Telefilm Canada partners on innovative initiatives to help Canadians celebrate great Canadian cinema anywhere, anytime
Montreal, January 24, 2017—It’s never been easier to discover and re-discover great Canadian feature films! In honour of the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation and Telefilm Canada’s upcoming 50th anniversary, Telefilm and its partners are launching multiplatform “discoverability” initiatives to promote English- and French-language Canadian movies featuring the country’s brightest stars. Five initiatives aim to bring the best Canadian cinema has to offer to audiences at home and abroad: a specially curated Canada First selection of Canadian feature films on iTunes; a complimentary selection of Canadian films offered to travellers along VIA Rail Canada’s Quebec City–Windsor corridor; a selection of films by up-and-coming Canadian directors on NFB.ca’s Emerging Talents channel; the Spanish subtitling of restored heritage Quebec films through Elephant, the memory of Quebec cinema; and the international digital distribution of Canadian films via Under The Milky Way.
“Canadian cinema is renowned for its quality and originality, and Telefilm Canada is committed to forging partnerships and finding new ways to enable audiences, no matter where they are, to discover our cinema and talent,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “As Telefilm marks its 50th anniversary this year, promoting Canadian content at home and abroad and encouraging innovation to reach audiences are two key priorities that will continue to guide our vision throughout the year and into the future. I’m delighted that these initiatives truly bring that vision to life.”
iTunes: 150 of the best Canadian movies in honour of Canada 150
To mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017, Telefilm Canada, in collaboration with Canadian distributors, has curated a special Canada First collection of feature films exclusively for iTunes. The collection showcases 150 of the best Canadian movies released between 2005 and 2016 and includes some of the biggest hits of the last few years, including 2016 Best Picture Oscar nominees Room (Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe for star Brie Larson) and Brooklyn. Other titles include the critically acclaimed Mommy, from Xavier Dolan, and Away From Her, from Sarah Polley.
As this initiative expands, Telefilm hopes this platform will increasingly reflect the industry’s commitment to achieve a balanced production portfolio that underlines gender parity, cultural diversity and Indigenous communities. Representatives from these groups are invited to contact Telefilm to get more details on how to get their production on iTunes and submit films to the Canada First collection.
VIA Rail Canada: On-train Canadian content
VIA Rail’s On-Train Entertainment System provides complimentary access to more than 200 hours of Canadian content—movies, daily news and TV shows—to passengers making the 3.6 million trips along the Quebec City–Windsor corridor every year. Content is accessible through any laptop, tablet, or smartphone. To mark Canada 150, 40 Canadian films are being made available to travellers, on demand. Les Films Séville, a subsidiary of Entertainment One, is also a partner in this initiative.
NFB.ca: Emerging Talents
The National Film Board of Canada’s Emerging Talents Web channel offers a rental selection of micro-budget first feature films from talented emerging filmmakers. The channel is presented by Telefilm Canada and the Talent Fund through its Micro-Budget Production Program, which supports emerging filmmakers—including those from Indigenous and Official-Language Minority Communities—seeking to produce their first feature films and to leverage digital platforms. The current NFB.ca lineup includes Julie Lambert’s Girls on the Hunt (Un film de chasse de filles) and Sonia Bonspille Boileau’s Le dep.
Elephant, the memory of Quebec cinema: Spanish subtitling of Quebec films
Elephant, an ongoing project to restore and digitally remaster heritage Quebec feature films in the aim of preserving Quebec’s cinema legacy, and its Elephant, the memory of Quebec cinema screening program present restored milestone films from Quebec, in both English and French. This year, in honour of Canada 150, Elephant is subtitling into Spanish nearly 50 Quebec titles. As a result of this initiative, a number of classic films will be available for Spanish-language film festivals in the United States and Latin America, as well as on iTunes, enabling Spanish-speaking film-lovers to further discover homegrown Canadian films. Québecor, iTunes, Technicolor and the Centre de la francophonie d’Amérique are also partners in this initiative.
Under The Milky Way: expanding international audiences
In partnership with distributors, over the next three years, Telefilm is making Canadian films available internationally in six languages on multiple digital platforms, via the Under The Milky Way digital film distribution/marketing service.
About Telefilm Canada—Inspired by talent. Viewed everywhere.
Celebrating 50 years in 2017, Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent at home and around the world. Telefilm also makes recommendations regarding the certification of audiovisual treaty coproductions to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund. Launched in 2013, the Talent Fund accepts private donations to principally support emerging talent. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada and on Facebook at facebook.com/telefilmcanada.
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Media enquiries:
Douglas Chow, Head, Public Relations, Telefilm Canada
(514) 283-0838 ext. 2048 or 1-800-567-0890
douglas.chow@telefilm.ca