National Canadian Film Day is April 15, 2026. Find a free screening in your town.
If you don’t go, you might be one the 40% of Canadians who haven’t seen a movie in a cinema in over a year. (And that’s for any film from any country.)
So how do we fix Canadian Film?
Annelise Larson thinks there are 5 Things Wrong with the Canadian Film Industry (& How to Fix Them):
“1. Movies are expensive to make. The fix: Smaller movies with smaller budgets ($1 million to $100K or less) would allow more movies to get made each year.
2. Canadian films are not Hollywood films. The fix: Small films can dream big but need to think strategically small…and deep. This means niche audiences and niche marketing.
3. Not enough investment in audience development & marketing. The fix: Filmmakers should budget at least 10% of their production budget for marketing.
4. Filmmakers don’t know their audience. The fix: Think about your audience and learn who they are. Part of this is understanding and targeting relevant niches.
5. There is little sharing of data among filmmakers. The fix: Success needs to be redefined for the industry. It is more than box office and awards.”
Get this — that post is from September 8, 2015. Over 10 years ago and nothing has changed.
My take: I’m more hopeful for Canadian Film today than I have been in a while simply because of the degree to which service work has dried up. Here’s how I would fix Canadian Film:
- Enact a Screen Quota for Canadian Distributors.
- Approve Three Comedy, Action and Romance films for every Drama or Documentary.
- Use smaller budgets to create shorter films, i.e. 90-105 minutes.
- Mandate one 10 minute Canadian short before every feature.
- Encourage the media to create a meaningful Canadian star system.
- Gradually replace government funding with 100% tax write offs.
With these changes and others, hopefully we can celebrate Canadian Film for more than one day a year.
