaragua. There he sees many people being executed and he takes photographs of them...   »  Mouvements du désir  »  Emporte-moi Emporte-moi Emporte-Moi is a 1999 French-Canadian film by director Léa Pool and starring Karine Vanasse. It tells the story of Hanna, a girl struggling with her sexuality and the depression of both her parents as she goes through puberty in Quebec in 1963...   »  Lost and Delirious Lost and Delirious Lost and Delirious is a 2001 Canadian drama film directed by Léa Pool and loosely based on the novel The Wives of Bath by Susan Swan. Lost and Delirious is filmed from the perspective of Mary , who observes the changing love between her two teenage friends, Pauline and Victoria...
David Rimmer David Rimmer David Rimmer is a Canadian experimental film director.-Biography:David Rimmer studied economics and mathematics at the University of British Columbia and graduated in 1963. For the next two years he traveled around the world which lead him to decide that he was not interested on pursuing a career...	b. 1942	Surfacing on the Thames  »  Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper  »  Canadian Pacific  »  Al Neil: A Portrait  »  As Seen on TV  »  Local Knowledge
Patricia Rozema Patricia Rozema Patricia Rozema is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Rozema was born in Kingston, Ontario and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Her parents, Jacoba Berandina and Jan Rozema, were Dutch Calvinists. Television was severely restricted and she didn’t go to a movie theatre until she...	b. 1958	I've Heard the Mermaids Singing I've Heard the Mermaids Singing I've Heard the Mermaids Singing is a 1987 theatrical-release feature film, directed by Patricia Rozema. The title is taken from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot.-Plot:...   »  White Room White Room (film) White Room is a Canadian drama film, released in 1990.The film, written and directed by Patricia Rozema, stars Maurice Godin, Kate Nelligan and Sheila McCarthy. Godin plays Norm, a confused young man who is drawn into events after witnessing the murder of rock star Madeleine X...   »  When Night is Falling When Night is Falling When Night is Falling is a 1995 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema.-Plot:The film stars Pascale Bussières as Camille Baker, a university literature professor at a religious college struggling with both her tenure-track career and her troubled relationship with fellow professor Martin...
David Secter David Secter David Secter is a Canadian film director. He is best known for the 1965 film Winter Kept Us Warm, the first English Canadian film ever screened at the Cannes Film Festival...	b. 1943	Winter Kept Us Warm Winter Kept Us Warm Winter Kept Us Warm is a Canadian romantic drama film, released in 1965. The title comes from the fifth line of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land....   »  The Offering
Donald Shebib Donald Shebib Donald Shebib , often called Don Shebib, is a Canadian film director, writer, producer and editor. He gained prominence and critical acclaim in Canadian cinema for his 1970 movie Goin' Down the Road. The company travelled around Toronto in a station wagon and was supported by CFDC funding...	b. 1938	Goin' Down the Road Goin' Down the Road Goin' Down the Road is a 1970 Canadian film directed by Donald Shebib and released in 1970. It chronicles the lives of two men from the Maritimes who move to Toronto in order to find a better life. It starred Doug McGrath, Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood and Cayle Chernin...   »  Between Friends Between Friends (1973 film) Between Friends is a 1973 Canadian crime film directed by Donald Shebib. It was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Michael Parks - Tony* Bonnie Bedelia - Ellie* Chuck Shamata - Chino* Henry Beckman - Will...   »  Heartaches  »  Running Brave Running Brave Running Brave is a 1983 movie based on the story of Billy Mills, a North American Indian brought up on the reservation, destined against all odds to become the best distance runner in the world in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics....   »  The Climb
Yves Simoneau Yves Simoneau Yves Simoneau is a Canadian film and television director.-Recognition:His acclaimed 1987 crime drama Pouvoir intime garnered multiple Genie Awards nominations including best direction at the 8th Genie Awards...	b. 1955	Les yeux rouges  »  Pouvoir intime Pouvoir intime Pouvoir intime is a 1986 Canadian thriller film.- Plot :A government ministry's fast-rising head of security asks a shadowy figure, Meursault, to steal a bag from an armoured truck...   »  Les fous de bassan In the Shadow of the Wind In the Shadow of the Wind is a 1987 Canadian drama film directed by Yves Simoneau. It was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Steve Banner as Stevens Brown* Charlotte Valandrey as Olivia Atkins* Laure Marsac as Nora Atkins...   »  Perfectly Normal Perfectly Normal Perfectly Normal is a Canadian comedy film, released in 1991. Directed by Yves Simoneau and written by Eugene Lipinski and Paul Quarrington, the film starred Robbie Coltrane, Michael Riley and Kenneth Welsh.-Cast:*Robbie Coltrane as Alonzo Turner...   »  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (film) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a 2007 television film adapted from the book of the same name by Dee Brown. The film was written by Daniel Giat, directed by Yves Simoneau and produced by HBO Films. The book on which the movie is based is a history of Native Americans in the American West in the...
John N. Smith John N. Smith John N. Smith is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He began his career making documentary and short films before moving on to feature films and then finally working primarily in television. His work has been nominated in the Academy Awards, Genie Awards, and Gemini Awards, but has only...	b. 1943	First Winter  »  Train of Dreams Train of Dreams Train of Dreams is a 1987 Canadian film starring Jason St. Armour, Christopher Neil and Fred Ward as a popular teacher. It was directed by nominee John N...   »  Welcome to Canada  »  The Boys of St. Vincent The Boys of St. Vincent The Boys of St. Vincent is a 1992 film directed by John N. Smith for the National Film Board of Canada. It is a two part docudrama based on real events that took place at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland, one of a number of child sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic...   »  Dieppe Dieppe (film) Dieppe is a two-part Canadian television mini-series that aired on CBC Television in 1993. It was based on the book Unauthorized Action: Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid by Brian Loring Villa...
Michael Snow Michael Snow Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...	b. 1929	Wavelength  »  <----> Back and Forth (film) is a 1969 experimental Canadian film directed by Michael Snow. The camera continually moves back and forth, and eventually up and down, at varying speeds. Shots of different lengths are cut together.-Cast:...   »  La Région Centrale La region centrale La Région centrale is a 1971 experimental Canadian film directed by Michael Snow. The film is 180 minutes long and was shot in Canadian mountains over a period of 24 hours, using a robotic arm and consists entirely of preprogrammed movements. The robotic arm never moves in exactly the same way...   »  Rameau's Nephew  »  Presents  »  So Is This  »  See You Later
Robin Spry Robin Spry Robin Spry was a Canadian filmmaker and television producer best known for his documentary film Action: The October Crisis of 1970 about Quebec's October Crisis.-Profile:...	1939-2005	Flowers on a One-Way Street  »  Prologue  »  Action: The October Crisis of 1970  »  One Man
Ralph L. Thomas Ralph L. Thomas Ralph L. Thomas is a Brazilian born Canadian film director and screenwriter. He was born to Canadian Baptist missionary parents and grew up in Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1961 and began to write for the entertainment pages of the Toronto Star a year later...	b. 1939	Ticket to Heaven Ticket to Heaven Ticket to Heaven is a 1981 Canadian film about the recruiting of a man into a group portrayed to be a cult, and his life in the group until forcibly extracted by his family and friends. The film was directed by Ralph L. Thomas...   »  The Terry Fox Story The Terry Fox Story The Terry Fox Story is a 1983 film biopic of Canadian amputee and runner Terry Fox. It was written by Howard Hume, John Kastner and Rose Kastner, and directed by Ralph L. Thomas. The film stars Eric Fryer as Fox, Chris Makepeace as his brother Darrell, and Robert Duvall as Fox's publicist, Bill...
Jean-Marc Vallée Jean-Marc Vallée Jean-Marc Vallée is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec. He is best known for the film C.R.A.Z.Y. which is one of the most successful films in Quebec history, both financially and critically...	b. 1963	Les fleurs magiques  »  Liste noire  »  Les mots magiques  »  C.R.A.Z.Y. C.R.A.Z.Y. C.R.A.Z.Y. is a 2005 French-language Canadian film from Quebec. The film was directed and co-written by Jean-Marc Vallée. It tells the story of Zac, a young gay man dealing with homophobia and heterosexism while growing up with four brothers and a conservative father in 1960s and 1970s...
Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve is a Canadian film director and writer. In his early career he won Radio-Canada's youth film competition "La Course Europe-Asie" in 1990-91. He is a three-time winner of the Genie Award for Best Director, for Maelström in 2001, Polytechnique in 2010 and Incendies in 2011...	b. 1967	Un 32 août sur terre  »  Maelström Maelström (film) Maelström is a 2000 Canadian film by Québécois writer-director Denis Villeneuve. It stars Marie-Josée Croze as a depressed, alcoholic woman who becomes romantically involved with the son of a man she believes to have killed in a hit and run accident....   »  Next Floor  »  Polytechnique Polytechnique (film) Polytechnique is a 2009 Canadian film from Quebec written by Jacques Davidts and Denis Villeneuve and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Set in Montreal, Quebec and based on the École Polytechnique massacre , the film documents the events of December 6, 1989 through the eyes of two students who witness...   »  Incendies Incendies Incendies is a 2010 Quebec film written and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play, Scorched, Incendies follows the journey of twin brother and sister as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother's life. The film premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals...
Clément Virgo Clement Virgo Clément Virgo is a Canadian filmmaker of international acclaim. His latest feature, the boxing drama Poor Boy's Game, stars Danny Glover and Rossif Sutherland...	b. 1966	Save My Lost Nigga Soul  »  Rude Rude (film) Rude is a 1995 Canadian crime film directed by Clement Virgo. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Maurice Dean Wint - General* Rachael Crawford - Maxine* Clark Johnson - Reece...   »  The Planet of Junior Brown  »  Love Come Down Love Come Down "Love Come Down" is a hit single by Evelyn "Champagne" King. It was produced by Morrie Brown and written by Kashif. "Love Come Down" was the first single culled from her multi-platinum, number-one R&B album, Get Loose . In the U.S., it reached number one on the R&B and dance charts and number...   »  Poor Boy's Game Poor Boy's Game Poor Boy's Game is a Canadian feature film directed by Clement Virgo. Co-written with Nova Scotian writer/director Chaz Thorne , it is the story of class struggle, racial tensions and boxing, set in the Canadian east coast port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The film premiered on February 11, 2007,...
Anne Wheeler Anne Wheeler Anne Wheeler, OC is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director. Graduating in Mathematics from the University of Alberta she was a computer programmer before traveling abroad. Her years of travels inspired her to become a storyteller and when she returned she joined a group of...	b. 1946	A War Story A War Story A War Story is a docudrama produced, written, and directed by Anne Wheeler telling the story of her father Major Ben Wheeler when he was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War....   »  Loyalties  »  Bye Bye Blues Bye Bye Blues (film) Bye Bye Blues is a Canadian film, released in 1989. It was written and directed by Anne Wheeler and produced by Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation with assistance of Allarcom Limited.-Plot:...   »  Angel Square Angel Square Angel Square is a 1990 Canadian film set in 1945 and based on the novel of the same title by Brian Doyle. Many of his books are set in Ottawa, Canada.-Summary:...   »  The War Between Us
Sandy Wilson Sandy Wilson (director) Sandra "Sandy" Wilson is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her films My American Cousin and Harmony Cats. Harmony Cats was nominated for the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction and the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture...	b. 1947	My American Cousin My American Cousin My American Cousin is a Canadian drama film, released in 1985. Written and directed by Sandy Wilson based on her own childhood, the film stars Margaret Langrick as Sandy Wilcox, a pre-teen girl growing up on a ranch in rural Penticton, British Columbia in the late 1950s...   »  My American Boyfriend  »  Harmony Cats Harmony Cats - Plot :Harmony Cats is about a violinist named Graham Braithwaite who plays with a British Columbia symphony. One day, the symphony stops playing permantently and Graham is left to find work elsewhere...

Notable Canadian expatriate

Expatriate

An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

 directors who are or have worked primarily in Hollywood include:

• James Cameron
  James Cameron
  James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
  
  
• Bob Clark
  Bob Clark
  Benjamin "Bob" Clark was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing and writing the script with Jean Shepherd to the 1983 Christmas film A Christmas Story...
  
  
• Edward Dmytryk
  Edward Dmytryk
  Edward Dmytryk was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era 'red scare'.-Early life:Dmytryk was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada,...
  
  
• Allan Dwan
  Allan Dwan
  Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:...
  
  
• Sidney J. Furie
  Sidney J. Furie
  Sidney J. Furie is a Canadian film director. Furie is perhaps best known for directing American Soldiers, The IPCRESS File, The Entity, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Lady Sings the Blues, The Boys, Gable and Lombard, Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York and the Iron Eagle films.Also...
  
  
• Paul Haggis
  Paul Haggis
  Paul Edward Haggis is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director. He spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.-Early life and education:...
  
  
• Mary Harron
  Mary Harron
  Mary Harron is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter best known for her films I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page.-Overview:...
  
  
• Arthur Hiller
  Arthur Hiller
  Arthur Hiller, OC is a Canadian film director. His filmography includes 33 major studio releases, including the 1970 film Love Story...
  
  
• Norman Jewison
  Norman Jewison
  Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont is a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. Highlights of his directing career include In the Heat of the Night , The Thomas Crown Affair , Fiddler on the Roof , Jesus Christ Superstar , Moonstruck , The Hurricane and The...
  
  
• Ted Kotcheff
  Ted Kotcheff
  Ted Kotcheff , sometimes credited as William Kotcheff or William T. Kotcheff, is a Canadian film and television director, who is well known for his work on several high-profile British television productions and as a director of films such as First Blood.-Early life:Kotcheff was born William...
  
  
• Shawn Levy
  Shawn Levy
  Shawn Adam Levy is a Canadian-American actor, director and producer who directed the comedy films Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, Night at the Museum, Date Night, and the sci-fi movie Real Steel...
  
  
• Silvio Narizzano
  Silvio Narizzano
  Silvio Narizzano was a Canadian film director, educated at Bishop's University, Quebec.His best received film was Georgy Girl , which was entered into the 16th Berlin International Film Festival...
  
  
• Daniel Petrie
  Daniel Petrie
  Daniel Mannix Petrie was a Canadian television and movie director.Petrie was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Mary Anne and William Mark Petrie, a soft-drink manufacturer. He moved to the United States in 1945...
  
  
• Ivan Reitman
  Ivan Reitman
  Ivan Reitman, OC is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.-Early life:...
  
  
• Jason Reitman
  Jason Reitman
  Jason Reitman is a Canadian/American film director, screenwriter, and producer, best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking , Juno , and Up in the Air . As of February 2, 2010, he has received three Academy Award nominations, two of which are for Best Director...
  
  
• Mark Robson
  Mark Robson
  Mark Robson was a Canadian-born film editor, film director and producer in Hollywood.-Career:Born in Montreal, Quebec, he moved to the United States at a young age. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles then found work in the prop department at 20th Century Fox studios...
  
  
• Mack Sennett
  Mack Sennett
  Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
  
  
• Roger Spottiswoode
  Roger Spottiswoode
  Roger Spottiswoode is a Canadian-born film director and writer, who began his career as an editor in the 1970s. He was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He has directed a number of notable films and television productions, including Under Fire and the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies starring...
  
  

See also :Category:Canadian film directors.

Producers

• Al Christie
  Al Christie
  Al Christie was a Canadian-born motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Career:Born Alfred Ernest Christie, in London, Ontario, Canada, he was one of a number of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood who made their way to Hollywood, California, attracted by the newly developing motion...
  
  
• Charles Christie
  Charles Christie
  Charles H. V. Christie was a motion picture studio owner.Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Charles and his brother Al left home to pursue a career in the fledgling motion picture industry...
  
  
• Harold Greenberg
  Harold Greenberg
  Harold Greenberg, OC, CQ was a Canadian film producer.Harold was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1930. Harold was born into a family of three brothers: Ian, Sydney and Harvey . Greenberg began working in a second-hand camera store when he was thirteen...
  
  
• Suresh Joachim
  Suresh Joachim
  Suresh Joachim Arulanantham is a Tamil Canadian film actor, producer, and multiple-Guinness World Record holder who has broken 60 world records set in several countries in attempts to benefit underprivileged children around the world.-World records:...
  
  
• Louis B. Mayer
  Louis B. Mayer
  Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
  
  

Writers

• Ed Gass-Donnelly
  Ed Gass-Donnelly
  Ed Gass-Donnelly is an award-winning Canadian film director and screenwriter. His work often explores themes of death, colliding worlds and the darker sides of human nature. His characters are every-day people who are put in extraordinary situations and left to fend for themselves...
  
  
• Paul Haggis
  Paul Haggis
  Paul Edward Haggis is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, and director. He spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.-Early life and education:...
  
  
• Suresh Joachim
  Suresh Joachim
  Suresh Joachim Arulanantham is a Tamil Canadian film actor, producer, and multiple-Guinness World Record holder who has broken 60 world records set in several countries in attempts to benefit underprivileged children around the world.-World records:...
  
  
• Ian Iqbal Rashid
  Ian Iqbal Rashid
  Born in 1971 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ian Iqbal Rashid is a poet, screenwriter and filmmaker.In his early childhood, his family were forced to leave Tanzania. After failing to secure asylum in the UK and US, they settled in Canada...
  
  
• Seth Rogen
  Seth Rogen
  Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
  
  
• Evan Goldberg
  Evan Goldberg
  Evan Goldberg is a Canadian film screenwriter and producer. Goldberg attended Point Grey Secondary School and McGill University before joining the staff of Da Ali G Show along with his childhood friend and comedy partner Seth Rogen. Rogen and Goldberg collaborated the films Knocked Up, Superbad,...
  
  

See also

• Cinema of Quebec
• Canuxploitation
• Hollywood North
  Hollywood North
  Hollywood North, an allusion to Hollywood, Los Angeles, United States, a notable film centre in the world, is a colloquialism used to describe film production industries and or film locations north of its namesake...
  
  
• History of Canadian animation
  History of Canadian animation
  The history of Canadian animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and the competition from Hollywood.-1910s-1950s:...
  
  
• Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood
  Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood
  Motion pictures have been a part of the culture of Canada since the beginning.-History:Around 1910, the East Coast filmmakers began to take advantage of California winters and after Nestor Studios, run by Canadian Al Christie, built the first permanent movie studio in Hollywood a number of the...
  
  
• List of Canadian films
• Documentary Organization of Canada
  Documentary Organization of Canada
  The Documentary Organization of Canada is a non-profit organization representing the interests of independent documentary filmmakers in Canada...
  
  
• National Film Board
• Northern (genre)
  Northern (genre)
  The Northern or Northwestern is an American and Canadian genre in literature and film made popular by the writings of Rex Beach and Zane Grey. It is similar to the Western genre but the action occurs in the Canadian North and typically features Mounties instead of, for example, cowboys or sheriffs...
  
  
• Hot Docs
  Hot Docs
  Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America's largest documentary film festival, conference, and market, held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
  
  
• List of filming locations in Metro Vancouver
• List of films shot in Toronto
• Montreal in films
  Montreal in films
  -Hollywood Movies set and shot in Montreal:*Wait Until Dark , starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna*The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz , Richard Dreyfuss, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Joseph Wiseman....
  
  
• List of Canadian Tamil films
• Cinema of the world
• World cinema
  World cinema
  World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film...
  
  

Further reading

• Foster, Charles (2000). Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood,Dundurn Press, ISBN 1-55002-348-9
• Morris,Peter (1978). Embattled shadows: a history of Canadian cinema, 1895-1939, McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN 0773503226

External links

• Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
• Canadian Film Encyclopedia A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group
• The Canadian Society of Cinematographers
• Copyright Board Canada: Copyright Collective Societies: Audio-Visual and Multi-Media, et al. (English version)
• SIBMAS: International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
• Canuxploitation: Your Complete Guide to Canadian B-Film
• The Documentary Organisation of Canada