Nathalie Cloutier is Executive Producer at the NFB’s French Documentary Unit and Eastern Documentary Unit. She previously served as both a producer and the Executive Producer for the French Program Documentary Studio. Nathalie supports bold ideas and believes in having a diverse range of auteur voices, while taking a flexible approach to the creative process. Her productions have received wide acclaim, from Sundance to Hot Docs, Locarno to RIDM, and she works with artists—including Sophie Deraspe, Zaynê Akyol, Will Prosper, Simon Beaulieu, Gentille M. Assih and Steve Patry—whose journeys across Canada and around the world bring to light essential, universal stories.
Nathalie Cloutier has been Executive Producer at the NFB’s Quebec, Canadian Francophonie and Acadian Documentary Studio since 2022. She supports bold ideas and believes in having a diverse range of auteur voices, while taking a flexible approach to the creative process. Following in the NFB documentary tradition of reporting on current social issues and telling stories that resonate with audiences, she launched the Creative Labs, a cross-disciplinary initiative that aims to generate new ideas.
Earlier in her career, she studied arts and literature, and collaborated on a number of theatre productions. Her experience directing short films for the 1998–1999 season of the Radio-Canada television program La Course destination monde prompted her to switch to a career in film. After completing the documentary program at the Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS) in Montreal, she became a producer at the NFB’s French Program Documentary Studio in 2010 and then head of the Studio in 2018.
The many interactive works, documentary features and shorts she’s produced at the NFB have received national and international acclaim, from Sundance to Hot Docs, Locarno to RIDM. Nathalie works with award-winning artists—including Sophie Deraspe, Paul Cowan and Amer Shomali, Santiago Bertolino, Zaynê Akyol, Will Prosper, Simon Beaulieu, Hélène Magny, Gentille M. Assih and Steve Patry—whose journeys across Quebec and around the world bring to light essential, universal stories.