Gender-based analysis plus

Section 1: institutional GBA Plus governance and capacity

Governance

As a small organization, the NFB is integrating GBA+ into its very governance structure, with its Human Resources division, and the Strategic Planning and Government Relations team, assuming responsibility for the GBA+ process. In 2023–24, the NFB recruited a Senior Advisor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, who serves as a consultant on EDI and an agent of change supporting the organizational transformation efforts to ensure that EDI continues to be an NFB priority. This senior advisor works closely with the Strategic Planning and Government Relations team to implement GBA+ and integrate it into the NFB’s decision-making processes. These people also carry out the tasks of consulting, monitoring and reporting on this subject.

Capacity

In February 2021, the NFB released a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan that aimed to drive sustainable and meaningful change and make the NFB an egalitarian, open and diverse organization. In 2023, the NFB introduced a self-declaration questionnaire to gather information about its community of creators and creation partners so that it could ensure better, more equitable representation of marginalized and underrepresented voices. That same year, the NFB made the commitment that by March 31, 2025, over 30% of its current productions and co-productions would be directed by filmmakers who identify as Black or as persons of colour. In 2024-25, the NFB held consultations with staff, leading the organization to better orient its actions in the areas of human resources and organizational development. In order to ensure proper implementation of these actions, a new internal governance structure has been put in place, consisting of three committees: an executive committee, a committee of managers, and one consisting of staff. Each committee is, in its own way, committed to maintaining and improving EDI within the organization.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) dedicated to GBA Plus

Three (3) full-time equivalents (FTEs) are dedicated to GBA Plus:

• One person is dedicated full-time
  • Senior advisor, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Four (4) people are dedicated part-time
  • Advisor, Labour Relations, Diversity & Inclusion 
  • Head, Strategic Planning and Governmental Relations
  • Two (2) Analysts, Strategic Planning and Governmental Relations

Section 2: gender and diversity impacts, by program

Core responsibility: Audiovisual Programming and Production

Program name: Audiovisual Programming and Production

Program goals: The NFB, by working with filmmakers and artists from every region of Canada, seeks to reflect in its works the Canadian diversity as well as the perspectives and experiences of communities that are underrepresented in the media and to develop innovative new storytelling forms and approaches.

Target population: Creators of audiovisual works, including documentaries, and auteur animation.

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group(s) to be monitored

Certain initiatives specifically target women directors, creators from Indigenous communities, visible minorities and emerging filmmakers, as well as those from official-language minority communities.

Key program impacts* on gender and diversity

For nearly 10 years, the NFB has been making commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion and setting concrete targets for fair representation of voices that have been marginalized, underrepresented or misrepresented in the Canadian film industry. According to the NFB’s most recent objective, by March 31, 2025, over 30% of its current productions and co-productions were to have been made by filmmakers and artists who identify as Black or as People of Colour. The NFB confirms that it reached this objective by this deadline. During the 2024–25 fiscal year, 36% of its works in development or production were made by filmmakers identifying as Black or as People of Colour. 

The NFB’s various objectives to make diverse Canadian and Indigenous voices heard were reaffirmed in the programming framework that it put in place during the past fiscal year. In addition to the NFB’s official commitments to gender parity, Indigenous Peoples, official-language minority communities and ethnocultural communities, the NFB ensures that its national programming represents regional perspectives and adheres to the principles of reconciliation and of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by supporting autonomous decision-making and following appropriate production guidelines and protocols.

Here are some of the many NFB works released this year that reflect diverse Canadian and Indigenous voices.

• A Mother Apart, by Laurie Townshend, follows Black LGBTQ+ poet and activist Staceyann Chin as she reinvents motherhood after having been abandoned by her own mother.
• King’s Court, by Serville Poblete, immerses us in the raw emotions and struggles of two lifelong friends from Toronto’s Bleecker Street, one of Canada’s most diverse and densely populated neighbourhoods.
• Trécarré: Exploring the Saint Mary’s Bay Sound (Trécarré : à la source du son de la Baie Sainte-Marie), by Natalie Robichaud, vibrates with energy and captivating melodies, immersing us in an Acadian community where music has been a way of life for generations.
• My Friend the Green Horse, with puppets designed and stop-motion-animated by renowned filmmaker Terril Calder, is a genuine visual delight that enhances the storybook feeling of this little gem directed by Alanis Obomsawin.
• Seguridad, by Newfoundland filmmaker Tamara Segura, who was once named “Cuba’s youngest soldier” as part of a propaganda campaign, portrays the troubled relationship that she had with her father, against the background of the Cuban revolution.
• In Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man, director Sinakson Trevor Solway returns to his Siksika Blackfoot community to paint a tender, delicate portrait of Indigenous masculinity. Through touching confessions and intimate moments, the director reveals the daily lives of generations of men and boys forced to navigate rigid models of manhood.

Key program impact statistics

Other key program impacts

No additional qualitative impact to report.

Supplementary information sources

Gender Parity at the NFB

Equity, diversity and inclusion. NFB’s goals and commitments

NFB Indigenous Action Plan

Review on Official Languages

GBA Plus data collection plan

In April 2023, the NFB launched a confidential, non-mandatory self-declaration questionnaire that was sent out to the filmmakers, artists and production-team members who collaborate with the NFB. The personal information collected through the questionnaire will include data on Indigenous, racial and ethnic identity; disability status; gender identity and expression; belonging to the 2SLGBTQI+ community; and belonging to an official-language minority community. In the first two years of implementation, close to 80% of people have filled out the questionnaire, enabling the organization to measure and report on the effects of its commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion. This questionnaire is designed to facilitate an evaluation of the NFB’s measures and initiatives and thus allow it to determine what percentage of its production costs for active works are allocated to works by members of these groups. These data are incorporated into the NFB’s Departmental Results Framework and its strategy for measuring the performance of its equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives. In 2024–25, the NFB followed the best practices and directives on privacy set out by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS). In this context, the NFB submitted a Privacy Impact Assessment to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and established a new personal information bank with the support of TBS. These steps enabled the NFB not only to use this information in aggregated form for statistical purposes, but also to incorporate it into the NFB’s administrative decision-making process to support, meet and monitor its commitments regarding representation of Canadian diversity. This information will be used to support equity and diversity initiatives, to monitor progress and to influence decisions related to equity and diversity within the NFB and NFB projects. This will make it possible to, among other things, hire people from underrepresented groups for NFB production and distribution projects and various NFB initiatives, and to develop action plans in this regard.

Core responsibility: Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement

Program name: Preservation, Conservation and Digitization of Works

Program goals: This program sets out to preserve, digitize and restore works in the National Film Board’s collection, in keeping with the NFB’s digitization plan for audiovisual materials, to secure their longevity and availability for Canadians and Indigenous peoples, today and in the future, wherever they may be.

Target population: All Canadians in all parts of Canada, but also, specifically, players in the audiovisual industry and the non-theatrical sector. 

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group(s) to be monitored

As part of a partnership between the NFB and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), Indigenous communities are more specifically targeted.

Key program impacts* on gender and diversity

In 2024-25, the special partnership between the NFB and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation continued. Under this partnership, the NFB is converting the videos of Survivors’ statements and other original audiovisual content recorded at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings into formats suitable for archiving and for posting on the web. In total, some 7,000 statements and more than 1,500 hours of content will be preserved through this project.

The NFB’s internationally recognized expertise in preservation, conservation and digitization benefits not only the existing works in its collection but also new productions and co-productions that are essential for spotlighting lesser-known chapters of Canadian history, such as the following important works released during the past fiscal year.

• A Return to Memory, by Donald McWilliams, celebrates the largely overlooked but essential role of women in the birth of Canadian cinema, blending a dazzling array of archival documents with vibrant animation by NFB graphic artist Mélanie Bouchard.
• The Stand, by Christopher Auchter, uses more than 100 hours of previously unseen footage from the NFB and other organizations to reconstruct a pivotal yet little-known moment of Indigenous resistance, when the Haida Nation stood up against colonial occupation.

Key program impact statistics

Not available.

Other key program impacts

No additional qualitative impact to report.

Supplementary information sources

NFB Archives

NFB Indigenous Action Plan

GBA Plus data collection plan

As this program is technical in nature, it does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

Core responsibility: Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement

Program name: Distribution of Works and Audience Engagement

Program goals: This program makes National Film Board works available to Canadian and international audiences in their chosen formats. By reaching Canadian audiences through public partners, broadcasters, festivals, community screenings, cultural organizations, libraries, schools and its own online distribution channels, the NFB and it films stimulate discussion and encourage debate about the issues that Canadians consider important.

Target population: All Canadians in all parts of Canada

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group(s) to be monitored

Some initiatives also target the following sub-groups more specifically (but not exclusively):

• Indigenous people;
• People who identify as 2SLGBTQI+;
• Students and education professionals;
• Members of visible minorities;
• People with disabilities;
• Official-language minority communities.

Key program impacts* on gender and diversity

The NFB provides a space for underrepresented voices, including those of women, official-language minority communities, Indigenous people, sexual minorities and ethnocultural communities. But these voices can be truly heard only if their films are given the means of reaching their audiences. By providing a customized, audience-focused distribution plan for every project, the NFB helps to spread awareness of identities and realities that would otherwise remain marginalized. These films can thus contribute to the collective dialogue and become catalysts for change.

Fiscal year 2024–25 saw numerous launches and other events that celebrated underrepresented voices. Here are some of them.

• On Thursday evening, March 6, 2025, at the Alanis Obomsawin Theatre in Montreal, the NFB celebrated the 50th anniversary of Studio D, one of the world’s first feminist production studios. The NFB channel Studio D: The Women’s Film Studio now features 80 titles, while 16 films are now available in French on the NFB channel En tant que femme: Studio D. The website The Legacy of Studio D, an initiative of the University of Calgary in partnership with the NFB, was launched at this event.
• To mark National Indigenous History Month, some 50 screenings of Indigenous films were held at public venues across Canada, including museums, libraries and festivals. Many of these screenings were followed by discussions with the filmmakers. The NFB also launched new films online in June, including the Haida-language version of Now Is the Time (Waaydanaa), by Christopher Auchter.
• In 2024–25, the NFB celebrated its 20th year participating in the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie, whose 27th edition ran from March 1 to 31, 2025, with the theme “Cultivate Your Roots!” To mark the occasion, the NFB provided free access to six programs of documentary and animated films for francophones and francophiles. Over 200 public and private screenings were held in nearly 75 cities, in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories of Canada. More than 80% of these screenings celebrating francophone culture were held outside of Quebec.
• From August 10 to 18, the NFB took part in the 2024 Acadian World Congress in Nova Scotia, which brought members of the Acadian diaspora together from all over the world to celebrate their culture and heritage. At this event, the NFB presented films for the entire family and all audiences, on various aspects of Acadian culture and Acadia, and marked its 50th anniversary producing French-language films in Acadia.
• For Black History Month, the NFB hosted “Rhythms and Resistance: A Festive Evening of Cinema, Music, and More!,” at which it screened the film series Sounds & Pressure: Reggae in a Foreign Land. This series traces the thrilling journey of legendary artists who left Jamaica to give rise to a new hub of Caribbean creativity in Canada. These screenings were followed by a discussion with the films’ directors, Chris Flanagan and Graeme Mathieson, along with artists from the Montreal reggae scene.
• For Asian Heritage Month, the NFB published a blog post about seven NFB documentary and animated films that bring Asian-Canadian stories and history to audiences in Canada and around the world. These films could also be viewed on the NFB viewing platform nfb.ca. Other NFB blog posts this year spotlighted 2SLGBTQIA+ stories and celebrated Black History Month. Still others were written by NFB collaborators such as Janine Windolph, who directed Our Maternal Home, and Nermeen Yousseff, who appeared in Arab Women Say What?!
• Many thematic channels on nfb.ca/onf.ca provide visibility for the works of filmmakers whose voices are underrepresented. Examples of these channels include Asian Communities in Canada, Black Communities in Canada, Films for Pride, Today’s Female Filmmakers and Acadian Cinema. New titles are added to these channels regularly.

Every year, the NFB hosts thousands of community screenings, often in libraries, bringing its films to many communities in urban centres and remote areas throughout Canada. The NFB also provides programming suggestions to librarians every month. In 2024–25, these suggestions focused on various events, such as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Pride Month, International Women’s Day, UN Spanish Language Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Key program impact statistics

Other key program impacts

No additional qualitative impact to report 

Supplementary information sources

• The NFB in Libraries

Channels available on the NFB’s online screening room:

• Indigenous Cinema
• Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge
• Indigenous-Made Animation Films
• Asian Communities in Canada
• Black Communities in Canada
• Films for Pride
• The Role of the English Community in Quebec
• L’Espace francophonie

GBA Plus data collection plan

For years now the NFB has been compiling statistics on general audience numbers by market, interactions with online audiences, and participation in festivals promoting gender equity and diversity. Since 2024, the NFB has been using Google Analytics as a data-collection tool to facilitate better monitoring of its media campaigns and better understanding of its target audience. This tool allows the NFB to classify its results according to the geographic origin of its audiences and nfb.ca page traffic. The NFB can thus monitor the direct impact of its media campaigns on its online views and analyze its costs per click, and then adjust its marketing strategies accordingly. By continuing to improve its tools and the way it uses them, the NFB can reach the widest possible audience, so that Canadians can see and hear the many voices and stories that come from every part of Canada.

Core responsibility: Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement

Program name: Promotion of Works and NFB Outreach

Program goals: This program is dedicated to making the NFB, NFB works that reflect the diversity of Canadian voices, and NFB filmmakers from across Canada better known. The NFB promotes its works and engages in outreach at major festivals in Canada and elsewhere, as well as on the national and international markets and at major industry events. It also engages in promotion and outreach through public relations and promotional activities in the cultural sector and the film industry, including public events and NFB participation in roundtables, competitions and award ceremonies.

Target population: All Canadians in all parts of Canada as well as the international public and NFB creators.

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group(s) to be monitored

Not available

Key program impacts* on gender and diversity

In 2024–25, NFB productions and co-productions and the filmmakers who created them received 93 awards and honours in Canada and abroad. Many of these awards, along with selections for festivals, highlighted films that provide diverse perspectives on ethnicity, religion, culture, disability, gender and sexuality.

• A Mother Apart, by Laurie Townshend, about poet and Black LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin, won three awards at Toronto’s Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, including Best Canadian Feature.
• Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, about a forgotten Black trans soul singer, won the Directors Guild of Canada Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs.
• Inkwo for When the Starving Return, an animated film by Amanda Strong, tells the story of Dove, a genderfluid young warrior who discovers the power and danger of their Inkwo (ancestral Indigenous medicine) as they battle terrifying, flesh-eating creatures. This film was an official selection at Sundance.
• Ninan Auassat: We, the Children (Ninan Auassat (Nous, les enfants))  by Kim O’Bomsawin, is a call to action for Indigenous youth to demand recognition and the chance to thrive on their own terms. It won the Magnus Isacsson Award at the Montreal International Documentary Festival.
• WaaPaKe (Tomorrow), a documentary by Jules Arita Koostachin, breaks the silence that has caused so much suffering for residential school Survivors. This film won critical acclaim at the Indie Awards in Los Angeles, where it received the Native Viewpoint Award for Indigenous Film Critic’s Best Overall Selection.

Beyond the many awards that the NFB received for its works, the participation of NFB representatives in industry meetings also helped to amplify its influence. In 2024–25, the Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the NFB spoke at various events, including the following.

• At Canada’s Creative Power, a conference organized by The Walrus, leaders of seven major Canadian cultural institutions discussed their impact on Canada’s creative communities and the world scene. The NFB’s Commissioner spoke about the important role that stories, art and culture play in shaping Canadian identity. She explained how films in particular help to build understanding among communities, which is crucial for democracy and the advancement of diversity and social integration.
• This year the Commissioner also spoke to members of Canada’s young creative industries at the 2024 Influence Summit: Technology and Responsible Creativity, where she participated in a panel on Quebec’s creative industries in the ESG (environment, society and governance) era. At this panel, she talked about the ESG actions that the NFB is taking, particularly regarding film production, and stressed the importance of the NFB’s sharing best practices with the rest of the film industry.

Key program impact statistics

Not available.

Other key program impacts

No additional qualitative impact to report.

Supplementary information sources

Not available.

GBA Plus data collection plan

For some years now, the NFB has been measuring the percentage of awards going to works created by women and Indigenous creators, as well as the coverage of these works in the national and international media. Since the implementation of its self-identification form, the NFB is now also able to determine the percentage of awards going to works by filmmakers from groups that have been underrepresented because of their racial or ethnic identity, disability, gender expression or membership in the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

Core responsibility: Internal Services

Program name: Internal Services

Program goals: Committed to promoting better ways of working together, the NFB develops actions to ensure the well-being of its staff and collaborators.

Target population: The employees of the NFB and its collaborators.

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group(s) to be monitored

Not available.

Key program impacts* on gender and diversity

In recent years the NFB has implemented a growing number of best practices regarding the environment, society and governance. In this regard, in 2024–25 it launched several new partnerships, projects and initiatives, including the following.

• The NFB joined Canada’s other main audiovisual organizations in establishing the Green Frame coalition, aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of film and television production. This coalition allows its member organizations to establish guidelines and share best practices.
• The NFB developed a framework for creating a wellness plan to support staff, filmmakers, production crews and film participants who may be exposed to various degrees of psychological stress. This plan provides support measures for anyone who might feel distress or discomfort because of the subject of a film, such as people who have experienced situations similar to those depicted in the film or have been victims of discrimination or come from marginalized communities.
• All NFB managers received training in compassionate, inclusive leadership. One goal of this training was to show managers simple gestures they could make every day to promote inclusion, as well as ways to offer equitable opportunities to all. The managers also completed the Intercultural Development Inventory, a psychometric assessment of their intercultural skills, then received an hour of individual coaching to set objectives for improving these skills.
• In 2024–25, the NFB conducted its very first survey of its EDI culture to measure employees’ perceptions of EDI—both in general terms and specifically regarding NFB leadership, policies and practices. The high participation rate enabled the EDI Employee Council and the EDI Champions Committee to identify and propose priorities for the coming year.
• The NFB Innovation Lab used artificial intelligence to develop chat agents designed to enhance reflection and discussion at a meeting of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Community of Practice, which brought together some 30 EDI professionals and included NFB staff members.

Key program impact statistics

Not available.

Other key program impacts

No additional qualitative impact to report.

Supplementary information sources

Not available.

GBA Plus data collection plan

Not available.

Scales

Gender scale

• First group: predominantly men (80% or more men)
• Second group: 60% to 79% men
• Third group: broadly gender-balanced
• Fourth group: 60% to 79% women
• Fifth group: predominantly women (80% or more women)

Income‑level scale

• First group: strongly benefits low‑income individuals (strongly progressive)
• Second group: somewhat benefits low‑income individuals (somewhat progressive)
• Third group: no significant distributional impacts
• Fourth group: somewhat benefits high‑income individuals (somewhat regressive)
• Fifth group: strongly benefits high‑income individuals (strongly regressive)

Age‑group scale

• First group: primarily benefits youth, children or future generations
• Second group: no significant intergenerational impacts or impacts on generations between youths and seniors
• Third group: primarily benefits seniors or the baby boom generation