NFB Ontario Studio moving to new Downtown location

OntarioStudio

NFB gets new home in Toronto’s Entertainment District at 145 Wellington Street West (Image provided by the NFB)

On Dec. 12, the National Film Board of Canada’s award-winning Ontario Studio in Toronto is moving to a new home in the Entertainment District, at 145 Wellington Street West, Suite 1010. The NFB is making the move to a custom-designed space that meets its changing needs for film and interactive media creation, with six digital editing suites, a 20-seat screening room and a virtual reality lab, all designed to create world-class audiovisual works in the heart of Toronto.

Headed by executive producer Anita Lee, with producers Lea Marin, David Oppenheim and Justine Pimlott, the Ontario Studio works closely with creators and partners in Toronto and across the province, the country and the world, to produce film and digital works that explore vital issues and break new ground in form and content. The NFB’s Toronto office is also the base for its new Director General of Creation and Innovation, René Bourdages, responsible for the NFB’s long-term programming vision, working with NFB studios across Canada.

Recent successes from the Ontario Studio include Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley, and the multi-year HIGHRISE digital project, directed by Katerina Cizek—two of the most highly acclaimed works in NFB history—as well as powerful new releases like Tiffany Hsiung’s breakthrough feature doc, The Apology. Upcoming from the studio are major releases like Charles Officer’s Unarmed Verses and Attiya Kahn and Larry Jackman’s A Better Man.

The Ontario Studio is also the new space for the NFB’s Canadian Francophonie Studio, headed by Dominic Desjardins, which produces French-language works from Ontario and the West that serve a vital need in supporting and strengthening Canada’s French-language communities.

Also moving to the new space will be members of the NFB’s education, audience development, communications and marketing teams.

The Ontario Studio has been located at 150 John Street since 1991, and its move to nearby 145 Wellington Street West is intended to keep the NFB in the Toronto’s key cultural district, close to creators, co-producers and partners.