March 7, 2019 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

On the eve of International Women’s Day, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is pleased to announce that it has achieved its gender-parity goals for the number of productions directed by women and for production budgets allocated to women, three years after making its initial commitment.

2018–2019 results*:

• 48% of NFB works were directed by women (38% by men and 14% by mixed teams)
• 44% of the NFB production budget was allocated to works created by women (41% for works by men and 15% for works by mixed teams)

*Preliminary data as of March 4, 2019, several weeks before the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.

“We are proud of this commitment, of our results, and above all of having kickstarted an industry-wide movement that must continue until parity becomes business as usual. Creating parity also means working toward diversity and inclusion, because women creators come from a variety of backgrounds and places. And indeed, in 2018–2019, 65% of NFB works by Indigenous artists were directed by women, and 58% of NFB works by artists from diverse ethnocultural backgrounds were directed by women.”
–      Claude Joli-Coeur, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the NFB

In 2016, the NFB made a formal commitment to ensure that by 2019, half of its productions would be directed by women and half of production spending would be allocated to projects directed by women. In 2017, the NFB added new objectives for parity by 2020 in key creative positions—including screenwriting, editing, cinematography, and music composition. The results for these objectives will be unveiled in June 2019.

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Associated Links

International Women’s Day