This study was commissioned by Telefilm Canada for the benefit of the Working Groups on Feature Film for the English speaking market and the French-language market.

The study is being prepared at a time when the feature film industry around the developed world is facing unprecedented problems. Although theatre audiences in North America rebounded at the end of 2008 after years of decline, DVD sales have continued to drop.
In 2007-08, the financing for independent films experienced a boom and bust syndrome. But these factors have been dwarfed by the problems presented by the current recession, which has drastically tightened available credit facilities for what has always been a risky business – the making of the independent film.

Like independent filmmakers in most other developed countries, Canadian filmmakers need government support to survive. Their form of expression is the most expensive to produce, the hardest to finance, and the riskiest to distribute. But when everything goes right, the feature film can also be one of a country’s most significant cultural products.

This study, focuses on independent film, i.e. feature film that is not financed by the Hollywood majors, who continue to dominate screens around the world, although less so than in the past. The problems faced by made-for-TV drama, which operate under a different economic model, are not examined although it is recognized that those problems are also significant.

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