Digital Cinema Package (DCP)

Here is how the work lines up. DCP mastering for Canadian theatrical release is made at DNEG, Pixomondo Toronto, and MELS Post Montreal through DCP-O-Matic and EasyDCP pipelines validated against the tech needs of the country's major exhibitors: Cineplex Entertainment (the dominant national chain with screens from Halifax to Victoria), Landmark Cinemas (the western-Canada op), Cinema Guzzo and the independent Quebec circuit, and IMAX Corporation HQ in Mississauga — the Canadian-headquartered global IMAX standard whose certification process feeds back into how we author large-format DCPs.

Here is how the picture comes together. Each carrier keeps its own preferences around audio channel mapping, trailer-versus-feature CPL structure, and KDM workflow, and we build SMPTE-compliant packages at 2K and 4K DCI resolution with Interop variants where legacy or heritage-cinema projectors still need them. Audio masters ship in 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby SR-D, with Dolby Atmos and Auro 11.1 immersive masters made for prestige releases targeting Cineplex VIP and IMAX-with-laser screens. Subtitle deliveries cover English, French (bilingual delivery is required under CMF rules and Quebec content law), and Indigenous-language tracks (Inuktitut, Cree, Anishinaabe) where APTN or NFB Indigenous Voices co-delivery is in scope, authored in XML CineCanvas format.

Here is what we have to work with. For festival submissions, the Canadian circuit drives a parallel DCP workflow: TIFF (Toronto, September. North America's largest public film festival), Hot Docs (Toronto, April/May — the largest documentary festival in North America), VIFF (Vancouver, September/October), Fantasia (Montreal, July/August — the top genre festival), and Festival du nouveau cinéma (Montreal, October) each publish a DCP tech-check spec, and we produce unencrypted DCPs for festival ingest with picture handles and trailer reels structured to that pattern, alongside encrypted KDM-managed versions scoped to each cinema certificate and exhibition window for the commercial theatrical release that often follows festival premiere.

Here is the layout. Each package is validated on a reference cinema server at the mastering facility before delivery, confirming load behaviour, audio routing, subtitle timing, and CPL integrity, with KDM generation handled through a tracked-key system so theatre managers across Cineplex, Landmark, Cinema Guzzo, IMAX HQ, and the heritage independents in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, and Halifax receive their keys without back-and-forth on certificate exchange.