- published: 16 Dec 2008
- views: 368
Canadian cinema refers to the filmmaking industry in Canada. Canada is home to several film studios centres, primarily located in its three largest cities: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Industries and communities tend to be regional and niche in nature. Approximately 970 Anglophone-Canadian and 620 Francophone-Canadian feature-length films have been produced, or partially produced by the Canadian film industry since 1911.
The most critically acclaimed filmmakers from English Canada include David Cronenberg, Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Allan King, and Michael Snow. The most critically acclaimed filmmakers from French Canada include Claude Jutra, Gilles Carle, Denys Arcand, Jean Beaudin, Robert Lepage, Denis Villeneuve and Michel Brault. Some Canadians migrate to the American industry in search of successful careers - Canadian filmmakers such as Norman Jewison, Jason Reitman, Paul Haggis and James Cameron have all received accolades and awards from the world's most prestigious honorary organizations, and have enjoyed commercial success as well. James Cameron, in particular, wrote and directed the highest and second-highest grossing films ever, Avatar and Titanic, respectively.
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.