Feature Film Production

Here is how the work lines up. Canada's feature-film lineage is one of the most decorated in world cinema. The credits on our crew network reflect it. David Cronenberg has shot Toronto for almost five decades — Crash, Videodrome, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, and Crimes of the Future. Denis Villeneuve emerged from Quebec to direct Arrival, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, and the two-part Dune (2021 and 2024) — landing six Academy Awards across those films.

Here is how the picture comes together. Sarah Polley won the 2023 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Women Talking. Denys Arcand took Best Foreign Language Film in 2003 for Les Invasions barbares. Xavier Dolan (Mommy, Matthias et Maxime), Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter. Cannes Grand Prix 1997), Patricia Rozema (Mansfield Park), Deepa Mehta (Water — Oscar-nominated Best Foreign), Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg), Bruce McDonald (Pontypool), James Cameron (Kapuskasing-born — Titanic and Avatar), Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof), and Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner — 2001 Cannes Camera d'Or, foundational Inuit cinema) complete the picture. We set up feature production drawing on the same department-head community working out of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Halifax.

Here is what we have to work with. On the funding and incentive stack, we structure features through CAVCO certification. Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC) at 25 percent federal labour for six-of-ten-point Cancon, or the Production work Tax Credit (PSTC) at 16 percent federal foreign labour for service shoots. These stack with provincial credits: BC PSTC 28 percent plus DAVE 16 percent plus 6 percent regional, Ontario OPSTC 21.5 percent, Quebec QPSTC 20 percent plus 16 percent effects plus 11 percent regional, Alberta FCDB 22-30 percent, Manitoba 30-65 percent, and Yukon 35-50 percent.

Here is the layout. Telefilm Canada handles equity and recoupable funding for Canadian-content features, Canada Media Fund supports treaty co-pros, SODEC covers Quebec features, and Creative BC, Ontario Creates, Creative Saskatchewan, and Alberta Media Fund supplement at the provincial level. The festival path runs through TIFF Toronto (one of the world's three biggest market festivals since 1976), VIFF Vancouver, Whistler Film Festival, Fantasia Montreal (genre), Festival du nouveau cinéma, and the Cannes / Berlin / Venice / Sundance circuit. Gear runs through Sim, Keslow, William F. White, Panavision, ARRI Rental, MELS, and DAZMO. Post / VFX through DNEG, ILM Vancouver, Pixomondo, Method, Image Engine, MELS, and Folks.