Mr. Chair, members of the committee, as I understand it, I am your last witness to appear in the context of this study. I very much appreciate the time that you are giving us today.
My name is André Provencher and today I am honoured to represent Quebecor Content and TVA Films, which is our business unit most specifically involved in feature film distribution and in audiovisual content for television markets, DVDs and digital platforms such as on-demand video and on-demand video subscription services.
Throughout its history, Quebecor has shown deep attachment to and unfailing, tangible support for Quebec francophone cinema. The project we call “Éléphant : mémoire du cinéma québécois”, launched in 2008 at the initiative of its principal share holder, is probably the most substantial illustration of that attachment and support.
To date, Quebecor has invested more than $6 million to restore 200 films from Quebec's cinema repertoire and has made them available to a wider public on a number of easily accessible platforms. The success and expansion of this philanthropic project are such that they now go beyond our borders, extending as far as the Cannes festival. Actually, in a few weeks, a few days, on Éléphant's initiative, the prestigious international festival will, for a second year, screen a classic from Quebec's cinema repertoire, Michel Brault's film Les Ordres.
That shows the extent to which Quebecor is committed to Canadian cinema, particularly French-language cinema. In that spirit, we are delighted with the study you are conducting on the Canadian feature film industry and we congratulate you on it. We are also grateful for this invitation to present our point of view to, and have discussions with, the members of the committee.
It must be said that the Canadian feature film industry increasingly has to deal with significant issues. A number of them arise as a result of the diversification of distribution platforms, especially digital ones. The multiplicity of choices open to consumers brings with it an evolution in behaviour that requires each of the players to redefine their strategic approaches and their particular position in the value chain. In that sense, we feel that it is necessary that any examination of the Canadian feature film industry should not only include the impact caused by the digital age but should also address the inertia that stands in the way of a genuine and worthwhile transformation of Canadian cinema. René Bonnell, the author of a particularly thorough examination of French cinema that was conducted last year, expressed the hope that we will avoid proposing changes while nothing really changes at all.
Indeed, adapting to current and expected challenges requires the Canadian feature film industry to question the foundations and the mechanisms that govern it. But we do not believe that new, more restrictive rules for Canadian distributors, or even adding new public funding without a new balancing of the business risk, can be among the solutions to be considered.
Historically, the Canadian feature film industry has allowed creators, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople to reflect our country's culture and values by building a rich, diversified and unique repertoire. This fundamental contribution has been largely built thanks to the policies and the funding that have been put in place over time by federal and provincial governments. We have certainly obtained a number of benefits from this, including a lot of filmmaking and an industry that generates indispensable economic results.
This must all now be consolidated and built upon in order to take advantage of the current digital environment. To that end, we have identified four changes or structural adjustments for your consideration, under the general heading of bringing cinema and the Canadian public closer and more strongly together. In other words, we want the starting point for any transformation of the industry to be with consumers.
The first change deals with the financial circumstances of the companies and their business risks. It seems to us that the time has come to review the distribution of the risk among the producers, who have to take very few risks, and the distributors, who are always financially exposed. We therefore congratulate Telefilm Canada for its recent initiative to review the weighting given to financial and qualitative factors in their analysis of the performance of feature films. In fact, we would be in favour of a weighting that would make financial criteria clearly predominant. That would allow the true extent of the financial risks undertaken by companies to be considered and, at the same time, create more focused incentives to seek private financing.
The second change deals with the selection of the feature films to produce and finance. The current process is dominated by government agencies. In recent years, those agencies have given disproportionate importance to art films to the detriment of films with more public appeal. We must become more concerned with popular cinema that will generate self-sustaining revenue that is essential for the survival of a number of aspects of the industry. From that perspective, the voices of distributers, promoters and theatre owners must be more clearly heard.
The success of feature films depends on all links in the value chain being involved in advance. Eventually, the method of selection must be “debureaucratized” and must be built on the envelope system similar to the one that contributes to the current success of the Canada Media Fund. Under that system, the market, not the bureaucracy, decides the programs to produce.
The third change involves distribution and tackles the particular situation of the francophone market. In 2012, our subsidiary, TVA Films, was forced to give up its theatre distribution activities because of the negative profitability and the excessive level of concentration in the hands of a virtual monopoly. Beyond the need to introduce and maintain more dynamic competition in the francophone market, we are of the opinion that the requirement for theatre showings should be progressively eliminated so that audiences can be reached wherever they are to be found.
In the United States, Netflix and YouTube specifically have announced that they will be producing films to be shown first on their own platforms. The marketing and distribution plan for a feature film must no longer be imprisoned in a “one size fits all” formula.
In fact, those plans must be tailored to more effective and profitable ways to promote the shows. In some circumstances, for example, projection simultaneously in theatres and on digital platforms would make it more possible to reach audiences in places far removed from large centres. Innovation and experimentation are values that are becoming increasingly indispensable in these areas.
The last change involves international co-production and exports. We can be proud that Canada has already taken concrete measures to encourage international exchanges, especially by means of co-production treaties. There are effective measures that can be made flexible in order to avoid undesirable effects like cost inflation. Our industry, our companies, should also be encouraged to seek out strategic and financial partnerships with their foreign counterparts, no longer in a piecemeal way, but more globally.
In conclusion, the Canadian feature film industry is facing major challenges that cannot be solved by minor changes. We have to review each of the conditions of development and make sure that they stimulate and empower all those involved so that Canadians and our entire film industry can reap the benefits.
Thank you
