The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally launched as a film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for professionals in the Canadian film, television and digital media industries, including directors, producers, screenwriters, actors and musicians. [1]
CFC was established in 1988 by Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison as the Canadian Centre For Advanced Film Studies; [2] the first program was attended by 12 residents. [3] The inaugural class included writer Robert Hunter, filmmakers Holly Dale, Gerald L'Ecuyer, Anne Petrie and Peter Raymont, and producer Ann Medina. [3] The school's campus was located at Windfields Estate, the former home of Canadian business magnate E. P. Taylor. [2]
In 1991, after producer Robert Lantos received a $250,000 prize from Telefilm Canada to honour Black Robe winning the Genie Award for Best Picture, he immediately donated the money to the Canadian Film Centre to help establish its film unit, which serves as the primary film studio for projects being developed by CFC students. [4]
Peter O’Brian was appointed as executive director of CFC by Norman Jewison in 1988 and remained in the role until 1991. [5] Wayne Clarkson served as the organization's executive director from 1991 until 2005. [5] At that point, Slawko Klymkiw, previously the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's executive director of network programming, became the CEO of CFC until he retired in the spring of 2021. [6] [7] [8] [9] Maxine Bailey, former Vice-President of Advancement at TIFF, was appointed as Executive Director of CFC in May 2021. [10]
In 2014, CFC unveiled the new Northern Dancer Pavilion, a building to house its multidisciplinary study programs, on the Windfields campus. [11]
As of 2018, its 30th year of operation, CFC had more than 100 residents and participants in 16 programs annually. CFC has more than 1,700 alumni and 100 alumni partner companies to date.[ citation needed ]
CFC offers a variety of programs in five separate media streams: film, television, music, screen acting, and digital media. Each stream offers practical, intensive, hands-on programs that are administered under the guidance of faculty and industry professionals, and are operated in conjunction with entertainment companies and educational institutions including Netflix, AMC, A&E, Cineplex Entertainment, the National Film Board of Canada, Telefilm Canada, NBC Universal, Slaight Communications, WildBrain, Bell Media, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and OCAD University.[ citation needed ]
CFC's film programs include the Norman Jewison Film Program and CFC Features. Television programs include Bell Media Prime Time TV Program for series writers, and the WildBrain Experience for development of kid- and family-targeted content. CFC also runs the Netflix/CFC Global Project, which targets Canada's traditionally under-served creatives and communities [12]
Its main program for actors is the CBC Actors Conservatory, a six-month program. For musicians, the centre operates the Slaight Family Music Lab, a part-time nine-month program for composers and songwriters.
The CFC Media Lab is a digital media think tank and production facility that provides a research, learning and production environment for digital media content developers and practitioners, as well as acceleration programs and services for digital entertainment start-ups. Its programs include the Fifth Wave Initiative, to accelerate and sustain the growth of women-owned or led businesses in southern Ontario’s digital media sector, [13] Ideaboost, a digital entertainment accelerator, and VR Strategy, a program to develop virtual reality productions, and the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange, an immersive talent development lab and co-production fund for UK and Canadian artists and filmmakers. [14]
CFC has been involved in hundreds of film, television, and interactive productions and has produced a large catalogue of works, including the below productions.[ citation needed ]
CFC has supported the development of 47 feature films to date[ when? ], including:
CFC has also accelerated the development of various TV series, including:
173 short films have been created through CFC's Short Dramatic Film Programs to date, including:
CFC's interactive productions include:
Norman Frederick Jewison is a Canadian retired film and television director, producer, and founder of the Canadian Film Centre.
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.
Marc Wallace Jordan is an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, session musician, and actor. Covering a wide variety of genres, he has written songs for a number of well-known artists, including Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Cher, Bette Midler, Chicago, and Josh Groban. He was named best producer with Steven MacKinnon at the Juno Awards in 1994 for "Waiting for a Miracle" from Reckless Valentine. In early 2014, Jordan was named Chair of Slaight Family Music Lab at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre.
Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
Charles Officer was a Canadian film and television director, writer, actor, and professional hockey player.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto in the month of October. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Aboriginal and First Peoples from around the world. The festival includes screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events.
The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) is a non-profit organization representing the interests of independent documentary filmmakers in Canada. Founded as the Canadian Independent Film Caucus (CIFC) in the 1980s Canada.
Katerina Cizek is a Canadian documentary director and a pioneer in digital documentaries. She is the Artistic Director, Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab.
The Canadian Screen Awards are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media productions. Given annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the awards recognize excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership.
Marc Almon is a filmmaker based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Almon is best known his work as the producer of the Canadian feature films Blackbird and Weirdos.
The Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) is a cultural, charitable organization whose mission is to recognize and celebrate the art of cinema by showcasing Canadian and International films and filmmakers. When the festival first took place, it had 1,000 people in attendance and screened 20 films over the course of 2 days.
Daryl Cloran is a Canadian theatre director and, currently, the artistic director of the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta. Formally the artistic director of Western Canada Theatre, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, he took over as the artistic director of Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, AB, Canada, succeeding Bob Baker, in September 2016.
Lisa Jackson is a Canadian Screen Award and Genie Award-winning Canadian and Anishinaabe filmmaker. Her films have been broadcast on APTN and Knowledge Network, as well as CBC's ZeD, Canadian Reflections and Newsworld and have screened at festivals including HotDocs, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Melbourne, Worldwide Short Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories (FIVARS) is a media festival that showcases stories or narrative forms from around the world using immersive technology that includes virtual reality, augmented reality, live VR performance theater and dance, projection mapping and spatialized audio. It is considered to be Canada's first dedicated virtual or augmented reality stories festival, and was the world's first virtual reality festival dedicated completely and exclusively to narrative pieces. FIVARS is operated by Constant Change Media Group, Inc. and VRTO.
Started in 2015 by Keram Malicki-Sanchez as a virtual reality Meetup Group in Toronto, VRTO launched the VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo in June 2016 – an international exhibition and professional conference exploring arts, culture and science through immersive technologies. Its inaugural year – held at the Mattamy Centre – featured keynotes from University of Toronto Professor Steve Mann, Hollywood film director Brett Leonard – director of The Lawnmower Man, Chief Digital Officer Ana Serrano of the Canadian Film Centre and Phil Lelyveld of USC.
Nyla Innuksuk is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, and virtual reality content creator. She is the CEO of Mixtape VR.
Slawko Klymkiw is a Canadian philanthropist who has been the long-running CEO of the Canadian Film Centre. Klymkiw was an executive at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in 2005, when he became CED of the CFC.
The Canadian Film Centre opened the Slaight Family Music Lab in 2013, sponsored by the Slaight Family Foundation. Every year a small group of promising composers and song-writers are invited to study under a distinguished composer.
Biidaban: First Light is a Canadian immersive virtual reality film, created by Lisa Jackson and released in 2018. The film places viewers in an immersive vision of a Downtown Toronto that has been reclaimed by nature, with vegetation and animals living freely inside the urban landscape, with narration in the indigenous Wendat, Mohawk and Ojibwe languages.
Gary Slaight is a Canadian broadcasting executive and philanthropist, most noted for his efforts to develop and support the Canadian music industry. He is currently the chief executive officer of Slaight Communications, a firm which is a minority investor in Sirius XM Canada, and of Slaight Music, a talent development and promotional firm which funds projects in artist development, music publishing and digital music distribution as well as serving as a key partner in the Juno Awards, the Polaris Music Prize, the Canadian Country Music Awards and the Prism Prize.
Since 2005 the former CBC-TV exec has shaped the strategic vision of the center's initiatives, led the charge to grow its annual budget from $7 million to $13 million (60% from private investors), overseen several program launches and stoked the board of directors with industry and finance leaders keen to chime in.
Klymkiw began his CBC career in 1980 in Winnipeg where he produced award-winning supper-hour news shows there and in Toronto before joining CBC Newsworld in its early years.
