March 7, 2018 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Adopting a concrete strategy for increasing the number of women creators in Canada’s audiovisual industry, the National Film Board of Canada has announced that it will make its Talent Bank for female professionals accessible to Réalisatrices Équitables (RÉ), Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN) and Film Fatales. Talks aimed at reaching a similar agreement are also underway with the Vancouver, Alberta, Toronto and Atlantic chapters of Women in Film and Television. These partnerships will increase the impact of the database, bringing its profiles to the greatest number of industry players.

Last year, as part of its ongoing commitment to gender parity, the NFB announced the creation of its Talent Bank, a place where women audiovisual professionals can submit their portfolios, demos and CVs. The measure aims to redress the still-significant gender imbalance in such fields as directing, screenwriting, editing, cinematography and music composition, and in key creative positions related to animation and immersive/interactive storytelling, such as art director, art designer and creative technologist. Women in View, a national not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote gender equality and cultural diversity in Canadian media, reports that from a sample of 91 feature-length films produced in 2013–2014, women represented just 17% of directors, 22% of screenwriters and 12% of cinematographers.

To date, nearly 100 women have added their profiles to the Talent Bank, putting themselves in a position to be discovered by the NFB’s studios and, soon, by the partnering organizations mentioned above.

All data is shared with the permission of the women concerned while protecting the confidentiality of personal information.

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Associated Links

Réalisatrices Équitables
Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques
Film Fatales
Women in Film and Television
Women in View