May 27, 2026 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Christine Noël, the Executive Producer of the NFB’s English and French Animation Units, has announced the appointment of Mélanie Boudreau Blanchard as Producer in the French Animation Unit.

A line producer with the unit since 2022, Boudreau Blanchard will now have the opportunity to engage with emerging talents and champion powerful creative visions that have the potential to reshape French-language animation storytelling in Canada’s filmmaking landscape.

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“Given her keen artistic sense when it comes to producing animated films, her analytical mindset and skills as a communicator, and her knowledge of francophone creative communities in animation here in Canada and internationally, I know that Mélanie will play a part in the success of our films. She’ll be a wonderful addition to the team of producers at our Animation Units, which also includes Maral Mohammadian and Jelena Popović.” — Christine Noël, Executive Producer, English and French Animation Units

Mélanie Boudreau Blanchard’s career at a glance

• Mélanie Boudreau Blanchard first worked with the NFB in 2005, at what was then known as the French Program’s Animation and Youth Studio. She was a production manager, primarily for the prestigious DVD box set Norman McLaren – L’intégrale / The Master’s Edition (2006).

• At Ottoblix / Unité centrale from 2006 to 2022, she gained a wealth of experience as a studio manager and project manager, working on director-driven TV and film productions, both live-action and animation.

• During that time, she contributed to the production of several animated films, including Pierre Földes’ feature-length Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2022, an international co-production by Unité centrale, micro_scope and France-based Miyu Productions), Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s Ville Neuve (2018) and Jean-François Laguionie’s Louise by the Shore (2016), along with the shorts Bad Seeds (2020) by Claude Cloutier and Soif (2014) by Michèle Cournoyer, both of which were co-produced by the NFB.

• In 2022, she rejoined the NFB French Animation Unit team as a line producer, broadening her knowledge of director-driven animation production and contributing to the production and success of films such as Hypersensitive by Martine Frossard, an official selection at Cannes in 2025, and The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, winner of the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2026.

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Press release PDF here.

Version française ici.