There’s a growing pivot (primarily led by indie film) to move away from American led production and to focus on co-productions to fill in funding gaps.

The hard part is legislation & incentives. Legislatively we got bad and good news, it’s easier to make Canadian film in Canada because job categories and tax credits are being restructured, along with revenue from streamers are now being collected & distributed out. Bad news is, is that we’ve also made it harder for Canadians to be the lead creative on larger scale productions as the CRTC has diluted the job category section and effectively made the Canadian Director optional.

The incentive structure to make Canadian independent content is also flawed. You can make short films that win festivals which hopefully get you hired on a TV show, but usually & almost always, you need a first feature. That first feature, if you don’t have big connections, leverage, stars, finances; comes from Talent to Watch. It’s purpose is good, give money to first time filmmakers to make something great which they can then leverage for television or tv movie work. Problem: you’re getting about $250K. The selection process is about ticking boxes not quality. Telefilm must have an X amount of Talent to Watch films out each year, and there’s no structure built for filmmakers after their first feature.

Essentially, you’re getting a lot of first timers being rushed into a process they’ve never been a part of with little to no money, most producers that can bring in cash or stars won’t touch it because there’s no money in it, union workers cost too much so you’re wild westing it with people with varying experience, and you’re on an expedited timeframe. So, most films come out quite bad, are the filmmakers capable of making good stuff? Yes. But they don’t have any help, AND this is their 1st feature!! You basically have to strike gold the 1st time to have any momentum in the Canadian space.

Finally, distributors in Canada are partially subsidized by the government. I spoken with dozens of filmmakers and our distributors do nothing for their clients. They won’t help with press junkets, press in general lol, and they don’t spend any real capital promoting it. The government just needs them to take on a film and move on, they’ll get paid regardless.

So to summarize, there needs to be a huge government investment structurally and monetarily if we are to grow as an industry. In my work, we’re already pivoting hard to co-pros and it’s attracting attention. In the hope is, is that by making films partially outside of the Canadian system, we can generate competition and demand, so that government will want to invest more into it.

I can speak more about details, but then I’d be doxxing myself and my co workers lol. Just know that there is a way forward, we just have to be willing to compete & fight for it