The Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE) has launched a new online platform, the Canadian Movie Marketplace, which aims to directly connect Canadian filmmakers, distributors and rightsholders with theatres and audiences across the country.

Created with the support of the Canada Council of the Arts and Telefilm Canada, the online database is designed to provide clear and freely accessible information about who holds domestic theatrical rights to Canadian films in order to simplify the discovery and booking process of these films for Canadian exhibitors.

“Theatrical rights can be surprisingly tricky to track down,” NICE director Sonya Yokota William tells Playback Daily, noting that this situation applies even to such major and much-in-demand Canadian titles as Highway 61, Scanners, The Silent Partner, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and My Winnipeg.

“The Canadian Movie Marketplace helps clear away the opacity around key questions like: Who has the rights to this film? What Canadian titles are opening this month? What might work for an anniversary, community event, or special series?” she continues. “Having one central location with all the Canadian film open dates and information on their marketing and release plans greatly simplifies everyone’s workflows, and creates a much better opportunity for those titles.”

The Canadian Movie Marketplace was built in collaboration with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), as well as Reel Canada, the organization behind the annual National Canadian Film Day event. Distributors contributing to the site include the National Film Board of Canada, Sphère Films, Elevation Pictures, Game Theory Films, Criterion Pictures, VVS, Isuma Distribution, FilmOption, Films We Like, Lost Time Media, Capital Motion Pictures and Photon Films and Media.

The platform is launching with a catalogue of more than 400 English- and French-language films from across the history of Canadian cinema. Current titles range from recognized classics (Denys Arcand’s The Decline of the American Empire, Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter) to edgy genre fare (Vincenzo Natali’s Splice, Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls), commercial comedies (Erik Canuel’s Bon Cop Bad Cop, Mike Clattenburg’s Trailer Park Boys: The Movie) to indie documentaries (Ron Mann’s Grass, Hugh Gibson’s The Stairs).

More films are being added to the database daily, according to a release, with upcoming titles including the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival selections Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) from Zacharias Kunuk and Mélanie Charbonneau’s Out Standing.

Rightsholders and distributors can upload titles to the database for free, along with their rights info, open dates and other vital statistics. The site is set up with discovery tools that allow potential bookers to search by criteria including genre, theme, production territory, screening formats and accessibility features. The site even includes live Q&A availability for filmmakers or special guests.

“For rightsholders, the Canadian Movie Marketplace is essentially free marketing,” says William. “And because the site is user-driven, the more a film page is filled out, the more likely it is to be discovered by an exhibitor searching the catalogue.”

As William explains, to be eligible for inclusion in the Marketplace, films submitted must be currently available to book theatrically in Canada through the rightsholder who has submitted the title (either in Quebec, outside Quebec or both); must have a CAVCO or CRTC number, or currently be under review with CAVCO; and must have an open date, if it’s a new release.

William says that filmmakers and filmmaking teams who are planning to self-distribute are also encouraged to upload any films to the database for which they hold theatrical rights. “Self-distributing a film is demanding, but it can yield great results,” says William, citing as an example the recent cross-Canada tour of Sook-Yin Lee’s Paying for It (Wildling Pictures, Hawkeye Pictures) “We want the Canadian Movie Marketplace to democratize access to screens, and support films that may not have traditional distribution infrastructure.”

William adds that short films are also eligible to be uploaded to the database alongside features. “While seeking shorts is probably not going to be the primary use case for theatrical exhibitors, I know many programmers are keen to do more work with short films,” she says. “Creating this opportunity could only yield more results.”

The Marketplace is currently available only in English, but NICE intends to update the site to make it fully bilingual in the coming year, according to the release. William says there are also plans to include editorial content at some point in the future.

Rightsholders and exhibitors can sign up for an account on the Canadian Movie Marketplace website.

Photo by Nicola Betts, courtesy of NICE