Thank you and good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Thank you and good afternoon.
My name is Raffaele Papalia and I'm the president of Les Cinémas Ciné Entreprise, which is based out of Terrebonne in Quebec. I also serve as a chair of MTAC.
Ciné Enterprise operates a small circuit, a lot smaller than those of my colleagues, and I have theatres in the secondary markets such as Chicoutimi, Jonquière, Three Rivers, and Granby, to name a few. Despite the differing sizes of our companies, I agree with the comments made by my colleagues here today. I want to show you that MTAC members believe in Canadian film, and the industry, and we are amongst its biggest supporters. We support the efforts of the the Government of Canada's Canadian feature film policy and echo their objectives of building audiences and improving upon the quality of Canadian films—I'll come back to improving the quality of Canadian films in a second—and of further developing the talents of creators and preserving Canadian films.
We are particularly supportive of all initiatives that result in building audiences for these films. As a group we believe we need movies with a particular audience in mind. What drives our business is the audience, so it's important to us that we improve the quality of films, build the audiences, and develop Canadian talent.
The film industry in Quebec has done an exceptional job of maximizing the impact of Canadian films in our province. Filmmakers, studios, and exhibitors have come together to create a market and distribute films targeted specifically to their audience. We are very proud of the role we played in Quebec in supporting the production, marketing, and exhibition of Quebec films across the province, and we will continue to do our part in supporting the Quebec film industry moving forward.
One thing that I would like add about the Quebec market is that as a group of all the people who have a role in the film sector, we were able to build the star system, and that system creates an event every time we open a Quebec picture. When we have an event, our audiences do come out.