The National Film Board of Canada’s (NFB) 2025-28 strategic plan is underway, organized under four key pillars.

The plan, which was approved by the NFB board of trustees on September 18, 2024, was created as a result of various consultations with filmmakers and industry partners as well as workshops with NFB employees and research from other industry bodies such as the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and more. Starting April 1, the organization began acting on its yearly action plan, which is part of achieving the goals outlined in the longer-term strategic plan.

The first pillar is focused on new voices and new audiences, the second on creativity and innovation, the third on elevating the NFB’s brand and the fourth on understanding and adapting to current audiences.

Part of that first pillar means a focus on increased representation for Indigenous voices as well as enhanced engagement with younger generations and new Canadians. “It’s a goal that we can set ourselves to say that all Canadians under 35 will better know the NFB,” chairperson Suzanne Guèvremont (pictured) told Playback Daily.

That also means reengaging how the NFB looks at its educational mandate, which for the organization means creating short-form content for teachers and students by repackaging parts of their features for the classroom. “We can’t reach students and teachers in class like we used to 20 years ago,” she says. “So we need to adapt, and we need to make sure that our content is easily accessible, easy to find.”

Part of getting enhanced engagement for younger generations can involve new platforms for the films or the marketing around them. Guèvremont cites Jo Roy’s 2024 experimental short Corpus and the Wandering, shot entirely on her iPhone. Roy spent several hours on Twitch explaining the concept behind the film and her filmmaking process. It’s these glimpses behind the curtains that Guèvremont says she’d like to see more of.

The second pillar mentions “a resurgence of archival-based stories, reimagined in innovative ways,” according to the strategic plan. That involves the use of AI somewhat, which the NFB has already begun researching. Guèvremont stressed there is a focus on the ethics of the technology, and the intention is not to replace the creatives, but that there is also interest in how AI may aid the NFB from an archival perspective.

“At the NFB we have 14,000 titles [and] 7,000 titles are on our streaming platform. We have a mandate of archives and preservation,” she says. “So how can we use AI in an intelligent way?”

The third pillar focuses on elevated public recognition for the organization, as well as a “cleaner and clearer identity.” That doesn’t mean a brand makeover, Guèvremont explains, but finding clearer, more effective ways of communicating what and how the NFB does what it does.

She explains that many don’t know what the NFB accomplishes each year – which she notes is done for less than two dollars from each Canadian taxpayer.

“Often people don’t know that it’s the NFB that has been the producer, and that’s behind the film in itself,” she says. “It’s defending the fact that we are not a luxury. We are a wonderful tool for elevating cultural democracy, awareness [and] intelligence.” Growing up, she recalled when theatres would screen NFB shorts prior to the main event. While she expressed interest in returning to that tradition, theatre owners are “not responding positively.”

Part of the fourth pillar’s better understanding of Canadian audiences will be achieved in part by the NFB’s own research into audience analytics. The organization plans to work with an internal business intelligence unit to achieve this. The end goal of that research also involves different metrics for its own success by the end of the four-year plan.

For Guèvremont and the NFB, that definition of success doesn’t solely involve dollars on a balance sheet.

“I’m really talking about eyeballs, and not necessarily revenue,” she says. The goal? “‘Has this film been seen and has it provoked conversations?'”

Photo by Benedicte Brocard