Greater Montréal’s Booming VFX Industry Blade Runner 2049 © Framestore Content 01 02 03 04 A Leading Edge A Very Creative Attractive Operating Montréal Ecosystem Workforce Costs International’s p.04 p.15 and Incentives Personalized, p.22 Free and Confidential Services p.29 Montréal’s VFX industry Key facts A leading edge ecosystem A very specialized workforce Competitive costs & tailored made incentives One of the largest hubs in the world with Close to 4,000 2D/3D animation and 28% cost advantage compared to the the highest industry concentration in VFX specialists in the audiovisual sector average of the 20 largest metropolitan Canada areas in Canada and the U.S. for ICT Full-service industry made up of tool Labour pool expected to reach 5,000 Competitive employee salaries paired developers, animation, production and experts by the end of 2020 with an affordable cost of living post-production studios, etc. Global success of VFX made in . More than 15,000 university students Up to 43% tax incentives for film Montréal: Blade Runner 2049, 2018 in IT related programs and close to production services Oscar winner for best visual effects; X- 2,300 in arts and cinema Men Apocalypse; Star Wars - The Force . Close to 3,000 college students in Awakens; Game of Thrones arts and cinema related programs 3 01 A Leading Edge Ecosystem Mural painting representing Leonard Cohen © Henry MacDonald Montréal’s VFX industry Key metrics 1st city in Canada and a world leader in VFX & animation . Close to 4,000 2D/3D animation and VFX specialists . Labour pool expected to reach 5,000 experts by the end of 2020 . A record year for the VFX in Québec: 500 M$ in contracts in VFX in 2018 . A growth of 88% since 2017 . Québec is now aiming for the world Top 3 . Global success of VFX made in Montréal: . Blade Runner 2049, 2018 Oscar winner for best visual effects . X-Men: Apocalypse . Star Wars - The Force Awakens . Game of Thrones Blade Runner 2049 @ 2017 Alcon Entertainment, LLC., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. And Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved Source: Québec Film and Television Council, 2018. 5 One of the world’s most fertile environments for the VFX Industry Very competitive and targeted incentives, and overall low A great quality operating costs of life which contributes to A large and growing attracting and pool of creative and retaining the best specialized talent talent in the world Greater Montréal’s VFX hub A collaborative VFX ecosystem: Québec Film and The presence of Television Council many industry (QFTC), SODEC, global leaders VES Montreal and VFX Montreal 6 Montréal’s ecosystem: some of the major players Full-service industry made up of academia, tool developers, animation, sound, production and post- production studios, etc. Source: Montreal Studio/Tech Mapping, Studio Advisory Services, CBRE, 2018; 7 Montréal International, 2019. A collaborative VFX ecosystem Organization contributing to the development of Quebec's competitiveness as a world-class film and television production centre. Government agency promoting and supporting the development of cultural enterprises in Québec and abroad. Platform dedicated to promoting internationally Montréal and Québec’s visual-effects production centres and members of the Québec Film and Television Council (QFTC). 8 The Kid Who Would Be King - DNEG © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Birth and growth of the VFX industry in Montréal Over the past 25 years, Montréal has become Canada’s most important video game, VFX and 3D animation hub. Montréal’s local VFX scene Rapid expansion of the video Many global VFX studios Montréal has recently developed around companies games production industry, were attracted by Montréal’s emerged as a global AI and such as Softimage and through the opening of studios rapidly growing talent pool VR/AR hub with a strong Discreet Logic, specialized in by Ubisoft, WB Games, Eidos, and very generous fiscal influence on the VFX industry software tools for an emergent Square Enix, Funcom and incentives and opened major and allowing it to reinvent industry. Ubisoft’s THQ, unleashed the creative studios in the region itself commitment to Montréal in spirit that now characterizes 1997 triggered a rapid growth Montréal’s VFX ecosystem of the digital, creative industry The Montréal region now represents half the country’s 3D animation, VFX and video game industry 9 Spectacular growth in foreign investment into Montréal’s VFX and animation industries 10 Well positioned to become a global leader in new tools for VFX Montréal provides more and more examples of companies active in industries such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Entertainment. Sample of global leaders . AI: Unity 3D, Ubisoft, XR:MTL (Ubisoft and Concordia University) . VR/AR: TORUK, Cirque du Soleil / Avatar, Framestore VR, Félix & Paul . Entertainment: Moment Factory, Fifth Wall, Réalisations Montréal 11 Sample of VFX produced in Montréal 12 Sample of animation produced in Montréal Greater Montréal also stands out with the production of animation productions Animation Studio: Oasis Animation Animation Studio: ON Animation Studios Animation Studio: L'Atelier Animation Animation Studio: Digital Dimension Year: 2018 Year: 2015 Year: 2016 Year: 2018 13 Sample of upcoming VFX related events in Montréal in 2019 June 2019 August 2019 December 2019 Effects Mutek Visual Effects Americas Society Montreal (VES) Meetups May 2019 July 2019 October 2019 Montréal Fantasia Festival du Digital Spring International Nouveau Cinéma Film Festival 14 02 A Very Creative Workforce Montréal, where creativity and technical expertise meet Greater Montréal counts 21,000 2D/3D experts: VFX and animation 4,000 + specialists 3D specialists active 15,000 in video games VR/AR experts, 2,000 which represents half the Canadian total These numbers are increasing fast, thanks to the large number of graduates the region’s colleges and universities provide every year combining expertise in the digital arts and tech. Source: Québec Film and Television Council, 2019; LinkedIn, Talent Insights, March 13, 2019; Alliance numérique, 2018; Québec Film and Television Council, 16 2016. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald © Framestore State-of-the-art programs for VFX Greater Montréal offers both technical and higher education degrees 17 A rich pool of technical college students with specific expertise in VFX Students Students Technical college programs enrolled graduates in related to animation and arts in 2017-2018 2017 Animation 2D/3D and Game 1,250 345 Design Greater Montréal boasts close to 3,000 college students enrolled in Visual Arts 1,193 278 technical programs related to visual effects, animation and film production Graphic Arts 241 1,199 Total 2,684 1,822 Technical college programs Students enrolled The depth of Montréal’s talent pool related to film production in 2017-2018 has allowed the region to remain at the Film Production 28 avant-garde in the VFX industry, including in new trends such as virtual Sound and Audio Studies 14 and augmented reality Total 42 Source: Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur, 2019; compilation by Montréal International. 18 A rich pool of university students that combines creativity and technical knowledge Greater Montréal boasts close to As well as more than A large contingent of new university graduates in arts and IT joins this 2,300 university students in arts 15,000 university students growing visual effects and and cinema related programs enrolled in IT related programs animation workforce every year University University programs Students enrolled University programs Students University graduates in related to IT in 2017-2018 related enrolled graduates in 2017 to arts and cinema in 2017-2018 2017 Computer Sciences 8 104 1 558 Cinema 1,325 286 Electric and Electronic 3 498 744 Fine Arts 904 168 Engineering Computer Engineering 2 002 374 Plastic Arts 580 139 and Computer Science Graphic Arts 674 160 Mathematics 1 438 262 Arts (pluridisciplinary) 127 46 Applied Mathematics 130 27 Total 2,285 513 Probabilities and Statistics 190 35 Total 15 362 3 000 Source: Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur, 2019; compilation by Montréal International. 19 Simple and fast immigration procedures in Canada Canada’s immigration policies are straight-forward, predictable and rapid, making it easy to bring in the best talent from around the world: the number of work permits are not capped and subject to a lottery. Immigration Processing Processing 1 - Obtain a LMIA* and CAQ** 2 – Submit work permit application program types time time Intra-company Have worked at least one year for the company before the 0 to 2 N/A. N/A. transfer transfer, be an executive or have exclusive knowledge. weeks N/A. 0 to 2 NAFTA N/A. Belong to one of the 60 professions recognized under NAFTA . weeks To be 18 to 35 years old (depending on country of citizenship) and International coming from one of the 30 countries having an agreement with 8 Experience N/A. N/A. Canada. 3 types of permits according to country agreements: weeks Canada Working Holiday, Young Professional and International Co-op Internship Exemption from the requirement to demonstrate that efforts to Global Talent 2 0 to 2 hire locally were unsuccessful + belong to one of the 13 Same conditions as above weeks weeks Stream professions on the list Process offered exclusively to businesses in Quebec. QC Simplified Exemption from the requirement to demonstrate that efforts to Approx. 15 Same conditions as above 0 to 10 hire locally were unsuccessful. About 60 professions on the weeks Process weeks facilitated process list Must be done at the Canadian visa office outside Canada or at Demonstrate that reasonable efforts have been made to hire Approx. 15 0 to 10 Regular process Canadian customs if the applicant is exempt from entry visa locally weeks weeks requirements Notes: *LMIA: Labour Market Impact Assessment.