Cinema of Canada

The cinema of Canada dates back to the early 20th century along with the rise of filmmaking itself.

This article is about the English-language cinema in Canada. For the French-language cinema in Canada, see Cinema of Quebec.
Cinema of Canada
No. of screens3,114 (2015)[1]
 • Per capita9.6 per 100,000 (2015)[1]
Main distributorsUniversal 20.9%
Disney 18.7%
Warner Bros. 13.3%[2]
Produced feature films (2015)[3]
Total103
Fictional77 (74.8%)
Documentary26 (25.2%)
Number of admissions (2015)[4]
Total118,000,000
Gross box office (2015)[4]
TotalC$986 million
National filmsC$18.8 million (1.9%)

The filmmaking industry in Canada is home to several studios, primarily located in four metropolitan centres: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax. Industries and communities tend to be regional and niche in nature. Approximately 1,000 Anglophone-Canadian and 600 Francophone-Canadian feature-length films have been produced, or partially produced, by the Canadian film industry since 1911.

The cinema of English-speaking Canada is heavily intertwined with that of the United States.[5] As such, though there is a distinctly Canadian cinematic tradition, there are Canadian films that have no discernable Canadian identity (e.g., Porky's and Meatballs), there are Canadian-American co-productions filmed in Canada (e.g., My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the Saw series), American productions filmed in Canada (e.g., the Night at the Museum and Final Destination films), and American films with Canadian directors and/or actors. Canadian directors who are best known for their American-produced films include Norman Jewison, Jason Reitman, Paul Haggis, and James Cameron; Cameron, in particular, wrote and directed the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, Avatar and Titanic, respectively.

Other notable filmmakers from or based in Canada include David Cronenberg, Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Patricia Rozema, Sarah Polley, Deepa Mehta, Thom Fitzgerald, John Greyson, Clement Virgo, Allan King, Michael McGowan, and Michael Snow, Claude Jutra, Gilles Carle, Denys Arcand, Jean Beaudin, Robert Lepage, Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée, Léa Pool, Xavier Dolan, Philippe Falardeau, and Michel Brault.

Canadian actors who achieved success in Hollywood include Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Reynolds, and Seth Rogen among hundreds of others.

History

1890s–1909

Prefacing the intertwining of Canadians with the American film industry, in 1894, Andrew and George Holland of Ottawa had opened the world’s first Kinetoscope parlour in New York City featuring the latest invention of Thomas Edison's.[6] Moreover, the June 1896 film Niagara, Les chutes by Frenchmen Auguste and Louis Lumière was made with a stationary camera looking across the Niagara Falls from the United States' side, thereby possibly being the first time Canada had been shown on film.[6]

The first public screening of a film in Canada took place in Montreal, Quebec, on 28 June 1896. The following month, the Holland brothers introduced Edison’s Vitascope to the Canadian public in the now-closed West End Park, Ottawa. Among the films screened The Kiss, starring May Irwin from Whitby, Ontario. The first screening in Toronto followed on August 31 at Robinson’s Musée on Yonge Street. The first screening in Vancouver was in December 1898.[6]

Producing a series of short documentary films in mid-1897, James Freer is recognized to have been the first Canadian filmmaker.[6][7] Capturing his life as an immigrant farmer in Manitoba, Freer's work depicted life on the Prairies. In 1898, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) sponsored Freer to tour England with his films, collectively titled Ten Years in Manitoba, which were so successful that the Canadian government sponsored Freer to tour again in 1902 in an effort to promote immigration to Manitoba.[6]

The CPR continued to produce films promoting British immigration into the 1930s. In 1898, the CPR hired a British company to bring together a group of filmmakers, known as the Canadian Bioscope Company, to produce Living Canada, a series of 35 scenes depicting Canadian life. This series included the first fictional drama made in Canada: Hiawatha, The Messiah of the Ojibway (1903), a 15-minute-long film by Joe Rosenthal.[5][6]

In 1903, Canada’s first film exchange was established in Montreal by Léo-Ernest Ouimet, who later opened that city's first theatre in 1906, followed in 1907 by the largest (1,200 seats) luxury theatre (also in Montreal) in North America.[6]

1910s
Evangeline (1913), the first feature film in Canada; made by Canadian Bioscope Company

Promotional films highlighting Canada were characteristic of most Canadian productions through 1912. Typically financed by Canadians but produced by non-Canadians, their objective was to sell Canada or Canadian products abroad. In 1910, the Edison Company was hired by the CPR to produce 13 narrative films dramatizing the virtues of settling in Western Canada. The few Canadians who produced their own films made only newsreels or travelogues, meanwhile U.S. film companies were beginning to use Canada as the setting for narrative films—many of which would feature villainous French-Canadian lumberjacks, Métis, gold prospectors, and noble Mounties.[6]

In 1911, the Ontario government established the first Board of Censors in North America, while Manitoba passed an act that delegated film censorship to the City of Winnipeg. British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec established active censor boards in 1913.[6]

After 1912, Canadian film companies began producing fiction films in addition to non-fiction. In 1913, the Canadian Bioscope Company produced the first Canadian feature film, Evangeline, which was shot in Halifax, Nova Scotia and garnered both critical and commercial success. Other notable films around this time were The Battle of the Long Sault (1913) by The British American Film Company of Montreal; The War Pigeon (1914) by the All Red Feature Company in Windsor, Ontario; and several comedy and adventure films in 1914 and 1915 by the Conness Till Film Company in Toronto.[6]

In 1917, Adanac Films (later Trenton Studios) of Trenton, Ontario, became the first film studio in Canada. Its principal promoter was George Brownridge, who produced three feature films, including The Great Shadow (1919). The most successful Canadian producer of this period was Ernest Shipman, who was initially a reputable promoter in the US. He returned to Canada in 1919 with his actress wife, Nell Shipman, to produce Back to God’s Country (1919) in Calgary.[6]

In May 1917, Ontario established the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau (OMPB), "to carry out educational work for farmers, school children, factory workers, and other classes." It was the first state-sponsored film organization in the world. (The OMPB bought Trenton Studios in 1923 and began making its own films.) The federal Exhibits and Publicity Bureau (later the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau) was subsequently founded in 1918, becoming the first national film production unit in the world. By 1920, the Bureau maintained the largest studio and post-production facility in the country. Nonetheless, the Bureau actively discouraged the development of a domestic film production industry in Canada, instead favouring a business model that saw Canada as a branch plant of the American industry. (See also: Staple Thesis.)[6]

1920s–1937

The British Columbia Patriotic and Educational Picture Service, which produced and distributed short films about British Columbia in an attempt to counteract "Americanism" in Hollywood films, operated from 1920 to 1923.

In 1924, the Motion Picture Exhibitors and Distributors of Canada (MPEDC) was formed. (It was later known as the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, or CMPDA, and is now the Motion Picture Association – Canada.) This association, consisting of the Canadian offices of the major American distribution companies, was essentially a branch of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America. In 1930, under the federal Combines Investigation Act, Prime Minister R.B. Bennett appointed Peter White to investigate over 100 complaints against American film interests operating in Canada. White’s report concluded that Famous Players Canadian Corporation (FPCC) was a combine "detrimental to the Public Interest." The provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC took FPCC and the American distribution cartel represented by the CMPDA to court in Ontario. The defendants were ultimately found not guilty on three counts of "conspiracy and combination."[6]

As Hollywood domination was also a concern for European film industries in the 1920s, most governments in the continent took quick action to protect their domestic industries, typically by controlling the ownership of exhibition and distribution companies, or by stimulating national production.[6] Among these was the U.K. Cinematograph Films Act 1927, which established a quota wherein 15% of films shown in Britain had to originate in Britain or the Commonwealth, which stimulated Canadian film production. Between 1928 and 1937, a total of 22 low-budget feature films were produced in Canada by Canadian-based, American-financed companies in order to take advantage of the quota. These films were commonly known as "quota quickies."[6] The subsequent Cinematograph Films Act 1938, however, mollified the British film industry by specifying only films made by and shot in Great Britain would be included in the quota, an act that severely reduced Canadian film production.[8]

1938–1950s

In 1938, the Government of Canada invited John Grierson, 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 (NFB), an agency of the Canadian government. The NFB effectively replaced the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, which was officially absorbed by the Board in 1941.[6]

By 1945, the NFB had grown into one of the largest film studios in the world, having released over 500 films. These included the propaganda series Canada Carries On (1940–59) and The World in Action (1942–45), which were shown monthly in Canadian and foreign theatres.[9]

In the 1940s, only one English Canadian feature film was made: Bush Pilot (1946), an imitation of the Hollywood-made Captains of the Clouds (1942).[6]

By 1947, there were two large theatre chains in Canada: Odeon Theatres and the U.S.-owned Famous Players, which controlled roughly two-thirds of the theatrical market in Canada. As Odeon was later sold to the British Rank Organization, the United Kingdom's largest vertically-integrated film company, both of the major theatre chains in Canada were thereby foreign-owned. After World War II, due to a balance of payments issue with the US, the Canadian government in 1947 restricted imports on a large number of goods. During this time, there was discussion on introducing a quota system for Canadian films, as well as compelling Hollywood to invest part of its box-office profits in Canada. In February that year, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) leader M.J. Coldwell proposed in the House of Commons that the federal government impose a protective tariff on Hollywood films exhibited in Canada. Later that year, Liberal Minister of Finance Douglas Abbott met with Famous Players and the CMPDA, asking them to voluntarily invest some of their box-office profits from the Canadian exhibition market in Canadian production facilities.[9]

In 1949, the Canadian Film Awards were introduced as Canada's first national film awards.

In 1950, the National Film Act gave the NFB 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" or cinema vérité.

Geneviève Bujold has starred in many Canadian films including Entre la mer et l'eau douce (1967), Isabel (1968), Dead Ringers (1988) and Last Night (1998)
David Cronenberg's films Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991) both won multiple Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture
Atom Egoyan received critical acclaim for Exotica (1994) and The Sweet Hereafter (1997), the first Canadian film to win the Grand Prix at Cannes
Sarah Polley won the Genie Award for Best Actress for My Life Without Me (2003) and Best Director for Away From Her (2006)
Denis Villeneuve has won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director four times, for Maelström (2000), Polytechnique (2009), Incendies (2010) and Enemy (2013)
Guy Maddin won critical acclaim in the 2000s for films such as The Saddest Music in the World (2003) and My Winnipeg (2007)
Xavier Dolan's films Mommy (2014) and Juste la fin du monde (2016) each won major prizes at Cannes and multiple Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture

1960s–1970s

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

The 1961 surrealist 3-D horror film The Mask was the first Canadian film to be extensively marketed in the United States since the silent film era.[10] Toronto filmmaker Don Owen's drama Nobody Waved Good-bye (1964) is said to have "virtually inaugurated the modern English-Canadian feature-film"[11] and was on the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival list of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time. David Secter's 1965 drama Winter Kept Us Warm was the first English-Canadian film ever screened at the Cannes Film Festival.[12] Larry Kent directed low-budget counter-culture films such as The Bitter Ash (1963), Sweet Substitute (1964), and High (1967). Michael Snow's 1967 experimental 45-minute structural film Wavelength is considered a landmark of avant-garde cinema and was named by the Village Voice as one of the 100 best films of the 20th century.[13]

Gilles Carle's 1965 comedy drama La vie heureuse de Léopold Z (The Merry World of Leopold Z) helped inaugurate a popular national cinema in Quebec.[14] Michel Brault's 1967 drama Entre la mer et l'eau douce (Between Salt and Sweet Water) enjoyed critical success and was screened at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. This film helped launch the career of actress Geneviève Bujold, who would go on to become a major star of Canadian and international films. Paul Almond's 1968 thriller Isabel, starring Bujold, won four Canadian Film Awards and was among the first Canadian films to be distributed by a major Hollywood studio.[15]

The year 1970 saw the release of the influential drama film Goin' Down the Road, directed by Toronto's Donald Shebib. This film has been listed on each of the once-a-decade Toronto International Film Festival polls of the greatest Canadian films of all time. Bob Clark directed several notable Canadian films in the 1970s including the early slasher film Black Christmas (1974) and the mystery thriller Murder by Decree (1979), which picked up five Genie Awards, including Best Actor for Christopher Plummer. Toronto-based director David Cronenberg first emerged as a notable figure in Canadian cinema during the late 1970s with the seminal body horror films Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977) and The Brood (1979).

Montreal-based director Claude Jutra won critical acclaim for historical dramas such as Mon Oncle Antoine (My Uncle Antoine) (1971) and Kamouraska (1973). The former film has been a fixture on the TIFF polls of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time. Gilles Carle's films La Vraie Nature de Bernadette (The True Nature of Bernadette) (1972) and La Mort d'un bûcheron (The Death of a Lumberjack) (1973) both won multiple Canadian Film Awards and were entered at the Cannes Film Festival. Denys Arcand established himself as a filmmaker of note with La maudite galette (Dirty Money) (1972) and Réjeanne Padovani (1973). Michel Brault became the first (and to date, only) Canadian to win Best Director at Cannes,[16] sharing the award for his 1974 film Orders (Les Ordres), which is often listed as one of the best Canadian films of all time. Jean Beaudin's 1977 historical drama J.A. Martin Photographer (J.A. Martin photographe) won a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Monique Mercure.

1980s

This decade would see David Cronenberg direct the body horror classics Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and Dead Ringers (1988), the latter of which won 10 Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and is considered one of the greatest Canadian films of all time. Frequent Cronenberg collaborators around this time included actors Nicholas Campbell, Stephen Lack and Robert A. Silverman, cinematographer Mark Irwin, and composer Howard Shore.

The 1980s saw the emergence of the loosely-affiliated Toronto New Wave group of directors, including Atom Egoyan, John Greyson, Bruce McDonald and Patricia Rozema among others. Rozema's 1987 comedy drama I've Heard the Mermaids Singing was the first English-language Canadian feature film to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival,[17] and won a Genie Award for Best Actress for Sheila McCarthy. Winnipeg-based Guy Maddin launched his career as a feature film director with 1988's Tales from the Gimli Hospital.

Montreal's Denys Arcand gained international recognition in the 1980s with such films as 1986's Le Déclin de l'empire Américain (The Decline of the American Empire) and 1989's Jésus de Montréal (Jesus of Montreal), which each won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and took home multiple Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture. Francis Mankiewicz's 1980 drama Les Bons débarras (Good Riddance) won eight Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and has been named on several occasions as one of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time by the Toronto International Film Festival. Jean-Claude Lauzon's 1987 crime thriller Un Zoo la nuit (Night Zoo) was screened at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and won a record 13 Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture.

Micheline Lanctôt directed the drama films L'Homme à tout faire (The Handyman) (1980) and Sonatine (1984), becoming the first woman to win the Genie Award for Best Director for the latter film. Léa Pool won several accolades for dramas such as La Femme de l'hôtel (A Woman in Transit) (1984), which won a Genie Award for Best Actress for Louise Marleau, and Anne Trister (1986).

This decade saw the release of several controversial Canuxploitation films that would become cult favourites, such as Terror Train (1980), Prom Night (1980), Happy Birthday to Me (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981), Class of 1984 (1982), and Visiting Hours (1982). The 1981 science fiction film Threshold won Donald Sutherland a Genie Award for Best Actor. The 1983 Bob and Doug Mackenzie comedy Strange Brew, directed by and starring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, was among the first English-language Canadian comedy films to achieve commercial success and is considered a cult classic. [18] The film earned over $8.5 million at the box office on a $4 million budget and won the Golden Reel Award for highest-grossing domestic film of the year.

1990s

Atom Egoyan directed several films which won widespread critical acclaim in the 1990s: The Adjuster (1991) won awards at several festivals, Exotica (1994) won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes as well as eight Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture, and The Sweet Hereafter (1997) became the first Canadian film to win the Grand Prix at Cannes,[19] won seven Genies including Best Motion Picture, and was nominated for two prizes at the 70th Academy Awards. The latter film is frequently cited as one of the greatest Canadian films of all time, placing third in both the 2004 and 2015 TIFF polls. Actors Maury Chaykin, Bruce Greenwood, Elias Koteas, Don McKellar and Sarah Polley each appeared in two of these films, and Egoyan's wife Arsinée Khanjian acted in all three.

David Cronenberg polarized audiences and critics alike in the 1990s with films such as Naked Lunch (1991), Crash (1996) and Existenz (1999). Bruce McDonald directed cult favourites including Highway 61 (1991) and Hard Core Logo (1996), the latter of which won Toronto Film Critics Poll for Best Canadian Film. Don McKellar's directorial debut Last Night (1998) featured an ensemble cast of notable Canadian stars such as Sandra Oh (who won her second Genie Award for Best Actress), Callum Keith Rennie, Sarah Polley, David Cronenberg, Geneviève Bujold and McKellar himself. The film picked up a prize at Cannes along with the Toronto Film Critics Association award for Best Canadian Film and three Genie Awards.

Several noted Canadian films exploring the theme of sexuality were released in this decade, including John Greyson's Zero Patience (1993) and Lilies (1996) and Thom Fitzgerald's The Hanging Garden (1997). Toronto director Clement Virgo's 1995 feature film debut Rude was nominated for eight Genie Awards, won the Toronto Film Critics Poll for Best Canadian Film and is credited with helping usher in a Black Canadian film aesthetic.[20] Lynne Stopkewich's controversial 1996 erotic thriller Kissed won a Best Actress Genie Award for Molly Parker. Vincenzo Natali's 1997 independent science-fiction horror film Cube achieved significant cult status and would go on to spawn a film series.

Jean-Claude Lauzon's 1992 coming of age-fantasy film film Léolo won three Genie Awards and is now considered one of the best Canadian films of all time, but it was to be his last film as his life was cut short by a 1997 plane crash. Montreal's Denis Villeneuve made his feature directorial debut with the 1998 drama Un 32 août sur terre (August 32nd on Earth), which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.[21]

The 1997 ice hockey comedy Les Boys (The Boys) became the biggest domestic box-office success in Canadian history up to that point, with a take surpassing $7 million in Quebec[22] along with another $4 million in the US[23] and would spawn a series of sequels and a TV series.

2000s

Denys Arcand's Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions, 2003) was the first Canadian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[24]

In 2001, the Department of Canadian Heritage gave Telefilm Canada 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.[25] Telefilm divided this between English films then capturing four per cent 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 one per cent 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 five per cent 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.

Montreal director Xavier Dolan's 2009 debut feature film J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother), in which he also starred, picked up three awards at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

The 2001 epic film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, directed by Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, won the Caméra d'Or (Golden Camera) at Cannes, and was named the greatest Canadian film of all time by a 2015 Toronto International Film Festival poll of filmmakers and critics. Sarah Polley made her feature film directorial debut with Away from Her (2006), which received two nominations at the 80th Academy Awards and won seven Genie Awards including Best Motion Picture and an unprecedented third Best Actor win for Gordon Pinsent. The First World War drama Passchendaele (2008), directed by and starring Paul Gross, picked up five Genies including Best Motion Picture and received the Golden Reel Award for Canada's top-grossing film of 2008.

Winnipeg director Guy Maddin, known for incorporating the aesthetics of silent-era films into his work, won international acclaim in the 2000s for such films as Cowards Bend the Knee (2003), The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), and My Winnipeg (2007), the latter of which won the Toronto Film Critics Association award for Best Canadian Film and was named by Roger Ebert as the tenth best film of the decade. Actors Darcy Fehr and Louis Negin each appeared in three of these films.

This decade saw the release of numerous popular Canadian comedy films such as FUBAR (2002), Men with Brooms (2002), Bon Cop Bad Cop (2006), Fido (2006), and Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006). The 2009 police comedy De père en flic (Father and Guns) was a box-office smash in Quebec[26] and would later be followed by a sequel.

2010s–2020s

In 2011, Toronto ranked third in North America, behind only Los Angeles and New York City, in total industry production.[27]

In 2013, the Genie Awards were merged with TV's Gemini Awards and renamed the Canadian Screen Awards.

Xavier Dolan continued his rise to prominence in the 2010s, directing and sometimes starring in multiple-award-winning films such as Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats, 2010), Laurence Anyways (2012), Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm, 2013), Mommy (2014), and Juste la fin du monde (It's Only the End of the World, 2016), the latter of which became the second Canadian film to win the Grand Prix at Cannes.

Denis Villeneuve's 2010 film Incendies was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and several Genie Awards. He followed this up with the English-language surrealist neo-noir psychological thriller Enemy (2013), which earned numerous accolades including the 2014 Toronto Film Critics Association award for Best Canadian Film, before departing for Hollywood.

Philippe Falardeau won acclaim for the 2011 film Monsieur Lazhar, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won six Genie Awards. Kim Nguyen's 2012 film Rebelle (War Witch) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making the third consecutive year a film from Quebec was nominated.[28]

In 2015, two Canadian co-productions, partly funded by Telefilm Canada, were nominated for Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards: Room and Brooklyn.[29] Also in 2015, Jean-Marc Vallée's 2005 coming of age film C.R.A.Z.Y. was ranked among the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time by Toronto International Film Festival critics.

This decade also saw impressive directorial debuts from several English-language Canadian filmmakers. Brandon Cronenberg's feature-length directorial debut, the 2012 science fiction horror film Antiviral, competed in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Albert Shin directed the films In Her Place (2014) and Disappearance at Clifton Hill (2019) which were both nominated for multiple Canadian Screen Awards. Matthew Rankin's feature-length directorial debut, the surrealist historical comedy drama The Twentieth Century (2019), won prizes at various film festivals and took home three Canadian Screen Awards.

The 2010s also experienced a resurgence in Canadian horror and exploitation films such as Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), Backcountry (2014), The Void (2016), Les Affamés (2017; Ravenous), Pyewacket (2017), and Random Acts of Violence (2019).

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.

Contemporary production and distribution

The major production centres in Canada are Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. In 2011, Toronto ranked third in North America, behind only Los Angeles and New York City, in total industry production.[27]

A typical Canadian film production is made with funds 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 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's film industry services American producers and films driven by American distribution, and this part of the industry has been nicknamed "Hollywood North". Alliance Atlantis (acquired by CanWest Global Communications 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 has also become a major distributor in recent years.

Very often, a Canadian film's largest opportunity to achieve a significant audience comes from negotiating television carriage rights with a broadcaster such as CBC Television, Crave or Showcase.[25]

An established network of film festivals also provide important marketing and audience exposure for Canadian films. The largest and most prominent festivals are the Toronto International Film Festival, considered one of the most important events in North American film, and the Vancouver International Film Festival, but a large number of film festivals throughout the country, both general interest events and specialty festivals devoted to particular genres of film, provide important opportunities for both Canadian and international filmmakers to gain exposure.[25]

Film awards and celebrations

Canada's national film awards were first introduced in 1949 as the Canadian Film Awards. Often plagued with organizational problems, they were taken over in 1978 by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to become the Genie Awards; in 2012, the Academy merged the Genie Awards with its Gemini Awards program for English-language television production to create the contemporary Canadian Screen Awards.

Although all Canadian films regardless of language are eligible for the Canadian Screen Awards, Québec Cinéma also presents the separate Prix Iris program for film production in Quebec. A few other regions in Canada also have their own regional film and television production awards, including the Rosie Awards in Alberta and the Leo Awards in British Columbia.

Many of Canada's film festivals present awards to honour the best Canadian and international films screened at each annual event; the most famous and important of these are the awards presented by the Toronto and Vancouver film festivals. The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, in particular, has built an international reputation as one of the first major "precursor" awards to the Academy Award nomination race.[30] Annual critics' awards are also presented by the Toronto Film Critics Association, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle and the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma.

Various local chapters of ACTRA, Canada's labour union for actors and actresses, present annual ACTRA Awards to honour performances in film and television production within the chapter's local service area; ACTRA formerly presented Canada's main national television awards from 1972 to 1986, when they were taken over by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television as the Gemini Awards. Craft awards are also presented by the Directors Guild of Canada for film and television direction, the Writers' Guild of Canada for screenwriting, the Canadian Society of Cinematographers for film and television cinematography, and the Canadian Alliance of Film and Television Costume and Arts Design for costume design.

As well, the Toronto International Film Festival polls film critics and festival programmers from across Canada to announce an annual Canada's Top Ten list of the year's best Canadian feature and short films.

Organizations and publications

Film organizations in Canada

Non-government organizations

Government organizations

Defunct organizations

Collections and exhibitors

Chains/brands

Defunct chains

Individual film theatres
See also: List of Ottawa-Gatineau cinemas

Former theatres:

Film magazines

Film schools

Issues in the Canadian film industry
The Bridge Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia

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-controlled film distribution networks, it has been nearly impossible for most distinctively Canadian films to break through to a wide audience.[25]

Although Canadian films have often received critical praise, and the National Film Board has won more Academy Awards than almost any other institution (for both their animation and documentary 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 sketch parodied an Atom Egoyan-like director 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 made CA$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, 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, made with the then unknown Mel Gibson, and with a budget of A$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, despite Toronto, Vancouver or Montréal being thriving filmmaking centres in their own right. Some actors or directors who have started their early careers in Canada include: David Cronenberg, John Candy, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, Michael J. Fox, Mike Myers, Ivan Reitman, Derek Harvie, Seth Rogen, Eugene Levy, Tom Green, Scott Mosier, and Paul Haggis. 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 to establish an audience in Canada or internationally:

  • 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, 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.[25]
  • 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). This rule, in particular, led to a large rush of Canadian-made B-movies in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • While British and Australian 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, Children of a Lesser God and The Art of War 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 and the established character actor Jack Warden respectively). Joseph Wiseman, 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 starred in the 2003 film The Statement, Helena Bonham Carter played the lead role in 1996's Margaret's Museum and Olivia Newton-John had a starring role in Score: A Hockey Musical.[25]
  • Unlike radio and television, which both have strict Canadian content 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. 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 theatres or on the film festival circuit. Once again, the exception is Québec, 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, 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 critically acclaimed films have been made in Canada, but the idea nevertheless presents a significant hurdle to Canadian filmmakers seeking to build an audience for their work.

Porky's and Meatballs

For many years the most successful Canadian film of all time at the Canadian box office was Porky's; it was produced by a Canadian team (though directed by Bob Clark, 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, but that assessment does not take inflation into account. Porky's still retains its status as the most successful Canadian film internationally.)

Meatballs 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, although it takes place in a summer camp, there is nothing recognizably Canadian about the location or the characters, except for a Montreal Canadiens sweater. The starring role went to American comedian Bill Murray in his earliest featured film role. The chief love interest was played by Canadian Kate Lynch, 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. 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.

In 2010, Resident Evil: Afterlife grossed more than $280 million at the box office internationally and nearly $7 million domestic, making it the most successful production in Canadian film history.[31][32][33]

Notable films
Main article: List of Canadian 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:

Before 1960

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Notable filmmakers

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:

Canadian directors
Name Life Notable Canadian films directed (Screen Award for Best Director in bold)
Paul Almond 1931–2015 Isabel, The Act of the Heart, Journey, Final Assignment, Captive Hearts
Denys Arcand 1941– La maudite galette, Réjeanne Padovani, Gina, Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe, Le déclin de l'empire américain, Jésus de Montréal, Love and Human Remains, Joyeux Calvaire, Stardom, Les invasions barbares, L'Âge des ténèbres, Le règne de la beauté, La chute de l'empire américain
Frédéric Back 1924–2013 Tout rien, Crac, L'homme qui plantait des arbres, Le fleuve aux grandes eaux
Jean Beaudin 1939–2019 Jeux de la XXIe olympiade, J.A. Martin photographe, Cordélia, Le matou, Being at Home with Claude, Souvenirs intimes, Le Collectionneur, Nouvelle-France, Sans elle
Louis Bélanger 1964– Post Mortem, Gaz Bar Blues, L'Heure de vérité, Route 132, Les Mauvaises herbes, Vivre à 100 milles à l'heure
Charles Binamé 1949– ...Chili avait les blues, Eldorado, Séraphin, Maurice Richard, Le piège américain, Elephant Song
Phillip Borsos 1953–1995 The Grey Fox, Bethune: The Making of a Hero
Michel Brault 1928–2013 La lutte, Pour la suite du monde, Entre la mer et l'eau douce, Les Ordres, Les noces de papier, Quand je serai parti...
Donald Brittain 1928–1989 Memorandum, Volcano, Paperland, The Champions, Canada's Sweetheart
Gary Burns 1960– The Suburbanators, Kitchen Party, waydowntown, A Problem with Fear, Radiant City, Man Running
Gilles Carle 1928–2009 La vie heureuse de Léopold Z, Une jeune fille douce, Red, Les mâles, La vraie nature de Bernadette, Les Corps célestes, La mort d'un bûcheron, La tête de Normande St-Onge, L'Ange et la femme, Fantastica, Les Plouffe, Maria Chapdelaine, La guêpe, Pudding chômeur
Marcel Carrière 1935– La lutte, Pour la suite du monde, Avec tambours et trompettes, O.K. ... Laliberté, Ti-mine, Bernie pis la gang...
Jack Chambers 1931–1978 Circle, The Hart of London
Denis Chouinard 1964– Clandestins, L'ange de goudron, Délivrez-moi
F. R. Crawley 1911–1987 The Loon's Necklace, Newfoundland Scene
Brandon Cronenberg 1980– Antiviral, Possessor
David Cronenberg 1943– Shivers, Rabid, Fast Company, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ, Spider, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars
Fernand Dansereau 1928– Astataïon ou Le festin des morts, Faut aller parmi l'monde pour le savoir, Doux aveux, La brunante
Sophie Deraspe 1973– The Amina Profile, Vital Signs, Antigone
Xavier Dolan 1989– J'ai tué ma mère, Les amours imaginaires, Laurence Anyways, Tom à la ferme, Mommy, Juste la fin du monde, The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, Matthias & Maxime
Georges Dufaux 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 1956– Scanners II, Scanners III, Screamers, The Assignment, The Art of War, Jappeloup, Un sac de billes
Atom Egoyan 1960– Next of Kin, Family Viewing, Speaking Parts, The Adjuster, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia's Journey, Ararat, Where the Truth Lies, Adoration, Chloe, The Captive, Remember, Guest of Honour
Philippe Falardeau 1968– La Moitié gauche du frigo, Congorama, C'est pas moi je le jure!, Monsieur Lazhar, Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre, My Salinger Year
Robert Favreau 1948– Nelligan, Les muses orphelines, Un dimanche à Kigali
Thom Fitzgerald 1968– The Hanging Garden, Beefcake, The Wild Dogs, The Event, 3 Needles, Cloudburst, Splinters, Stage Mother
André Forcier 1947– Bar Salon, L'Eau chaude l'eau frette, Au clair de la lune, Une histoire inventée, Le vent du Wyoming, La Comtesse de Bâton Rouge, Les États-Unis d'Albert, Je me souviens, Coteau Rouge, Embrasse-moi comme tu m'aimes, Les fleurs oubliées
Beryl Fox 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 1963– Cargo, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Red Violin, Silk, Hochelaga Terre des âmes, The Song of Names
Jacques Godbout 1933– YUL 871, Kid Sentiment, IXE-13, La Gammick, Deux épisodes dans la vie d'Hubert Aquin, Alias Will James
John Greyson 1960– Zero Patience, Lilies, The Law of Enclosures, Fig Trees
Daniel Grou 1967– 10½, L'Affaire Dumont, Les 7 jours du talion, Miraculum, King Dave, Mafia Inc.
Gilles Groulx 1931–1994 Golden Gloves, Le Chat dans le sac, Où êtes-vous donc?, Entre tu et vous, 24 heures ou plus
Claude Jutra 1930–1986 Mouvement perpétuel, Les mains nettes, À tout prendre, Wow, Mon oncle Antoine, Kamouraska, By Design, La dame en couleurs
Ron Kelly 1929– The Open Grave, The Gift, The Last Man in the World, Waiting for Caroline, King of the Grizzlies
Larry Kent 1937– The Bitter Ash, Sweet Substitute, When Tomorrow Dies, High, Keep It in the Family, Yesterday, The Hamster Cage, She Who Must Burn
Allan King 1930–2009 Warrendale, A Married Couple, Who Has Seen the Wind, Silence of the North, Termini Station, Dying at Grace
Wolf Koenig 1927–2014 City of Gold, The Days Before Christmas, Glenn Gould: On & Off the Record, Lonely Boy, Stravinsky
Roman Kroitor 1927–2012 Paul Tomkowicz: Street-railway Switchman, Universe, Lonely Boy, Stravinsky, Labyrinth
Zacharias Kunuk 1957– Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Searchers, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk
Jean-Claude Labrecque 1938–2019 60 cycles, La visite du général de Gaulle au Québec, Les smattes, Les vautours, L'Affaire Coffin, Les Années de rêves, Le Frère André
Arthur Lamothe 1928–2013 Bûcherons de la Manouane, Poussière sur la ville, Le mépris n'aura qu'un temps, Équinoxe, La conquête de l'Amérique
Micheline Lanctôt 1947– L'homme à tout faire, Sonatine, Deux actrices, La vie d'un héros, Le Piège d'Issoudun, Suzie, Pour l'amour de Dieu
Ryan Larkin 1943–2007 Syrinx, Cityscape, Walking, Street Musique
Jean-Claude Lauzon 1953–1997 Piwi, Un zoo la nuit, Léolo
Caroline Leaf 1946– The Owl Who Married a Goose, The Street, The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa, Two Sisters
Jacques Leduc 1941– On est loin du soleil, Tendresse ordinaire, Le dernier glacier, Trois pommes à côté du sommeil, La Vie fantôme
Jean Pierre Lefebvre 1941– Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça, Jusqu'au cœur, Q-Bec My Love, Les maudits sauvages, Les dernières fiançailles, Le Vieux pays où Rimbaud est mort, Avoir 16 ans, Les fleurs sauvages, Le jour S..., Le fabuleux voyage de l'ange, Aujourd'hui ou jamais
Robert Lepage 1957– Le Confessionnal, Le Polygraphe, Nô, Possible Worlds, La face cachée de la lune
Richard J. Lewis Whale Music, Barney's Version
Arthur Lipsett 1936–1986 Very Nice, Very Nice, Free Fall, 21-87, A Trip Down Memory Lane, N-Zone
Colin Low 1926–2016 The Romance of Transportation in Canada, Corral, City of Gold, Universe, Circle of the Sun
Guy Maddin 1956– Tales from the Gimli Hospital, Archangel, Careful, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, The Heart of the World, Dracula, Cowards Bend the Knee, The Saddest Music in the World, Brand Upon the Brain!, My Winnipeg, Keyhole, The Forbidden Room, The Green Fog
Francis Mankiewicz 1944–1993 Le temps d'une chasse, Les bons débarras, Les beaux souvenirs, Les portes tournantes
Bill Mason 1929–1988 Paddle to the Sea, The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes, Blake, Death of a Legend, Cry of the Wild, Song of the Paddle, Waterwalker
Bruce McDonald 1959– Roadkill, Highway 61, Dance Me Outside, Hard Core Logo, Picture Claire, The Tracey Fragments, Killer Wave, Pontypool, This Movie Is Broken, Trigger, My Babysitter's a Vampire, Hard Core Logo 2, The Husband, Hellions, Weirdos
Michael McGowan 1966– Saint Ralph, One Week, Score: A Hockey Musical, Still Mine, All My Puny Sorrows
Don McKellar 1963– Last Night, Childstar, The Grand Seduction, Through Black Spruce
Norman McLaren 1914–1987 Begone Dull Care, Neighbours, Blinkity Blank, Rythmetic, A Chairy Tale, Mosaic, Pas de deux
Deepa Mehta 1950– Martha Ruth and Edie, Sam & Me, Camilla, Fire, Earth, Bollywood/Hollywood, The Republic of Love, Water, Heaven on Earth, Midnight's Children, Beeba Boys, Anatomy of Violence, Funny Boy
Peter Mettler 1958– Scissere, The Top of His Head, Picture of Light, Gambling, Gods and LSD, Petropolis, The End of Time
Robert Morin 1949– Requiem pour un beau sans-coeur, Windigo, Yes Sir! Madame..., Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleur, Le nèg, Que Dieu bénisse l'Amérique, Papa à la chasse aux lagopèdes, Journal d'un coopérant, Le problème d'infiltration
James Motluk 1964– Nasty Burgers, Life Under Mike
Allan Moyle 1947– The Rubber Gun, Pump Up the Volume, New Waterford Girl, XChange, Weirdsville
Vincenzo Natali 1965– Cube, Cypher, Nothing, Splice, Haunter, In the Tall Grass
Kim Nguyen 1974– War Witch, Two Lovers and a Bear, Eye on Juliet, The Hummingbird Project
Don Owen 1935–2016 Nobody Waved Goodbye, Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen, Notes for a Film About Donna and Gail, The Ernie Game, Partners, Unfinished Business
Pierre Patry 1933–2014 Trouble fête, Caïn, La corde au cou
Peter Pearson 1938– The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar, Paperback Hero
Pierre Perrault 1927–1999 Pour la suite du monde, Le règne du jour, Les Voitures d'eau, L'Acadie, l'Acadie, Un royaume vous attend, La bête lumineuse, L'oumigmag ou l'objectif documentaire
Clément Perron 1929–1999 Jour après jour, C'est pas la faute à Jacques Cartier, Taureau, Partis pour la gloire
Sébastien Pilote 1973– Le vendeur, Le Démantèlement, La disparition des lucioles, Maria Chapdelaine
Jeremy Podeswa 1962– Eclipse, The Five Senses, Fugitive Pieces
Sarah Polley 1979– I Shout Love, Away From Her, Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell
Anne Claire Poirier 1932– De mère en fille, Les filles du Roy, Le temps de l'avant, Mourir à tue-tête, La Quarantaine, Salut Victor, Tu as crié: Let me go
Léa Pool 1950– La Femme de l'hôtel, Anne Trister, À corps perdu, La Demoiselle sauvage, Mouvements du désir, Emporte-moi, Lost and Delirious, Maman est chez le coiffeur, La dernière fugue, La passion d'Augustine, Et au pire on se mariera
David Rimmer 1942– Surfacing on the Thames, Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper, Canadian Pacific, Al Neil: A Portrait, As Seen on TV, Local Knowledge
Patricia Rozema 1958– I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, White Room, When Night Is Falling, Into the Forest, Mouthpiece
David Secter 1943– Winter Kept Us Warm, The Offering
Donald Shebib 1938– Goin' Down the Road, Rip-Off, Between Friends, Second Wind, Heartaches, Running Brave, The Climb, Down the Road Again
Yves Simoneau 1955– Les yeux rouges, Pouvoir intime, Les fous de bassan, Dans le ventre du dragon, Perfectly Normal, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Free Money, Ignition
John N. Smith 1943– First Winter, Train of Dreams, Welcome to Canada, The Boys of St. Vincent, Dieppe, Geraldine's Fortune, Love and Savagery
Michael Snow 1928– Wavelength, <---->, La Région Centrale, Rameau's Nephew, Presents, So Is This, See You Later, *Corpus Callosum, Cityscape
Robin Spry 1939–2005 Flowers on a One-Way Street, Prologue, Action: The October Crisis of 1970, One Man, Drying Up the Streets, Suzanne, Obsessed
Lynne Stopkewich 1964– Kissed, Suspicious River
Ralph L. Thomas 1939– Ticket to Heaven, The Terry Fox Story, The First Season
Jean-Marc Vallée 1963–2021 Les fleurs magiques, Liste noire, Los Locos, Les mots magiques, C.R.A.Z.Y., Café de Flore
Denis Villeneuve 1967– Un 32 août sur terre, Maelström, Next Floor, Polytechnique, Incendies, Enemy
Clément Virgo 1966– Save My Lost Nigga Soul, Rude, The Planet of Junior Brown, Love Come Down, Poor Boy's Game
Anne Wheeler 1946– A War Story, Loyalties, Bye Bye Blues, Angel Square, Better Than Chocolate, Marine Life, Suddenly Naked, Knockout
Sandy Wilson 1947– My American Cousin, American Boyfriends, Harmony Cats

Notable Canadian expatriate directors who are or have worked primarily in Hollywood include:

Actors

While countless Canadian-born actors have worked in Hollywood over the decades, there are a large number who have enjoyed significant success in the domestic cinema of Canada. This is a list of performers who have received multiple Canadian Screen Award nominations and/or appeared in many notable Canadian-made films (including international co-productions). Most of these actors are Canadians, but some foreign-born performers who have achieved notable distinction in the Canadian film industry are also included.

Name Life Notable Canadian-produced films (Screen Award-winning performances in bold)
Gabriel Arcand 1949- La Maudite Galette, Réjeanne Padovani, Gina, Au revoir... à lundi, Suzanne, The Coffin Affair, Les Plouffe, Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe, Le Déclin de l'empire américain, La Ligne de chaleur, Les Portes tournantes, Le Grand serpent du monde, Post Mortem, Congorama, Karakara, Le Démantèlement, Le Fils de Jean
Paule Baillargeon 1945- Réjeanne Padovani, Gina, La Femme de l'hôtel, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, Jésus de Montréal, Un 32 août sur terre
Brigitte Bako 1967- I Love a Man in Uniform, Replikator, Double Take, Saint Monica
Jay Baruchel 1982- Real Time, The Trotsky, Good Neighbours, Goon, The Art of the Steal, Random Acts of Violence
Henry Beckman 1921-2008 Between Friends, Why Rock the Boat?, Blood and Guts, The Brood, Death Hunt
Dorothée Berryman 1948- Le Déclin de l'empire américain, Scanners II, The Red Violin, Les Invasions barbares, Jack Paradise, Cabotins, French Immersion
Seema Biswas 1965- Water, Cooking with Stella, Midnight's Children, Funny Boy
Isabelle Blais 1975- Un crabe dans la tête, Québec-Montréal, Savage Messiah, Les Aimants, Borderline, The High Cost of Living, Tadoussac, Le nid
Lothaire Bluteau 1957- Jésus de Montréal, Black Robe, Le Confessionnal, Dead Heat
Céline Bonnier 1965- Tectonic Plates, Les Muses orphelines, Monica la mitraille, Délivrez-moi, Maman est chez le coiffeur, La Passion d'Augustine, À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas
Marie Brassard Le Polygraphe, Cadavres, Les grandes chaleurs, Les signes vitaux, Ésimésac, Roberta, Corbo
Evelyne Brochu 1982- Polytechnique, Café de Flore, Inch'Allah, Tom à la ferme, Rememory
Geneviève Bujold 1942- Isabel, The Act of the Heart, Journey, Kamouraska, Murder by Decree, Final Assignment, Dead Ringers, My Friend Max, Last Night, La Turbulence des fluides, The Trotsky, Still Mine
Martha Burns 1957- Long Day's Journey into Night, Love and Savagery, French Immersion, Mad Ship
Jackie Burroughs 1939-2010 The Ernie Game, Dulcima, 125 Rooms of Comfort, The Grey Fox, The Wars, The Surrogate, John and the Missus, A Winter Tan
Pascale Bussières 1968- Sonatine, La Vie fantôme, Deux actrices, When Night Is Falling, Eldorado, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, Un 32 août sur terre, Emporte-moi, La répétition, La Turbulence des fluides, Ma vie en cinemascope, Ville-Marie, Les Démons, Anna, Nous sommes les autres, Bootlegger
Anne-Marie Cadieux 1963- Le Confessional, Le cœur au poing, Nô, Maman Last Call, Toi
Nicholas Campbell 1952- Fast Company, The Brood, Yesterday, The Amateur, Trapped, The Man in 5A, Naked Lunch, Shadow of the Wolf, The Boys Club, New Waterford Girl, Turning Paige, Love and Savagery, I'm Yours, Antiviral, Backcountry, Awakening the Zodiac, Never Steady Never Still
Tantoo Cardinal 1950- Marie-Anne, Loyalties, Black Robe, Mustard Bath, Smoke Signals, Edge of Madness, Unnatural & Accidental, Mothers & Daughters, Maïna, ARQ, Falls Around Her, The Grizzlies, Through Black Spruce, Angelique's Isle
France Castel 1944- Karmina, La Comtesse du Bâton Rouge, La vengeance de la femme en noir, La lune viendra d'elle-même
Kim Cattrall 1956- Deadly Harvest, Tribute, Ticket to Heaven, Porky's, Hold-Up, Palais Royale
Maury Chaykin 1949-2010 Riel, Deadly Companion, The Kidnapping of the President, Highpoint, Curtains, Of Unknown Origin, Def-Con 4, Iron Eagle II, Cold Comfort, The Adjuster, Buried on Sunday, Whale Music, Camilla, The Sweet Hereafter, The Art of War, Owning Mahowny, Sugar, Wilby Wonderful
Suzanne Clément 1969- Audition, J'ai tué ma mère, Laurence Anyways, Mommy, Sitting on the Edge of Marlene, À la vie, Early Winter, Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre
John Colicos 1928-2000 Dulcima, Breaking Point, King Solomon's Treasure, The Changeling, Phobia, Nowhere to Hide, Shadow Dancing, No Contest
Michel Côté 1950- Cruising Bar, Le Dernier tunnel, C.R.A.Z.Y., Cruising Bar 2, De père en flic, Piché entre ciel et terre, Le Sens de l'humour, De père en flic 2
Clare Coulter 1942- By Design, The Wars, When Night Is Falling, Cross My Heart, Away from Her
Rachael Crawford Rude, When Night Is Falling, Curtis's Charm, Pale Saints
Wendy Crewson 1956- Skullduggery, Sleeping Dogs Lie, Better Than Chocolate, Escape Velocity, Suddenly Naked, Perfect Pie, Niagara Motel, The Covenant, Away from Her, Who Loves the Sun, Winnie Mandela, Antiviral, Fall, Into the Forest, From the Vine
Marie-Josée Croze 1970- La Florida, Maelström, Ararat, Nothing, Les Invasions barbares, Le règne de la beauté, Every Thing Will Be Fine, Iqaluit, Disappearance at Clifton Hill
Pierre Curzi 1946- On est loin du soleil, Suzanne, Maria Chapdelaine, Lucien Brouillard, Caffè Italia Montréal, Le Déclin de l'empire américain, Pouvoir intime, Matroni et moi, Les Invasions barbares, La Nouvelle Vie de Paul Sneijder, La chute de l'empire américain
Henry Czerny 1959- Buried on Sunday, I Love a Man in Uniform, When Night Is Falling, The Michelle Apartments, Fido, Remember, The Other Half, The Curse of Buckout Road
Jennifer Dale 1956- Suzanne, Ticket to Heaven, Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid, Of Unknown Origin, Separate Vacations, Something About Love, Martha Ruth and Edie, The Adjuster, Cadillac Girls, Whale Music, Love Come Down, Clara
Lawrence Dane 1937- The Clown Murders, Rituals, Running, Bear Island, Nothing Personal, Head On, Scanners, Happy Birthday to Me, Of Unknown Origin, Rolling Vengeance, Duct Tape Forever, Behind the Wall
Colleen Dewhurst 1924-1991 The Third Walker, Final Assignment, Tribute, Obsessed, Termini Station
Patrick Drolet De père en flic, L'Enfant prodige, Tout ce que tu possèdes, La neuvaine
Martin Dubreuil 1972- 10½, Chasse au Godard d'Abbittibbi, Felix and Meira, Maudite poutine, À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas, La grande noirceur
Roy Dupuis 1963- Being at Home with Claude, Cap Tourmente, Screamers, J'en suis!, Séraphin, Jack Paradise, Monica la mitraille, Mémoires affectives, Maurice Richard, Shake Hands with the Devil, Roche papier ciseaux, The Forbidden Room, Les fleurs oubliées, Brain Freeze
Jayne Eastwood 1946- Goin' Down the Road, One Man, Night Friend, Candy Mountain, Office Party, Real Time, Down the Road Again, The Space Between
Gary Farmer 1953- Henry & Verlin, Smoke Signals, Twist
Colm Feore 1958- Iron Eagle II, Beautiful Dreamers, Bethune, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Wrong Guy, The Red Violin, The Perfect Son, Century Hotel, The Deal, Bon Cop Bad Cop, The Poet, Killing Zelda Sparks, Le piège américain, The Trotsky, Elephant Song, Mean Dreams, Bon Cop Bad Cop 2, The Curse of Buckout Road, The Prodigy, Astronaut, My Salinger Year, Sugar Daddy, Trigger Point
Matthew Ferguson 1973- On My Own, Love and Human Remains, Life with Billy, Eclipse, Lilies, Uncut, Cube 2: Hypercube
Denise Filiatrault 1931- La Mort d'un bûcheron, Il était une fois dans l'Est, Gina, Fantastica, Les Plouffe, C'est le cœur qui meurt en dernier
Brendan Fletcher 1981- The Five Senses, The Law of Enclosures, Turning Paige, The Final Cut, Everyone
Marianne Fortier 1993- Aurore, Maman est chez le coiffeur, Brain Freeze
Sarah Gadon 1987- The Moth Diaries, Antiviral, Cosmopolis, Enemy, Octavio Is Dead!, La grande noirceur, American Woman, All My Puny Sorrows
Amulette Garneau 1928-2008 Les Ordres, Il était une fois dans l'Est, Les vautours, Maria Chapdelaine, Les Années de rêves, Un Zoo la nuit
Maxim Gaudette 1974- Sans elle, Polytechnique, Incendies, Nos ëtres chers, Hygiène sociale
Marie Gignac Le Confessionnal, Nô, La Vie secrète des gens heureux
Rémy Girard 1950- Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe, Le Déclin de l'empire américain, Les Portes tournantes, Dans le ventre du dragon, Jésus de Montréal, Amoureux fou, La Florida, Monica la mitraille, Les Boys, Séraphin, Les Invasions barbares, Le piège américain, De père en flic, Incendies, Cabotins, Votez Bougon, Il pleuvait des oiseaux, La chute de l'empire américain
Jacques Godin 1930-2020 O.K. Laliberté, Équinoxe, Pouvoir intime, Salut Victor, Being at Home with Claude, La nuit du déluge, La Donation, La dernière fugue
Janet-Laine Green 1951- Bullies, Cowboys Don't Cry, The Diamond Fleece, The Shower, Born to Be Blue
Bruce Greenwood 1956- The Climb, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat, Being Julia, Barney's Version, The Captive, Elephant Song, Rehearsal
Marc-André Grondin 1984- C.R.A.Z.Y., 5150 rue des ormes, The Chameleon, Goon, L'Affaire Dumont, Vic+Flo ont vu un ours, Tu dors Nicole, Les Affamés, Mafia Inc.
Paul Gross 1959- Cold Comfort, Buried on Sunday, Whale Music, Men with Brooms, Wilby Wonderful, Passchendaele, Gunless, Hyena Road
Élise Guilbault 1961- Le Temps d'une chasse, La Femme qui boit, Cap Tourmente, La neuvaine, La Donation, Pour vivre ici
Emily Hampshire Boy Meets Girl, A Problem with Fear, Blood, Snow Cake, The Trotsky, Good Neighbours, My Awkward Sexual Adventure, The Returned
Martha Henry 1938-2021 The Wars, Dancing in the Dark, Mustard Bath, Long Day's Journey into Night
Art Hindle 1948- The Proud Rider, Face-Off, Black Christmas, The Brood, Porky's, Porky's II, The Surrogate, Into the Fire, No Deposit, Sicilian Vampire, The Void, Adam's Testament, The Joke Thief, Astronaut
Michael Hogan 1949- Lost!, Palais Royale, Diplomatic Immunity, Solitaire, Clearcut, Road to Saddle River, A Simple Curve, Hunt to Kill
Germain Houde 1952- Mourir à tue-tête, Les bons débarras, Un Zoo la nuit, Tomorrow's a Killer, Terminal City Ricochet, L'assassin jouait du trombone, Le Secret de Jérôme, La vengeance de la femme en noir, La Peur de l'eau
Patrick Huard 1969- J'en suis!, Les Boys, La vie après l’amour, Monica la mitraille, Bon Cop Bad Cop, Cadavres, Funkytown, Starbuck, Mommy, Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre, Bon Cop Bad Cop 2
Frances Hyland 1927-2004 Drylanders, The Changeling, The Hounds of Notre Dame, Happy Birthday to Me, The Lotus Eaters
Michael Ironside 1950- High-Ballin', I Maureen, Coming Out Alive, Scanners, Surfacing, Visiting Hours, American Nightmare, The Surrogate, Nowhere to Hide, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, Office Party, Watchers, Thunderground, Chaindance, Neon City, Killer Image, Black Ice, The Space Between
Yves Jacques 1956- Sonatine, Le Déclin de l'empire américain, Jésus de Montréal, Le Collectionneur, Séraphin, Les Invasions barbares, Aurore, Cabotins, La dernière fugue, Laurence Anyways, Les fleurs oubliées
Stephan James 1993- Home Again, Lost After Dark, Across the Line, Race
Rebecca Jenkins 1959- Cowboys Don't Cry, Bye Bye Blues, South of Wawa, Clearcut, Marion Bridge, Wilby Wonderful, Whole New Thing, Cole
Clark Johnson 1954- Iron Eagle II, Rude, Love Come Down, Defendor, Nurse.Fighter.Boy, Hyena Road, Tammy's Always Dying
Robert Joy 1951- Atlantic City, Ticket to Heaven, Faustus Bidgood, Henry & Verlin, Resurrection, Land of the Dead, Whole New Thing, Down to the Dirt, Crown and Anchor
Arsinée Khanjian 1958- Next of Kin, Family Viewing, Speaking Parts, The Adjuster, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Last Night, Felicia's Journey, Ararat, Sabah, Where the Truth Lies, Adoration, The Cut, Guest of Honour
Margot Kidder 1948-2018 The Best Damn Fiddler..., A Quiet Day in Belfast, Black Christmas, Heartaches, To Catch a Killer, La Florida, Henry & Verlin
Mia Kirshner 1975- Love and Human Remains, Cadillac Girls, Exotica, Century Hotel
Elias Koteas 1961- Malarek, The Adjuster, Camilla, Exotica, Crash, Ararat, Defendor, Die, Winnie Mandela
David La Haye 1966- L'Enfant d'eau, Un crabe dans la tête, Head in the Clouds, Nouvelle-France, La Vie avec mon père, Big Muddy, Hochelaga Terre des âmes, All You Can Eat Buddha, Guerres
Marc Labrèche 1960- L'assassin jouait du trombone, La vengeance de la femme en noir, Monica la mitraille, L'Âge des ténèbres, L'Enfant prodige, Whitewash
Stephen Lack 1946- Montreal Main, The Angel and the Woman, The Rubber Gun, Head On, Scanners, Dead Ringers
Micheline Lanctôt 1947- La Vraie nature de Bernadette, Child Under a Leaf, Ti-Cul Tougas, Blood and Guts, Mourir à tue-tête, The Coffin Affair, Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant sa ménopause, A Year in the Death of Jack Richards, Familia, Le Rire
Lisa Langlois 1959- Blood Relatives, Phobia, Klondike Fever, Happy Birthday to Me, Class of 1984, Deadly Eyes
Margaret Langrick 1971- My American Cousin, Martha Ruth and Edie, Cold Comfort, Thunderground, American Boyfriends, Sweet Angel Mine
Jean Lapointe 1935- O.K. Laliberté, Les Ordres, Ti-Mine Bernie pis la gang, One Man, Une histoire inventée, Never Too Late, La bouteille, Le Dernier tunnel
Carole Laure 1948- IXE-13, La Mort d'un bûcheron, Les Corps célestes, Sweet Movie, La Tête de Normande St-Onge, L'Ange et la femme, La Menace, Au revoir... à lundi, Fantastica, Maria Chapdelaine, The Surrogate, Night Magic
Charlotte Laurier 1966- Les Bons débarras, Bonheur d'occasion, La dame en couleurs, Le Party, Une histoire inventée, Les Portes tournantes, 2 secondes
Julie Le Breton 1975- Québec-Montréal, Maurice Richard, Maman Last Call, Cadavres, Starbuck, Une vie qui commence, Paul à Québec
Marilyn Lightstone 1940- Lies My Father Told Me, In Praise of Older Women, Heavy Metal, Bonheur d'occasion, The Surrogate, Iron Eagle on the Attack
Celine Lomez 1953- L'Initiation, Réjeanne Padovani, Gina, The Far Shore, The Silent Partner, Plague, La vengeance de la femme en noir
Kate Lynch 1959- Meatballs, Summer's Children, Skullduggery, Def-Con 4, Taking Care, The Shower, The Republic of Love, Lie with Me
Nick Mancuso 1948- Ticket to Heaven, Maria Chapdelaine, Tell Me That You Love Me, Night Magic, Past Perfect
Louise Marleau 1944- YUL 871, L'Arrache-cœur, Les Bons débarras, La Femme de l'hôtel, Anne Trister, Cruising Bar, Une histoire inventée
Tatiana Maslany 1985- Grown Up Movie Star, The Entitled, Picture Day, Cas and Dylan, The Other Half, Two Lovers and a Bear
Tom McCamus 1955- Norman's Awesome Experience, I Love a Man in Uniform, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Sweet Hereafter, Possible Worlds, Perfect Pie, Black Widow, Cairo Time
Sheila McCarthy 1956- I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, White Room, The Lotus Eaters, Rare Birds, Cardinals, Happy Place, Anything for Jackson
Doug McGrath 1935- Goin' Down the Road, Wedding in White, The Hard Part Begins, Black Christmas, Coming Out Alive, Porky's, Down the Road Again
Stephen McHattie 1946- Tomorrow Never Comes, Best Revenge, Life with Billy, Twist, Maurice Richard, Poor Boy's Game, All Hat, Pontypool, You Might as Well Live, The Tall Man, A Little Bit Zombie, Exil, Haunter, Septic Man, Torment, Wolves, Big Muddy, Hellmouth, Born to Be Blue, Awakening the Zodiac, Come to Daddy, Target Number One
Don McKellar 1963- Roadkill, The Adjuster, Highway 61, Exotica, Last Night, The Red Violin, eXistenZ, waydowntown, The Event, Public Domain, Monkey Warfare, Blindness, Cooking with Stella, Trigger, I'm Yours, 3 Days in Havana, Blood Honey, Meditation Park, Target Number One
Monique Mercure 1930-2020 À tout prendre, Don't Let the Angels Fall, Mon oncle Antoine, Le Temps d'une chasse, Les vautours, J.A. Martin photographe, The Third Walker, Stone Cold Dead, La Quarantaine, Une journée en taxi, Les Années de rêves, Dans le ventre du dragon, Naked Lunch, Conquest, The Red Violin, La Brunante, The Girl in the White Coat, C'est le cœur qui meurt en dernier
Pascale Montpetit 1960- H, Eclipse, Eldorado, Le cœur au poing, Savage Messiah, The Girl in the White Coat
Frank Moore 1946- The Far Shore, Rabid, The Third Walker, Au revoir... à lundi, Stone Cold Dead, Blood and Donuts, The Assistant, Octavio Is Dead!
Tedde Moore 1945- Second Wind, Murder by Decree, The Amateur, A Christmas Story, Overnight, Rolling Vengeance, Down the Road Again
Sylvie Moreau 1964- Post Mortem, La bouteille, Maelström, Les Aimants, Camping sauvage, Familia
Barry Morse 1918-2008 Love at First Sight, Welcome to Blood City, One Man, Power Play, The Shape of Things to Come, Klondike Fever, The Changeling, Funeral Home, The Hounds of Notre Dame, Murder by Phone
Viggo Mortensen 1958- The Reflecting Skin, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method
Tony Nardi 1958- Caffè Italia Montréal, Concrete Angels, Kalamazoo, Cruising Bar, Speaking Parts, Une histoire inventée, La Sarrasine, La déroute, My Father's Angel, Almost America, Corbo, Embrasse-moi comme tu m'aimes, From the Vine
Louis Negin The Ernie Game, Two Solitudes, Cowards Bend the Knee, The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg, Keyhole, The Forbidden Room
Kate Nelligan 1950- Crossover, White Room, Margaret's Museum, Boy Meets Girl
Leslie Nielsen 1926-2010 Riel, City on Fire, Prom Night, A Choice of Two, Digger, Men with Brooms
Sandra Oh 1971- Double Happiness, Last Night, Long Life Happiness & Prosperity, Wilby Wonderful, Cake, Meditation Park
Peter Outerbridge 1966- Paris France, Replikator, The Michelle Apartments, Kissed, Better Than Chocolate, Escape Velocity, Marine Life, Men with Brooms, The Bay of Love and Sorrows, Population 436, Saw VI, Haunter, Level 16, Code 8, The Oak Room
Elliot Page 1987- Marion Bridge, Wilby Wonderful, The Tracey Fragments, Into the Forest
Molly Parker 1972- Kissed, The Intruder, Suspicious River, The War Bride, Last Wedding, Rare Birds, Men with Brooms, Marion Bridge, Max, The Confessor, Who Loves the Sun, Trigger, Darwin, Weirdos, Pieces of a Woman
Andrée Pelletier 1951- Les Mâles, East End Hustle, Outrageous!, Marie-Anne, The Third Walker, L'Homme à tout faire, Latitude 55°, Walls, Bach et Bottine
Luc Picard 1961- Savage Messiah, Le Collectionneur, Audition, Un dimanche a Kigali, Babine, Ésimésac
Donald Pilon 1938- Le Viol d'une jeune fille douce, La Vraie Nature de Bernadette, Les Corps célestes, The Pyx, Child Under a Leaf, The Uncanny, I Miss You Hugs and Kisses, Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe, La Guêpe, Les fleurs oubliées
Gordon Pinsent 1930- The Rowdyman, Who Has Seen the Wind, Klondike Fever, Silence of the North, John and the Missus, Pale Saints, The Shipping News, Nothing, The Confessor, Saint Ralph, Away from Her, The Grand Seduction
Christopher Plummer 1929-2021 The Pyx, The Disappearance, The Silent Partner, Murder by Decree, The Amateur, Highpoint, Impolite, Crackerjack, Full Disclosure, Ararat, Blizzard, Emotional Arithmetic, Remember
Sarah Polley 1979- Exotica, Joe's So Mean to Josephine, The Sweet Hereafter, The Hanging Garden, Last Night, eXistenZ, The Life Before This, Love Come Down, The Law of Enclosures, The Claim, My Life Without Me, Luck, Sugar, Mr. Nobody, Splice, Trigger
Louise Portal 1950- Cordélia, Le Déclin de l'empire américain, Sous-sol, Full Blast, Les Invasions barbares, Les salopes ou le sucre naturel de la peau
Brigitte Poupart Monsieur Lazhar, Tuktuq, Les Affamés, Les salopes ou le sucre naturel de la peau, Avant qu'on explose
Danielle Proulx 1952- Amoureux fou, L'enfant d'eau, C.R.A.Z.Y., Le déserteur, Reste avec moi, Monsieur Lazhar
Kate Reid 1930-1993 A Dangerous Age, The Paper People, The Best Damn Fiddler..., A Delicate Balance, Shoot, Plague, Death Ship, Double Negative, Atlantic City, Circle of Two, Highpoint, The Blood of Others, Control, Bye Bye Blues
Winston Rekert 1949-2012 Suzanne, Heartaches, Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid, Walls, The Blue Man, Toby McTeague
Gary Reineke 1945- The Clown Murders, Why Shoot the Teacher?, Riel, The Agency, The Kidnapping of the President, A Choice of Two, The Grey Fox, Murder by Phone, Iron Eagle II, George's Island, The Top of His Head, Hiroshima, Black Widow
Callum Keith Rennie 1960- Double Happiness, Curtis's Charm, Hard Core Logo, Last Night, eXistenZ, Suspicious River, Picture Claire, Flower & Garnet, Falling Angels, Wilby Wonderful, Lucid, Whole New Thing, Snow Cake, Unnatural & Accidental, Shattered, Normal, Silk, Faith Fraud & Minimum Wage, Gunless, Sitting on the Edge of Marlene, Into the Forest, Born to Be Blue, Goon 2, Mobile Homes
Ginette Reno 1946- Léolo, C't'à ton tour Laura Cadieux, Laura Cadieux...la suite, Mambo Italiano, Le secret de ma mère
Isabel Richer 1966- Eldorado, Babine, Nouvelle-France, La Loi du cochon, La Comtesse de Bâton Rouge, Sans elle
Michael Riley 1962- Diplomatic Immunity, Perfectly Normal, To Catch a Killer, Because Why, Mustard Bath, Butterbox Babies, The Grace of God, Pale Saints, Heart of the Sun, Dogmatic, Mile Zero, Punch, Cube Zero, Saving Emily, Supervolcano, Normal, Like a House on Fire
Pierrette Robitaille 1950- Joyeux calvaire, C't'à ton tour Laura Cadieux, Laura Cadieux...la suite, Mambo Italiano, Le Sens de l'humour, Vic+Flo ont vu un ours
Wayne Robson 1946-2011 The Grey Fox, Bullies, Candy Mountain, Bye Bye Blues, Cube, Duct Tape Forever, Stuck, The Timekeeper
Gabrielle Rose 1954- Family Viewing, Speaking Parts, The Adjuster, The Sweet Hereafter, Mothers & Daughters, Excited
Saul Rubinek 1948- The Agency, Ticket to Heaven, By Design, Highpoint, Taking Care, The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick, Falling Over Backwards, The Quarrel, Pale Saints, The Trotsky, Barney's Version
Marcel Sabourin 1935- Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça, On est loin du soleil, La Maudite Galette, Le Temps d'une chasse, La Mort d'un bûcheron, Bingo, Gina, Ti-Mine Bernie pis la gang, J.A. Martin photographe, Le Vieux pays..., Cordélia, Doux aveux, Équinoxe, Lilies, Aujourd'hui ou jamais, L'autre maison
Alan Scarfe 1946- The Bitter Ash, Cathy's Curse, Murder by Phone, The Wars, Deserters, The Bay Boy, Walls, Overnight, Iron Eagle II, The Wrong Guy
August Schellenberg 1936-2013 Rip-Off, One Man, Power Play, Drying Up the Streets, Bear Island, The Coffin Affair, Death Hunt, Heavy Metal, Kings and Desperate Men, Latitude 55°, The Ruffian, Confidential, Black Robe
Chuck Shamata 1942- Dulcima, Between Friends, Death Weekend, Welcome to Blood City, Power Play, I Miss You Hugs and Kisses, Stone Cold Dead, Running, Nowhere to Hide, Night Friend, Martha Ruth and Edie, Still Mine
Helen Shaver 1951- Shoot, Outrageous!, Starship Invasions, Who Has Seen the Wind, High-Ballin', In Praise of Older Women, Coming Out Alive, Gas, Harry Tracy Desperado, Lost!, The Believers, Morning Glory, Rowing Through, We All Fall Down, Down River
Gilbert Sicotte 1948- Les vautours, Ti-Cul Tougas, Maria Chapdelaine, Les Années de rêves, Léolo, Cap Tourmente, Les Pots cassés, L'Enfant d'eau, La Vie secrète des gens heureux, Continental un film sans fusil, Le vendeur, Louis Cyr, Paul à Québec, Il pleuvait des oiseaux
Robert A. Silverman 1938- Sweet Substitute, 125 Rooms of Comfort, Rabid, The Brood, Prom Night, Scanners, Naked Lunch, eXistenZ
Linda Sorenson 1940- Paperback Hero, The Hard Part Begins, Breaking Point, Stone Cold Dead, Class of 1984, Draw!, Joshua Then and Now, Relative Fear
Monique Spaziani 1957- Les Beaux souvenirs, Le Matou, Les Portes tournantes, L'Enfant d'eau, J'ai tué ma mère
Scott Speedman 1975- Kitchen Party, My Life Without Me, Weirdsville, Adoration, Barney's Version, Good Neighbours, The Moth Diaries, Citizen Gangster, The Captive, October Gale, The Monster, Run This Town, Best Sellers
Donald Sutherland 1935- The Disappearance, Blood Relatives, Murder by Decree, A Man a Woman and a Bank, Bear Island, Nothing Personal, Threshold, Bethune, Eminent Domain, Shadow of the Wolf, The Assignment, Free Money, The Art of War, Fierce People, The Con Artist, Man on the Train
Rossif Sutherland 1978- Poor Boy's Game, High Life, The Con Artist, I'm Yours, Hellions, Hyena Road, River, Edge of Winter, Trench 11, Guest of Honour, Possessor
R. H. Thomson 1947- L'Homme en colère, Ticket to Heaven, Surfacing, Les Beaux souvenirs, If You Could See What I Hear, Samuel Lount, The First Season, Defy Gravity, The Quarrel, The Lotus Eaters, Max, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, Bone Daddy, Who Loves the Sun, Chloe, Clara
Marie Tifo 1949- Les Bons débarras, Rien qu'un jeu, Lucien Brouillard, Les Fous de Bassan, Pouvoir intime, Les Pots cassés, La Passion d'Augustine
Johanne-Marie Tremblay 1950- À corps perdu, Jésus de Montréal, La Sarrasine, Les Invasions barbares, L'Âge des ténèbres, Polytechnique, Le Démantèlement
Natar Ungalaaq 1959- Kabloonak, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Ce qu'il faut pour vivre, Maïna, Iqaluit, The Grizzlies
Deborah Kara Unger 1966- Crash, Sunshine, Between Strangers, Hollywood North, White Noise, Rehearsal
Karine Vanasse 1983- Emporte-moi, Séraphin, Sans elle, Polytechnique, L'Enfant prodige, I'm Yours, Turning Tide, Buddha's Little Finger, De père en flic 2, Et au pire on se mariera, Trench 11
John Vernon 1932-2005 Face-Off, Journey, Sweet Movie, The Uncanny, Angela, It Rained All Night the Day I Left, Fantastica, Heavy Metal, Curtains, The Blood of Others, Office Party, Mob Story, Malicious
Mary Walsh 1952- Faustus Bidgood, Secret Nation, Extraordinary Visitor, New Waterford Girl, Young Triffie, Crackie, The Grand Seduction, Happy Place
Alberta Watson 1955-2015 In Praise of Older Women, Stone Cold Dead, Best Revenge, Shoemaker, Sweet Angel Mine, The Sweet Hereafter, Desire, Deeply, Citizen Duane, Away from Her
Kenneth Welsh 1942- Brethren, Phobia, Tell Me That You Love Me, Of Unknown Origin, Covergirl, Reno and the Doc, Love & Larceny, The War Boy, Lost!, The Climb, Loyalties, Whale Music, Margaret's Museum, The Wrong Guy, Love Come Down, Adoration, The Art of the Steal, The Void, Awakening the Zodiac, Undercover Grandpa, Il pleuvait des oiseaux
Chris Wiggins 1931-2017 The Best Damn Fiddler..., King of the Grizzlies, The Neptune Factor, Welcome to Blood City, High-Ballin', Two Solitudes, L'Homme en colère, Riel, Fish Hawk, Rock & Rule, The Bay Boy
Tracy Wright 1959-2010 Highway 61, When Night Is Falling, Last Night, Apartment Hunting, Picture Claire, Monkey Warfare, You Are Here, Trigger

Notable Canadian expatriate film actors who are or have worked primarily in Hollywood and only occasionally, if at all, appeared in Canadian-produced films include:

Producers

Writers

See also

References

Citations
  1. "Cinema Infrastructure – Capacity". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  2. "Share of Top 3 distributors (Excel)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  3. "Feature Film Production – Genre". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  4. "Exhibition – Admissions & Gross Box Office (GBO)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  5. Ross, Ryan (Fall 2012). "Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway (1903): Photographic Stills from the First Dramatic Narrative Film Made in Canada". Canadian Journal of Film Studies. 21 (2): 140–147. doi:10.3138/cjfs.21.2.140.
  6. Magder, Ted, Piers Handling, and Peter Morris. January 10, 2012. "Canadian Film History: 1896 to 1938." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Last Edited November 28, 2019. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
  7. "Biography – FREER, JAMES SIMMONS – Volume XVI (1931-1940) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  8. Druick, Zoë Projecting Canada: Government Policy and Documentary Film at the National Film Board McGill-Queen's Press MQUP, 22 Feb 2007
  9. Magder, Ted, Piers Handling, and Peter Morris. November 21, 2019. "Canadian Film History: 1939 to 1973." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Last Edited November 28, 2019.
  10. Marchessault & Straw 2019, p. 351.
  11. Leach 1980.
  12. "Queer pioneer". Montreal Mirror, January 3, 2002.
  13. "100 Best Films - Village Voice". www.filmsite.org.
  14. Marshall, Bill (2000-10-10). Quebec National Cinema. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 68–71. ISBN 0-7735-2116-X. La vie heureuse de Léopold Z.
  15. Canada Is Luring Movie Producers By VINCENT CANBY. New York Times 4 Mar 1967: 15.
  16. "Awards 1975 : Competition". Festival de Cannes (International Film Festival). Retrieved 2017-02-20.
  17. Mendenhall, Julia (2014). I've Heard the Mermaids Singing. A Queer Film Classic. Vancouver, British Columbia: Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 9781551525648. OCLC 892301662.
  18. Fleischer 2016.
  19. Humphreys, David (26 May 2014). "Atom Egoyan On 1997 Cannes Victory: 'I Still Think It Was A Fluke'". ET Canada. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  20. Judy Gerstel, "Rude's powerful black voice rivets attention". Toronto Star, 29 September 1995
  21. "Festival de Cannes: August 32nd on Earth". Festival-Cannes.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  22. Canadian Film Encyclopedia [A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group]
  23. Cinema of Canada at Box Office Mojo
  24. Thompson 2014, p. 5.
  25. "Canadian film scene still waiting for happy ending". Toronto Star, September 24, 2010.
  26. Seguin, Denis (2009-07-14). "Father And Guns outdraws Bruno in Quebec". Screen.
  27. "Film and Television Industry: 2011 Year in Review" (PDF). City of Toronto. 2012-09-01.
  28. Knight, Chris (10 January 2013). "Canadian director Kim Nguyen on his Oscar nomination for War Witch (Rebelle): 'We're clearly the underdog'". National Post. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  29. "Oscar nods give Canadian films Room, Brooklyn a second life". The Globe and Mail, January 14, 2016.
  30. "The Oscar race starts at TIFF – but who's in the running?". The Globe and Mail, September 7, 2017.
  31. "'Resident Evil Afterlife' now the highest grossing Canadian movie ever (until Degrassi 3D comes out)". ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com.
  32. "Sci fi zombie flick Resident Evil IV top-grossing Canadian film". thestar.com. November 8, 2010.
  33. Adams, James (February 2011). "Resident Evil: Afterlife is top-grossing Canadian flick". The Globe and Mail.

Sources

Books
  • Marchessault, Janine; Straw, Will (March 20, 2019). The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Cinema. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-022911-5.
  • Thompson, Wayne C. (2014). Canada 2014 (30 ed.). Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-1475812404.

Articles

Further reading
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