Actor/writer/director Don McKellar performs in David Cronenberg’s feature eXistenZ (1999), while Cronenberg appears in McKellar’s feature Last Night (1998) and stars in his short Blue (1992).

I am in a bistro in Brooklyn after a screening. Dennis Lim, film editor at The Village Voice, tells me about a book he is compiling – the 500 (or maybe it was 1,000, I can’t remember) – best films of all time. The idea is: make a must-see list of films for cinephiles, as opposed to movie buffs – a list that doesn’t include Casablanca or Gone with the Wind in the top 10, the top 20, or maybe anywhere at all. A list that includes films from all over.

First thing I ask: ‘How does Canada stack up against Australia?’ A stupid question, I know, but like most Canadian filmmakers, I have been conditioned by tedious media pundits and letters page curmudgeons to harbor a mild underdog grudge against the heavily favored Aussies.

‘Canada should take them easy,’ Dennis indulges me.

‘Our ace in the hole is Cronenberg,’ I add.

‘If it was totally up to me, seriously, every one of his films would be in the book.’

And then, getting into the game, I step it up, bragging, ‘There’s not a single Australian film that can compete with even the weakest Cronenberg.’

Now this last claim is barely defensible, I admit. And there’s little point pitting Picnic at Hanging Rock against Naked Lunch, Mad Max against Fast Company. But then again, when I think about how important the Cronenberg output has been to me and my Can-cinema peers; when I think of the career trajectory culminating, for now, in the masterful A History of Violence, even the minor works start to look like indispensable insights into a perfect oeuvre, one unsurpassed by any working director, anywhere.

Dennis thinks about it for a while, and I’m afraid he’ll call me on my embarrassing, uncharacteristic patriotic lapse, but, finally, he says, ‘You’re right. I think you’re right.’

A thought occurs to me. If Telefilm Canada and the Heritage committee want to save money on commissions and official reports on the so-called dire state of Canadian cinema, all they would have to do is look at the career of David Cronenberg and ask themselves, ‘How did that happen? How did such an artist continue to work in this country – grow, flourish, and come to single-handedly justify all our jobs? How can we help to make it happen again?’