The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) has released its first DGC Director Statistics Report, which found “serious imbalances” in regional production activity and high budget U.S. series filmed in Canada in 2021.

The 30-page report was created by the DGC National Directors Division. It looks at the engagement of Canadian directors by domestic and international production companies, networks and studios in 2021. The data is focused on “region, gender, production type” and the volume of episodes commissioned by U.S. and Canadian studios and networks, according to a press release. Productions that did not involve DGC were not included in the report.

“The DGC created this report to ensure that conversations on the future of the industry and the hiring of Canadian directors are well-informed, encouraging industry stakeholders to be accountable for any disparities in diversity, inclusion and regional balance on both domestic and international productions shot in Canada,” Zach Lipovsky, DGC National Directors Division chair, tells Playback Daily.

The report concludes that the bulk of the production work involving the DGC continues to be driven by U.S. studios and networks, which encompassed 75% of the English-language episodic content tracked. The remaining 25% of episodes captured in the report were funded by Canadian studios or networks.

Almost half episodic content involving the DGC were filmed in B.C., encompassing 43%. Ontario accounted for 40% of episodic content. The data only captures a small portion of content filmed in Quebec because the DGC does not represent directors for French-language productions, according to the report. The remaining provinces and territories accounted for 17% of the English-language episodic work tracked, with roughly 11% filmed in Alberta and Quebec.

Despite being the largest overall production centre for screen-based content in 2021, only 4% of all episodes involving the DGC in B.C. were funded by a Canadian studio or network. More than a third of the English-language content shot in Ontario was considered Cancon, comprising 38%.

The report highlighted that nearly 70% of the English-language series productions funded by CBC were filmed in Ontario, with Lipovsky pointing out that “despite a crystal clear mandate to help Canadians share our stories across regions and backgrounds,” the pubcaster had “more or less ignored the rise of the West Coast film and television industry.”

The report also broke down TV episodes by studio and network, with WarnerMedia financing the most DGC productions in Canada. The studio merged with Discovery in 2022 to become Warner Bros. Discovery.

The CW was the network that accounted for the largest number of episodes, followed by Netflix. “Together, WarnerMedia and Netflix shot more television in Canada than all Canadian studios and networks combined,” the report states.

CBC came in at No. 2 as a studio and No. 3 as a network, according to the report. Bell Media came to No. 8 in the list of studios, with the rest of the top 10 comprised of U.S. companies.

The CW was co-owned by Warner Bros. TV and CBS Studios before it was sold to Nexstar earlier this year, which is likely to shift the standings for future reports from the DGC.

On average, 54% of the series captured in the report were considered medium-budget, with the DGC concluding that “medium-budget and high-budget [series] take more and more of the market as streamers compete for eyeballs.”

The report states that, on average, 41% of the U.S.-financed TV episodes shot across the country were directed by Canadian directors. It concluded that DGC member share of work varies by budget, with 100% of low-budget U.S. productions hiring Canadian directors, while 25% of directors hired for high-budget U.S. productions were from the DGC.

As for Canadian feature films, of the 65 DGC signatory features, 26 were filmed in B.C. and 22 were filmed in Ontario, with 39% directed by Canadian directors.

The report also found that 63% of features are low-budget, 9% were medium, and 29% were high-budget U.S.-based productions, with Netflix and Lionsgate being the two largest feature-producing studios in the country. Toronto’s Elevation Pictures was third on the list, followed by Universal Studios, ViacomCBS, and CBC.

Additionally, of the 184 MOWs shot in English Canada, 67% were filmed in B.C. and 28% were filmed in Ontario, and 86% were directed by Canadians.

The report also stated that 72% of the MOWs were low-budget, 23% were medium, and 5% were high-budget features from streamers. It concluded that the majority of MOWs were shot by Crown Media and Champlain Media, which created content for Hallmark Channel and Lifetime, but “we are seeing streamers begin to enter this space.”

In terms of the gender parity, the report found that DGC members who identify as women accounted for 43% of member work in 2021, while members who identify as men made up 56%, and gender-non-conforming directors accounted for 1% of work. The DGC published its first-ever national member census earlier this year, which found that its membership is comprised of 41% women, 57.7% men, and 2% as either transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming.

CBC and Disney were found to be the “most equitable studios for Canadian director gender parity in English Canada.”

There was a larger disparity in features, where women accounted for 31% of DGC work in 2021, with men at 69%. Elevation Pictures, Lionsgate, MGM and Sony were listed as studios that achieved gender parity.

Lipovsky added that DGC hopes “international players working in Canada will take the time to get to know the vast depth of Canadian talent we have and consider those filmmakers for all their productions, not in areas like TV movies where Canadian hiring is high.”

Warren P. Sonoda, DGC president, said in a statement that the “report underlines the work we have ahead of us, building a truly representative industry – and there’s more to come. We will continue to hold ourselves and our industry accountable for telling the diverse range of stories – with a diverse range of storytellers – that Canadians expect and global markets now demand.”

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