Testifying:
Denise Robert

Cinémaginaire president Denise Robert, along with Daniel Louis, produced Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares, which won the 2004 Academy Award for best foreign-language film. More recently, the prodco shot L’Âge des ténèbres – Arcand’s latest – and Émile Gaudreault’s The Yellow Woman, and is going forward with the feature Le Grand départ. Each of these projects has received Telefilm support.

‘Telefilm has been an important partner in all the projects I have done, and instrumental in building our film industry and putting it on the map. But it is at the point where Telefilm has to grow at a financial level. Its budget has to increase if it is to continue to support the industry and accompany us on future growth. The purchasing power of the dollar is less, production costs have increased, and there are more filmmakers to support.

When an industry is successful, you don’t stop helping it – you help it grow even more. If we don’t invest in our filmmakers, we will lose them to the American market.’