Born in Hungary in 1949, Robert Lantos emigrated with his family to Uruguay in 1958, coming to Canada in 1963. His family settled in Montreal, where he attended high school.

He then went on to McGill University where he finished his post-graduate studies in communications in 1972, the same year he cofounded Vivafilm, a motion picture distribution company.

In 1975, Lantos added RSL Entertainment, a movie production company established as a companion to Vivafilm.

The following year, he produced his first feature film, L’Ange et la Femme.

Over the next 10 years he produced 12 motion pictures at rsl including In Praise of Older Women, Suzanne and Joshua Then and Now. In 1985, both rsl and Vivafilm were folded into a new company of which Lantos was cofounder and co-chairman – Alliance Communications Corporation. He became chairman and ceo in 1987.

Since its founding, Alliance has been the Canadian industry leader in filmed entertainment.

With its internationally award-winning pictures like The Sweet Hereafter, Crash and Exotica; its television dramas like Due South, North of 60 and e.n.g.; its dominant role in Canadian distribution through its release of films like The English Patient, Good Will Hunting and Pulp Fiction, Alliance’s influence is now felt on a global scale.

In Canada, the company’s specialty television networks, Showcase and History Television, now reach over four million homes. Alliance has produced over 1,000 hours of television drama and nearly 100 feature films.

Alliance’s television productions have won 47 Gemini Awards, including best drama series 10 times. International television recognition has come from top prizes won at the Worldfest-Houston Awards and the Banff International Television Festival.

Alliance feature films have been widely acclaimed at home and abroad, winning 42 Genies and representing Canada five times at the Cannes Film Festival, where they have won the Grand Prix (The Sweet Hereafter), The Special Jury Prize (Crash) and the International Critics Prize (Exotica). Most recently, The Sweet Hereafter earned two Academy Award nominations.

In his community, Lantos is the recipient of a wide number of awards, including the Toronto Arts Award, the cftpa’s Chetwynd Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s award for Outstanding Contribution to the Business of Filmmaking in Canada, and most recently, the J. Stuart Mackay Communicator of the Year Award.

He is a member of the board of governors of the Banff International Television Festival, a director of the International Emmy Council and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

He is a past chairman of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, and a past director of the Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies.