Annual Report
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National Film Board of Canada 2011–12 Departmental Performance Report The Honourable James Moore, P.C., M.P. Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Table of Contents Minister’s Message ................................................................................ 1 Commissioner’s Message ....................................................................... 2 Section I: Organizational overview .......................................................... 5 Raison d’être .................................................................................... 5 Responsibilities ................................................................................. 5 Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture ............................ 6 Organizational Priorities ..................................................................... 7 Risk Analysis ................................................................................... 10 Summary of Performance ................................................................. 12 Expenditure Profile .......................................................................... 13 Estimates by Vote ........................................................................... 14 Section II: Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome ................ 15 Strategic Outcome ........................................................................... 15 Program Activity 1: Audiovisual Production ......................................... 16 Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity ...................... 18 Lessons Learned .............................................................................. 21 Program Activity 2: Accessibility and Audience Engagement ................. 22 Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity ...................... 24 Lessons Learned .............................................................................. 29 Program Activity 3: Internal Services ................................................. 30 Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity ...................... 31 Lessons Learned .............................................................................. 33 Section III: Supplementary Information ................................................. 34 Financial Highlights .......................................................................... 34 Financial Statements ....................................................................... 37 List of Supplementary Information Tables ........................................... 37 Section IV: Other Items of Interest ....................................................... 37 Organizational Contact Information ................................................... 37 Departmental Performance Report 2011-12 Minister’s Message The Government of Canada recognizes that the cultural sector not only plays a vital role in building strong and healthy communities throughout the country, but also makes an important contribution to our economy. Canadian Heritage’s portfolio organizations are an important part of our cultural, social, and economic lives. Together, they work toward the goal of providing Canadians with opportunities to celebrate and share our rich historical, cultural, and artistic heritage. As a Canadian Heritage portfolio organization, the National Film Board (NFB) offers services and programs that help us achieve these objectives. As Canada’s public producer and distributor of audiovisual works, the NFB has been a technical and creative innovator in documentary and animation. It is forging the art and entertainment forms of the future in groundbreaking digital productions that are increasingly recognized around the world. Through its online Screening Room, the NFB has succeeded in carving out a significant space for a Canadian brand in the global cultural sphere. The NFB’s evolving collection of stories reflects the full spectrum of Canadian experiences and narratives. The organization’s commitment to full accessibility to its works—in both official languages, in every part of Canada, and on every platform—has allowed it to reach out to Canadians in new and meaningful ways that encourage greater citizen engagement. Last fiscal year, for example, it launched a project called Unikkausivut: Sharing Our Stories. This initiative celebrates Inuit talent and culture, and uses digital technology to help preserve the language and history of the Inuit to create a lasting legacy for future generations. As Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, I am pleased to present the 2011–2012 Departmental Performance Report for the National Film Board. This report provides a detailed account of the accomplishments of the NFB over the past year and demonstrates the ways in which it fulfills its mandate, supports the priorities of our Government, and contributes to the strength of Canadian society. The Honourable James Moore 1 2011-12 Departmental Performance Report Commissioner’s Message The year 2011–2012 saw us strengthening our leadership role in the industry as a creative laboratory of the digital future that produces and distributes ground-breaking audiovisual works. It was the year that our strategic vision and efforts in organizational renewal and economic modelling came to full fruition, despite the ongoing global recession and fundamental and structural changes to our cultural industry. We set ourselves the goal of being closer than ever before to Canadian hearts and minds, and we succeeded in demonstrating that audiences can retain an ongoing sense of excitement and anticipation for our projects. In the past year, 97 NFB original productions and co-productions were released—works created by both experienced and emerging filmmakers from a wide variety of regions and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Several of our critically acclaimed feature documentaries, among them Léa Pool’s Pink Ribbons, Inc., Jennifer Baichwal’s Payback and Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie’s The Hole Story, were screened in theatres. These and other important releases contributed significantly to a national dialogue about some of the vital issues facing Canadians. Our productions received more major nominations and awards than the year before. In the field of animation, two NFB shorts were nominated for an Academy Award: Wild Life, created by the Alberta animation duo of Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, and Dimanche/Sunday, the professional film debut of Quebec’s Patrick Doyon, an alumnus of the NFB’s first Hothouse program for emerging animators. Our commitment to the exploration and development of interactive productions—a new and largely uncharted area requiring a level of risk taking and experimentation that only a public producer can achieve—was recognized by our industry in Canada and around the world. In total, 17 interactive productions, three interactive-based installations and one original installation were launched last year, while the NFB was also a double-Webby winner for the interactive doc Welcome to Pine Point, honoured in the Webart and Online Film and Video – Documentary: Individual Episode categories. Our expanding Canadian audience continues to embrace our digital offerings. In 2011–2012 the online Screening Room at NFB.ca/ONF.ca experienced close to four million views, and almost 2,500 NFB productions are currently available via computer and the iPhone, iPad, PlayBook and Android platforms. To date, NFB productions online have been viewed over 31 million times globally via our Screening Room, apps and online partner sites. The goal of serving Canadians remains at the core of all our activities. We’ve focused on becoming more fully engaged with citizens in their communities and made use of our collection and resources to generate an inclusive national dialogue. In November I completed a tour of several communities, during which I connected with Canadians in every part of the country. In all, I held 29 meetings and public events in 18 cities across Canada, personally meeting with over 700 Canadians. I was there to listen to their stories, to better understand what they want reflected 2 National Film Board Departmental Performance Report 2011-12 in a national dialogue, and to plant the seeds for developing more sustainable community partnerships. In November 2011, in Iqaluit, Kuujjuaq, Nain and Inuvik last year, we launched one of the most vital initiatives to celebrate Inuit talent and stories that we have ever embarked on. The Unikkausivut: Sharing Our Stories DVD box set and online channel is a landmark audiovisual legacy project. It brings together new and archival works culled from the most important collection of Inuit cinema in the world—NFB films by and about the Inuit, made over a period of several decades. Through digital technology, Unikkausivut takes the Inuit tradition of passing on knowledge and culture through storytelling into the 21st century; it represents a lasting legacy for future generations, one that will help preserve the language and history of the Inuit. The initiative was developed in partnership with the Inuit Relations Secretariat (IRS) of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Government of Nunavut, Department of Education, and with the support of key Inuit organizations. The box set was distributed free to the Inuit communities across the country. Canada’s schools and other educational institutions are increasingly connected to the digital realm, and there is a significant demand for quality, Canadian content