2020 HIGHLIGHTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Due to COVID-19, over 1000 live events were cancelled and a completely new plan for an all-online version of National Canadian Film Day was put into place in mid-March.
• The centrepiece of our programming was CanFilmDay Live, a 4.5 hour livestream produced entirely in isolation which generated over1,600,000 impressions to date, and along with other NCFD-related webcasts attracted over 25,000 viewers.
• The livestream featured guests such as Sandra Oh, Jay Baruchel, Colm Feore, Atom Egoyan, Don McKellar, Ethan Hawke, Megan Follows and many others.
• More than 2,000,000 Canadians watched a Canadian film on broadcast or streaming.
• Over 100 official online Watch Parties were mounted by our community partners across the country.
• The day generated enormous social media engagement and buzz, and more than double the amount of media coverage we received in 2019.
2 National Canadian Film Day INTRODUCTION
In mid-March of this year, we were getting ready to put We also created how-to guides to help our partners organize on over 1000 live screening events on April 22. When the their own online watch parties. Thanks to our network of entire world changed due to COVID-19, we had to make the grass-roots community organizations across the country, over unavoidable decision to cancel them all. However, we felt 100 organizations came on board to host online events, with certain that NCFD should go on. only three weeks of planning time.
With only a month to go, we completely reinvented NCFD NCFD has always been about bringing Canadians together. from scratch. This year, we felt it was more important than ever to use it to boost our collective spirits and make us all feel closer to each We knew we couldn’t simply adapt the live-event model to other. a world in isolation. Instead, we came up with a way to turn NCFD into a national rallying point during a time when we all Given the fact that our livestream generated over 1.6M needed to feel that sense of connection more than ever. impressions, and over 2M people watched a Canadian film on TV or online on April 22, we believe the effort was We produced and executed a wildly ambitious 4.5 hour enormously successful. livestream, using innovative technologies and pushing against the boundaries of what was possible. With over 30 guests, our livestream bounced from couch to couch to couch, seamlessly connecting audiences with Canadian filmmakers and stars across the nation. “I believe in this country. I believe in its value system. I believe in the priorities that we place an emphasis The resulting livestream was so impressive that we have upon. This is where I want to be.” been contacted by multiple organizations, from Global — Jay Baruchel Affairs Canada to the NFB to the Vancouver Homeowners Association, asking for our advice on putting together their own similar online events.
National Canadian Film Day 3 NCFD 2020
IMPRESSIONS viewers on all 2,000,000+ ON OUR 1.6M LIVESTREAM 25,000 NCFD livestreams WATCHED A CANADIAN FILM ON TV OR ONLINE
59 40.5 MILLION MILLION potential Twitter & views of our library Instagram impressions of Canadian film GIFs "Hats off to the REEL CANADA team, they are such an + + essential part of our industry." 89M 100+ —Vinay Virmani, filmmaker MEDIA IMPRESSIONS with a 100% increase in media official online stories over last year watch parties
Embassies & 1.5 MILLION 50+ consulates filmmakers, stars views of our promotional videos participated online & special guests 4 National Canadian Film Day CANFILMDAY LIVE
CanFilmDay Live generated over 1.6 million impressions and has been watched by over 25,000 Canadians. In addition to live appearances by stars and filmmakers, the 4.5-hour livestream included Can-con trivia challenges, NFB short films, video greetings from our community partners across the country, a cooking class and a singalong. CLICK HERE to watch the Hosted by Peter Keleghan and Ali Hassan, Livestream the livestream featured appearances by:
• Sandra Oh • Sophie Deraspe • Jay Baruchel • Nahéma Ricci • Colm Feore • Tasha Hubbard • Ethan Hawke • Guillaume Cyr • Megan Follows • Patrice Laliberté • Yannick Bisson • Warren Sonoda • Atom Egoyan • Avi Federgreen • Don McKellar • Jeremy Lalonde • Mina Shum • Jesse Wente • Charles Officer • Cameron Bailey • Philippe • Jeff Chan Falardeau • Anna Lambe • Robbie Amell • Ike • Vinay Virmani • Choir! Choir! Choir!
National Canadian Film Day 5 CanFilmDay Live hosts Peter Keleghan and Ali Hassan
Colm Feore Jay Baruchel
Ethan Hawke Tasha Hubbard
“I got to Toronto and I saw that big leaf, and it’s something that struck me as so beautiful, it’s the only flag in the whole globe that doesn’t look like it’s trying to conquer anything.” Sandra Oh — Ethan Hawke
6 National Canadian Film Day Yannick Bisson Charles Officer
In conversation with Atom Egoyan & Philippe Falardeau
Mina Shum Robbie Amell Megan Follows
National Canadian Film Day 7 THE FILMS
When we pivoted NCFD to an all-online event, we had to very quickly curate a list of films available to watch from home. As in previous years, our broadcast and streaming partners programmed an expanded list of Canadian titles for NCFD. We winnowed down these offerings into an online catalogue that was meaningful, user-friendly, and searchable by various themes, genres, and by provider.
We also put together two specialty lists: • Environmental films for those who wanted to honour Earth Day and CanFilmDay at the same time • Family-friendly films for kids and parents, or students and teachers, to enjoy together at home
Here are just a few of the titles that were available to stream:
8 National Canadian Film Day 2 MILLION VIEWERS
Over 2 million Canadians watched a Canadian film on NCFD thanks to the wealth of options available from our broadcast and streaming partners.
CLICK HERE for more posts from broadcasters & partners
National Canadian Film Day 9 WATCH PARTIES
Over 100 official watch parties across the country! Here are a few highlights:
Libraries across Canada presented Hockey Night and followed along on Twitter, where star Yannick Bisson live- tweeted a commentary.
The Institute of Canadian Citizenship presented The Whale with directors Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit.
St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (St. John’s, NL) presented Antigone, with director Sophie Deraspe and star Nahéma Ricci.
Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival (Halifax, NS) and the Watch party Canadian Film Centre co-presented Nurse.Fighter.Boy with Q&As were director Charles Officer. viewed by over 10,000 Netflix, Québec Cinéma and Voyeurs de Vues partnered up Canadians to present Jusqu’au Déclin with director Patrice Laliberté and actors Guillaume Cyr, Julie Groleau, Réal Bossé, Guillaume Laurin, and Marie-Evelyne Lessard.
The Fantasia International Film Festival (Montreal, QC) cELLEuloid (Montreal, QC) presented Level 16 with director presented Last Night with director Don McKellar. Danishka Esterhazy.
10 National Canadian Film Day The Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto, ON) presented Anthropocene with co-directors Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier.
The Revue Cinema (Toronto, ON) presented Zero Patience with director John Greyson and composer Glenn Schellenberg.
The Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival (Toronto, ON) presented One Week with director Michael McGowan, as well as Marauder with director Brendon Rathbone and writer Jordan Scott, and Which Way is East with director Blake Sovdi.
The Oakville Festival of Film and Arts (Oakville, ON) presented Maudie with writer Sherry White.
The Calgary Underground Film Festival (Calgary, AB) presented the film Roadkill with director Bruce McDonald and star Don McKellar.
The Dreamspeakers Film Festival (Edmonton, AB) partnered with the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (Toronto, ON) to present nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up with director Tasha Hubbard.
The Vancouver International Film Festival and the Reel Asian International Film Festival co-presented Meditation Park with director Mina Shum and star Sandra Oh. VIFF also presented Last Night with director Don McKellar and star Sandra Oh.
National Canadian Film Day 11 CANADIAN DISTRIBUTORS
In honour of NCFD, 24 Canadian distribution companies joined forces, with the support of Telefilm Canada, to curate a list of homegrown titles on various platforms.
Also, FilmsWeLike in association with Hollywood Suite used NCFD as a launching pad to premiere a restored version of the classic film The Grey Fox, through an innovative partnership with independent cinemas across Canada. Virtual tickets were sold, allowing Canadians to watch from home while supporting their local cinemas.
These two initiatives showed an unprecedented level of enthusiasm and support from the distribution sector, proving that NCFD has truly become an important platform in the annual calendar for releasing and promoting Canadian films.
These initiatives had a digital reach of over 39 million.
12 National Canadian Film Day ENCORE+
We were delighted to welcome the Canada Media Fund as a partner for the third year, who offered a fantastic array of Canadian content through the Encore+ YouTube channel, a destination for memorable and iconic Canadian movies and TV shows.
A specially curated NCFD playlist of films in both English and French, and by Indigenous creators, was made available on Encore+, and was promoted on the Google and YouTube homepages on April 22. Encore+ also sponsored the trivia challenge on CanFilmDay Live, and provided prize packs to the trivia winners.
Our partners at Encore+ saw a huge increase in viewership from April 21 to 25:
• Over 240,000 views • 3.4 million impressions • A staggering 6 million minutes watched on the channel
National Canadian Film Day 13 ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING
French-Language Programming
Netflix provided the highlight of our French programming by hosting a national watch party, co-presented with Québec Cinéma and Voyeurs de vues, of Jusqu’au Declin (The Decline), the first French-language film made by Netflix as an original production. It included a live Q&A with director Patrice Laliberté and cast members Guillaume Cyr, Julie Groleau, Réal Bossé, Guillaume Laurin, and Marie-Evelyne Lessard.
Our family-friendly programming was fully bilingual, including interviews with director Benoît Godbout and composer Éloi Painchaud. Members of our team were also interviewed by French media at Radio-Canada and Radio Cité FM in Alberta about la Journée du cinéma canadien.
International
Fifty-three Canadian Missions abroad participated in NCFD through social CLICK HERE media and support of CanFilmDay Live (including Latin America & Carribean, to view more posts from Europe, Middle East & North Africa, Asia, USA, Sub-Saharan Africa). international partners A partnership between REEL CANADA and the NFB allowed many missions to host Live Facebook Watch Parties or create “together-separately” events with timed Vimeo links.
14 National Canadian Film Day Indigenous Artists
Our CanFilmDay livestream featured appearances by Jesse Wente (Ojibwe), Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen Office, as well as CSA-nominated actors from The Grizzlies, Anna Lambe (Inuk) and Ike (Inuk).
Our longtime partners at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and the Dreamspeakers International Film Festival in Edmonton co-presented nîpawistamâstowin: We Will Stand Up, preceded by a live introduction by director Tasha Hubbard (Cree).
The Grizzlies cast members Anna Lambe & Ike “The world needs a little good in it right about now — and you all are providing this for us!”
— Briargate Seniors’ Community, Amherstview, ON Retirement Residences
In consultation with our partners at Revera, Chartwell and other retirement residence networks, we created a special offering for over 125 retirement residences. Thanks to support from our filmmaker and distributor partners, the homes were given exclusive online access to the four most popular titles on our curated shortlist for seniors: A Bear Named Winnie, The Whale, You Are Here: A Come From Away Story, and Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power. MOZE MOSSANEN Director — YOU ARE HERE They also received special video messages from filmmakers and members of our team to precede their screenings.
National Canadian Film Day 15 Family-Friendly Programming
During the day, we offered bilingual programming for kids every hour on the hour on Facebook Live, with our host Mehdi Cayenne. Activities included a bilingual singalong, arts & crafts, a geography activity, story time with Jennifer Phelan, illustrator of The Log Driver’s Waltz, and live conversations with Benoît Godbout, director of La course des tuques (Racetime) and Éloi Painchaud, composer of La guerre des tuques (Snowtime!).
We also put together a package of 16 activities designed for kids and families to do at home, based on our extensive library of in-school lesson plans.
Schools
We opened up our entire online library of school-appropriate films for 48 hours for students and teachers to view in their at-home classrooms. There were over 4000 click-throughs to access the films, and the offering has led to increased demand for school films in the JENNIFER PHELAN following weeks. Illustrator
16 National Canadian Film Day WATCH PARTY HOW-TO GUIDE
When we moved NCFD online, we knew that many of our screening partners would still want to participate, but they may not have the experience needed to plan an online event. So we put together a toolkit of simple, easy-to-use resources that would allow them to quickly plan fun watch parties for their communities.
Our toolkit included: • Curated film lists and streaming / broadcast schedules to help partners choose their movies. • Several how-to instructional documents for how to plan, promote and enhance a watch party with special guests or live engagements. • Tech instructions for using various online platforms to add a live, interactive component to the watch party. • Digital resources, including social media graphics and sample social posts, promotional videos, our #CanFilmDay GIF library, and more.
CLICK HERE to check out the full Toolkit
National Canadian Film Day 17 ONLINE PARTY KIT
We once again updated and expanded our ever-popular Screening Party Kit, providing even more promotional materials, activities and games for audiences to access from home.
With the shift to an all-online event, our focus was developing more fun ways to engage on social media. SCAN the QR We created Can-con themed bingo cards for Instagram and Twitter, and a code above “What Canadian Film Should I Watch” Instagram filter, which has garnered to try our over 15K impressions. filter
CLICK HERE to check out the full Party Kit
18 National Canadian Film Day BUZZ April 20 - 26 This year, our date coincided with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We were the #3 trending topic on Twitter in Canada, second only to #EarthDay and #JourdelaTerre.
potential impressions on Twitter & Instagram of all #CanFilmDay and #JourCinéCan posts
CLICK HERE to view more posts from our industry partners
120,000
National Canadian Film Day 19 BUZZ
The Google homepage encouraged all Canadians to celebrate on April 22, linking to our curated Encore+ playlist on YouTube.
In advance of the day, the YouTube homepage promoted prominent playlists of Canadian films as well as our #CanFilmDay Livestream in both English and French.
On April 22, YouTube promoted CanFilmDay Live as a “Featured Live Stream” to all English language users.
Experience the best Canadian films on YouTube
20 National Canadian Film Day BUZZ CLICK HERE to view more Celebs got in on the fun on social media, including posts from Ryan Reynolds, Jay Baruchel, Sandra Oh, Robbie notable Amell, Yannick Bisson and others. Canadians
CLICK HERE to view more posts from Parliamentarians
vancityreynolds
National Canadian Film Day 21 BUZZ
REEL CANADA has always striven to ensure that the images from our great films become truly iconic. This year, we succeeded by creating a library of 87 Canadian film GIFs, hosted on giphy.
Views to date on the CLICK HERE GIFs in our library 40.5M to visit our GIF library
CLICK HERE to watch the promo video
Every year, we create a promotional video for NCFD. This year’s was ready to launch in the pre-show rolls at Cineplex and Landmark cinemas across the country in mid-March, when theatres shut down and we shifted online. The spot, starring Colm Feore, was re-edited and launched online on April 22.
Views were garnered on our promo video starring Colm Feore
22 National Canadian Film Day MEDIA COVERAGE
Total number of MEDIA STORIES in print, television, radio and online
increase in media 89M+ TOTAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS stories over last year
National Canadian Film Day 23
“National Canadian Film Day used to be all about gathering in movie theatres, auditoria and libraries to watch a movie together. This year, it’s about celebrating collectively from the safety of our individual spaces.” — NOW Magazine
CLICK HERE to watch the news report
24 National Canadian Film Day CONCLUSION
With 2 million Canadians watching a Canadian film, and millions more engaging via social media, National Canadian Film Day proved once again to be a celebration that Canadians embrace in record numbers, and a wildly effective tool for audience development and discoverability of Canadian content.
Even during a pandemic.
National Canadian Film Day 25 REEL CANADA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Curtis Barlow Reg Bronskill Liz Shorten Board President and Chair Board Treasurer Board Secretary
Atom Egoyan, C.C. Colm Feore, O.C. Charles Officer Mina Shum Veronica Tennant, C.C.
REEL CANADA ADVISORY Hussain Amarshi Andrew Currie David Hardy Alanis Obomsawin C.C. Patricia Rozema Denys Arcand C.C. David Daniels Norman Jewison C.C. Geoff Pevere Bill Skolnik Carl Bessai Philippe Falardeau Michelle Latimer Gordon Pinsent Tara Spencer-Nairn Gary Burns Niv Fichman Robert Lantos Sarah Polley O.C. Jacob Tierney Éric Canuel Émile Gaudreault Bruce McDonald Michel Poulette Jean-Marc Vallée O.C. Jerry Ciccoritti Bryan Gliserman Don McKellar C.M. Peter Raymont Clement Virgo Heather Conway Paul Gross O.C. Deepa Mehta O.C. Irfhan Rawji Karen Walton David Cronenberg C.C. Piers Handling Charlotte Mickie Denise Robert
26 National Canadian Film Day SPONSORS
BROADCAST & STREAMING PARTNERS
National Canadian Film Day 27 SUPPORTERS
DISTRIBUTORS
28 National Canadian Film Day WATCH PARTY PARTNERS
National Canadian Film Day 29 Presented by
canfilmday.ca @canfilmday