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Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
The NFB's new strategy: milk the ‘Stream Canadian' moment and reinvest in creativity
The National Film Board has always been ahead of its time. But the federal cultural agency, which has produced thousands of documentaries, animated films and interactive digital works since its inception in 1939 – collecting a dozen Academy Awards along the way – hit a particularly prescient nerve this past March when it launched its 'Stream Canadian' campaign, pointing audiences to the free streaming service. 'It was prepared well before the Canadian election,' and certainly any of Donald Trump's movie-tariff talk, says NFB chair Suzanne Guèvremont. 'It was something that we were reflecting upon, because in our new strategic plan one of our priorities is to elevate the awareness and esteem of the NFB. So when we came into the elections, we just said, 'Oh god, this is so timely.'' The response has been encouraging, with the NFB reporting a 25-per-cent increase in new online Canadian visitors to the site (the world's largest non-commercial streaming platform) compared with the same period last year. Guèvremont is hoping to keep the NFB headline momentum going, too. Last week, she was at Cannes for the premieres of two NFB animated shorts, Martine Frossard's Hypersensitive and Alex Boya's Bread Will Walk, just a few days ahead of the organization's debut of its 2025-2028 strategic plan. The plan (titled 'Sharing Our Past, Shaping Our Future, Stories for Today') prioritizes shaping the NFB for next generations and expanding its audience – not surprising directions given the current and intense war for eyeballs when it comes to the attention economy. But the plan also arrives after a period of years-long tension inside the NFB between its filmmakers and Guèvremont's predecessor, Claude Joli-Coeur, who was alleged to have prioritized administrative salaries over resources for content production. Guèvremont, whose background in the development of Quebec's 3-D animation and video-game industries stands in contrast to Joli-Coeur's history in entertainment law, says that the NFB's current relations with the creative community are strong. 'We're engaging in dialogues with the creators, with the filmmakers – we have scheduled meetings every year, to give them updates on the strategy before it comes out,' says Guèvremont, who was appointed to a five-year term in 2022. 'We're really trying to make sure that when we make a decision, we inform them, we give them the rationale behind it. And we did make a promise to reinvest in production, which was part of the exercises that we did last year.' Guèvremont acknowledges, though, that the NFB isn't exactly in a safe financial situation, noting that it has been in a structural deficit for the past eight years. Last year, the organization underwent a restructuring, eliminating 55 jobs, or roughly 14 per cent of its work force. The cuts have led to resources being reinvested into production, Guèvremont says, as well as lower administrative costs. 'This is a transitional year, so we are adapting our structures, adapting our teams and our boots on the ground,' she adds. 'We hope in the years to come, with the renewal of our funding, that we will actually be able to increase our budgets for production. Reinvestment is absolutely necessary.' Another pillar of the strategic plan is to 'foster a culture of creativity and innovation,' a goal that may initially seem at odds with the NFB's decision last year to close its interactive studios in Montreal and Vancouver. 'We realized that what we needed to do right now was focus on innovation, so we stopped producing installation works, because those are really expensive – it was brick-and-mortar installations,' Guèvremont says. 'We needed to refocus on animation and documentaries and storytelling in innovative ways. We'll continue to foster that creation in all the different fields of the NFB.' Just before Cannes, Guèvremont was in Ottawa to address the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which was holding consultations about the definition of Canadian content as part of its hearings over the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), and how much domestic broadcasters should contribute to the production of homegrown documentary programming. 'We're talking about real documentaries – not lifestyle or, you know, reality television," Guèvremont says, referencing the 'factual' programming more often favoured by Canada's big broadcasters. 'These are timely and timeless stories that you can watch and learn from, and they need to be protected.' 'The NFB is the largest producer of documentaries in Canada, but we certainly don't want to be the only.'
Canada Standard
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Canada Standard
The NFB at the 2025 Sommets du cinema d'animation. Artist's Talk, closing film, six shorts in the Canadian Competition, and more.
May 7, 2025 - Montreal - National Film Board of Canada (NFB) The NFB will be prominently featured at this year's Sommets du cinema d'animation, taking place May 26 to 31 at the Cinemathque quebecoise in Montreal. Highlights include an Artist's Talk, a closing film and six short films in the festival's Canadian Competition, spotlighting new voices in animation. Montreal audiences will be among the first to see Montreal-based filmmaker Martine Frossard's Hypersensible ( Hypersensitive ), which will be shown a few days after its screening in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Sommets will also feature the world premiere of Le bruit des choses qui brlent ( The Sounds of Things Ablaze ), directed by Hayat Najm, with an original score by pianist Jean-Michel Blais. The NFB at the 2025 Sommets Participation in the professional program: An Artist's Talk with Eloi Champagne, the NFB's Technical Director Event: A special screening of the cult film L'affaire Bronswik ( The Bronswik Affair ) by Robert Awad and Andre Leduc, with the filmmakers in attendance Closing film: Pourquoi l'ecran d'epingles ? by Brice Vincent L'ecran d'epingles: nouvelles avenues program, including three NFB productions made using the legendary pinscreen Free outdoor screening: Two NFB shorts screening as part of the Sommets la belle etoile program Canadian Competition, professional category: Six short films selected - Le bruit des choses qui brlent (The Sounds of Things Ablaze) by Hayat Najm, Hypersensible ( Hypersensitive ) by Martine Frossard, Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong, Imprint by Duncan Major, Hairy Legs by Andrea Dorfman and Samaa by Ehsan Gharib Sommets x NFB Artist's Talk: Eloi Champagne, Technical Director, NFB Saturday, May 31, at 1:30 p.m., Fernand Seguin screening room What does a technical director actually do when it comes to animation? For this Artist's Talk, Eloi Champagne will draw on his experience at the NFB to explore the unique ways in which technology and creativity intersect in the genre, using recent films he and his team have worked on as examples, such as Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong and Bread Will Walk by Alex Boya. Champagne will describe how specific artistic challenges have yielded innovative technical approaches and how technical problems have resulted in unexpected creative breakthroughs. L'affaire Bronswik (The Bronswik Affair) Wednesday, May 28, at 5 p.m., Norman McLaren screening room - free admission In today's era of fake news and disinformation, Robert Awad and Andre Leduc's The Bronswik Affair is as topical as ever, whether on a first or a repeat viewing. The screening will be attended by the filmmakers as well as Vincent Zikkar, the grandson of Antonio Zikkar, a victim of the Bronswik affair. With a deft blend of fiction and reality, this mockumentary is a harsh critique of the power of television advertising. It won nine Canadian and international awards and was selected for the short film competition at Cannes in 1978. Closing Film Pourquoi l'ecran d'epingles? by Brice Vincent (a Bastille Films production, 2024, 55 min 46 s, distributed by the NFB in Canada and the United States) Saturday, May 31, at 7:30 p.m., Main screening room The pinscreen is an iconic device created in the 1930s to produce animated films. This film explores the painstaking act of creating by hand in an era when speedy digital technology dominates. Among the artists featured are NFB filmmakers Jacques Drouin, to whom the film is dedicated, and Michle Lemieux. L'ecran d'epingles: nouvelles avenues program Tuesday, May 27, at 8 :15 p.m., Fernand Seguin screening room (repeat screening on Thursday, May 29, at 8 p.m.) Three NFB productions are part of this program: Les Sommets la belle etoile - Free outdoor screening Friday, May 30, at 9:30 p.m., Cinemathque quebecoise terrasse The short films Samaa by Ehsan Gharib and Imprint by Duncan Major, both of which are also in the Canadian Competition, are part of the lineup for this outdoor screening. Canadian Competition, professional category: Imprint by Duncan Major (NFB, 5 min) Canadian Competition 1 - Tuesday, May 27, at 6 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 8:30 p.m.) Hypersensible ( Hypersensitive ) by Martine Frossard (NFB, 6 min 44 s) and Hairy Legs by Andrea Dorfman (NFB, 17 min) Canadian Competition 2 - Wednesday, May 28, at 6:30 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 5:30 p.m.) Le bruit des choses qui brlent ( The Sounds of Things Ablaze ) by Hayat Najm (NFB, 6 min 35 s) Canadian Competition 3 - Thursday, May 29, at 7:15 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 9:15 p.m.) Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions/NFB, 18 min 27 s) and Samaa by Ehsan Gharib (NFB, 2 min 27 s) Canadian Competition 4 - Friday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 3 p.m.) - 30 - Stay Connected Online Screening Room: NFB Facebook | NFB X | NFB Instagram | NFB Blog | NFB YouTube | NFB Vimeo Curator's perspective | Director's notes About the NFB
