Vancouver becomes Canada’s top filming hub

High-profile international productions to have shot in British Columbia and Ontario have included The Shape of Water, It and award-winning US drama The Handmaid’s Tale (pictured).

Increased commissioning activity from major SVoD platforms like Amazon and Netflix have reportedly helped drive the location filming spike, particularly in British Columbia.

Vancouver is long-established as a Canadian production hub due to its generous filming incentive support, studio infrastructure and locations that can double for a broad range of international settings. The city is also easily accessible from Los Angeles.

Quebec also saw a surge in its popularity as a filming location, with spending soaring 43%, but the province’s actual dollar figure amounted to a much lower CA$404m.

International producers took a greater interest in the rest of the country as well, with spending in Canada’s territories – to include Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan – rising by a factor of six on the previous year.

The number of foreign productions filmed in Canada as a whole rose by 18% for the year.

In related news, Canada’s heritage minister Melanie Joly has clarified details regarding the announcement last autumn that Netflix has chosen Canada for its first non-US production hub and has committed to a CA$500m investment in Canadian content over the next five years.

The news caught many in the Canadian industry off-guard and there are ongoing concerns about how Canadian content and culture will be protected and conserved by the Netflix deal.

Joly stated that the concern will be an ongoing discussion, but that as part of the agreement, CA$25m will be invested each year in the development of content for Canada’s French-speaking market.

Image: Hulu/George Kraychyk