Now that’s a compliment: Leading British film producer Jeremy  Thomas on Saturday offered generous praise for the Canadian film industry.

“Films are made with a group of talent and artists together. And Canada has a such a healthy business because it has created an ambiance in which you can make films freely, and you’ve created a market,” Thomas told a TIFF press conference for David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, which he coproduced as a Canada-UK-Germany coproduction.

Thomas virtually had to bypass Britain after shrinking government funding at home for British films sent the indie producer to the European continent and Canada for financing.

“I love working in Canada, it’s a good place to produce movies,” he said.

London-based Thomas, best known for movies like The Last Emperor, Cronenberg’s Crash and Sexy Beast, prepped A Dangerous Method in Canada before shooting the psychological thriller on German soundstages.

Post-production then followed back in Canada.

The Cronenberg film, adapted from the Christopher Hampton stage play The Talking Cure, is set in Vienna on the eve of the First World War.

A Dangerous Method features Carl Jung, played by Michael Fassbender, and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) struggling over the dangerous sexuality of a troubled patient, played by Keira Knightley.

With shooting in Germany and posting in Canada, Britain hardly figured in the physical production of the Cronenberg pic, which bowed in Venice ahead of a North American premiere in Toronto.