As Canadians, in an increasingly fragmented digital world, order films for viewing in the home, VOD and SVOD looms ever larger as an distribution platform for homegrown movies.

That has Telefilm Canada executive director Carolle Brabant asking how Canadian consumers can be drawn to local movies when they want increasing choice and variety in how they consume entertainment.

“That’s the million dollar question,” Brabant told Telefilm’s annual public meeting in Ottawa on Monday as she outlined work alongside the Canada Media Fund, SODEC, the National Film Board of Canada and market research firms to understand better how to identify and zero in on consumers of Canadian content in a VOD world.

“We are identifying the target audiences, but the environment is fragmented and we lack audience tracking tools,” she told a questioner.

Brabant ran through recent accomplishments by Canadian filmmakers, including David Cronberg’s Maps to the Stars and Xavier Dolan’s Mommy generating impressive audience buzz at Cannes ahead of the current awards season.

But she pointed to Canadians increasingly binge-watching in their living rooms as a challenge in a fast-changing marketplace.

“We are seeing a fundamental change in consumer habits when it comes to audiovisual products,” Brabant said.

That means Canadians increasingly watch what they want via content aggregators, as opposed to being served up a programming lineup arranged by gatekeepers.

“The consumer is offered an array of products. And they come from around the world,” she said of increasing global competition for Canadian eyeballs.

That means Canadian films that Telefilm finances must increasingly display an aggressive distribution plan for the world market, and leverage where possible international and private sector financing to fill out bigger budgets.