Back in the 1950s, there was still no such thing as funding for independent movies or TV shows in Canada. There was a national broadcaster in CBC/Radio-Canada and a world-class documentary and animation engine in the National Film Board, but virtually no money for those who wanted to create their own indelible cinematic mark. Indies had no voice.

Young anglophone filmmakers like Norman Jewison had little choice but to migrate south of the border, while revolutionary cineastes like the late Claude Jutra moved to France and worked with masters of the French New Wave. Yet each found their way back to Canada, albeit in very different ways.

This inaugural Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame honors Jewison, the famous feature film director and mentor who founded the Canadian Film Centre, so that young filmmakers would have the opportunity to stay in Canada to learn the trade. We also pay tribute to pioneer Jutra, whose masterpiece Mon oncle Antoine is considered by many critics as the greatest Canadian film ever made.

This Hall also fetes industry builder Michael Spencer, who helped curtail the exodus of Canadian talent by creating a federal funding agency, the Canadian Film Development Corporation, in 1967. He became its first executive director and insisted that all films that received cash have Canadian producers. Now called Telefilm Canada, it’s the same Crown corporation that funded yesteryear’s The Rowdyman and today’s hit Away from Her, both starring Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent, another Hall inductee.

The inaugural recipients also include the rebel who cofounded Citytv and popularized electronic news gathering. Moses Znaimer did for television what Norman Bethune did for medicine. He took the camera out of the studios to the heart of the action. He took the lens to the streets, and backstage. Znaimer helped to democratize the medium itself.

Andre Link and John Dunning became successful business partners the first time bell bottoms were fashionable and free love hit the screens in ‘scandalous’ Quebec features like Valérie. Through their company Cinepix, Bill Murray’s career got launched in Meatballs, which raked in a hefty $46 million in North America in 1979. As both producers and distributors, their trademark was a knack for reading the public taste, and when they sold Cinepix to Lions Gate Entertainment, the successful distribution tradition continued.

This first Hall of Fame acknowledges that many of Canada’s true pioneers embraced both profit and the Montreal joie de vivre, including the late Harold Greenberg, executive producer of Canada’s all-time international box-office champ Porky’s and architect of the Astral Media empire. The Harold Greenberg Fund continues his legacy by having invested more money to date in film development than any other private fund.

Colleagues and audiences both adored and respected the late Barbara Frum, the CBC radio and television journalist synonymous with forthright reporting. She also paved the way for women to escape the pink-collar ghetto. Yet first and foremost, Frum established a unique voice in Canadian media that will always be remembered.

The inductees will be feted at a soiree at the Drake Hotel in Toronto on June 26.