As Ottawa’s film industry continues to grow, more local talent opts to stay in the city

Despite a global pandemic and several industry strikes, the Ottawa Film Office reported record-breaking revenue in 2023 that was worth about $120 million to the Canadian economy that year, according to the Ottawa Film Office.

With at least 39 live-action productions filmed, last year was a big year for local productions. Forty-five locations across the region hosted film sets, including the Sparks Street mall and the Fairmont Château Laurier.

In addition, local animation studios contributed 15 productions for corporations such as Netflix, Disney and Nickelodeon.

As the local film industry is only projected to grow in the next few years, many actors, production companies and film students are choosing to build their careers in the region.

Amatur Rahman Salam-Alada, a student in the scriptwriting program at Algonquin College, said she believes the filmmaking scene in Ottawa is vibrant but still relatively underground.

In 2020, Algonquin College launched Ottawa’s first Film and Media diploma program. Salam-Alada said Algonquin College offers a cheaper alternative to film schools in bigger cities. “It’s more bang for your buck,” she said. “Honestly, you pay cheap, but you still get very valuable knowledge.”

Jett Smith, a third-year film studies student at Carleton University and a student filmmaker, agreed. Smith said Ottawa’s increasing population has created a more favourable environment for the film industry to grow organically.

“Instead of young people going to Toronto and Vancouver right away, it’s slowly becoming more viable to stay in Ottawa,” Smith said.

Alongside other student filmmakers at Carleton University, he recently debuted his short film, “The Boxer’s Pill”, at Carleton University’s Short Film Showcase for an audience of students, professors and community members. With friends and classmates, Smith said he shot the 20-minute short in Ottawa over the course of a few days.

“When it comes to filming, I don’t know if the city you’re in matters as much as how willing you are to put in the work to go out and do something with it,” Smith said. “It depends on the filmmaker and how creatively they view their city.”

Aside from a growing professional network of resident workers in Ottawa’s film and television industry, the city also has a thriving independent scene.

Vincent Valentino, a local director and founder of Kino Ottawa, a monthly short film screening and networking event for independent filmmakers, said the Ottawa scene feels more welcoming to beginners than the more prominent industries Vancouver or Toronto.

“Ottawa offers a lot of opportunities to be on set and learn because there are always people willing to help, act, or crew,” Valentino said. “The charm of not having a big [film and television] industry here is that we’re not competing against one another.” 

Valentino also owns and moderates the Ottawa Filmmakers Facebook Group with 11,900 members and 15 new posts daily. “I get a lot of feedback, and people love what’s happening here in Ottawa. They get all these opportunities to express themselves creatively.”

Earlier this year, the Ottawa Film Office announced it was in the early stages of building a $40-million soundstage facility in the Ottawa area – a project that could generate thousands of jobs for the budding industry and attract domestic and international talent.

Sean Devine, Knoxdale-Merivale city councillor and a member of the board of directors for the Ottawa Film Office, said that Ontario tax credits and Ottawa’s diverse locations make the city an affordable choice for filmmakers globally.

“You don’t have to drive very far in Ottawa [to have] a historic building as a location. Then you could have lovely natural skates like beaches, rivers and waterfalls. You can have a downtown core, and then you can drive 20 minutes and have a farm or a rural village.”

“When you can offer that kind of diversity of locations, that can be really attractive to filmmakers.”

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