MONTREAL — The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) today released key results from its 2020-2021 fiscal year, which saw the NFB introduce its new Strategic Plan and take important steps in its renewed commitments toward diversity, equity and inclusion.
Here are some highlights from the NFB’s 2020-21 fiscal year:
Creation
- 84 original works produced, including 26 co-productions
- $38.2 million in production spending
- More than 3,300 contracts with creators, artisans and collaborators involved in productions
- 45% of works directed by emerging filmmakers
- 109 awards earned, with 40% of them going to women creators and their works
- 50 films benefited from the Aide au cinéma indépendent du Canada (ACIC) or the Filmmaker Assistance Program (FAP)
Engagement with audience
- 7 million global views recorded overall, including 36 million views in Canada across all platforms
- 1 million students with access to the NFB’s online educational portal, CAMPUS
- The number of NFB followers surpassed one million this year, including all channels (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.), and the number of social media engagement actions with online audiences totalled approximately five million.
Diversity and inclusion
- 35% of NFB works completed in 2020-21 — 29 films in total — explored topics related to Indigenous lives and experiences, and diverse perspectives related to race, ethnicity, religion, culture, disability, gender and sexuality. There were 14 works completed by creators from official-language minority communities: four works by the French program’s Canadian Francophonie Studio and 10 works by the English program’s animation and documentary studios in Montreal.
- 40% of works completed in 2020-21 were directed by women (48% by men and 11% by mixed teams, with 1% non-identified). In total, 34 works by women were completed.
- 47% of works in progress were being made by women (40% by men and 13% by mixed teams)
- 42% of production spending went to works by women (39% to works by men and 19% to works by mixed teams)
- 42% of completed works written by women (49% by men and 8% by mixed teams, with 1% non-identified
- 47% of completed works edited by women (50% by men and 3% by mixed teams)
- 14% of completed works with cinematography by women (77% by men and 8% by mixed teams, with 1% non-identified)
- 24% of works completed had musical scores by women (71% by men and 5% by mixed teams)
- 14% of production spending went to works by Indigenous creators
- 8% of completed works directed by Indigenous filmmakers, for a total of seven works
- 15% of works in progress were being made by Indigenous creators
- A total of eight NFB completed works focused on Indigenous lives and experiences
- Indigenous employees represent 1.24% of all NFB staff, including continuous and temporary employees, with the NFB committed to achieving a minimum of 4% Indigenous representation by 2025.
- Indigenous Cinema, the NFB’s online collection of Indigenous-made films, now features more than 415 free titles and reached 480,000 views in 2020-21.
Covid-19
- The Curve: Social distancing stories that bring us closer together: Launched on August 24 with the collaboration of 40 creators, this project explores life in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 36 works completed in 2020-21.
- Documentary Production in the Era of Covid-19: Best Practices by and for Documentary Filmmakers: The NFB partnered with the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) to create and launch this online Covid-19 production guide by and for documentary filmmakers.
