Canada’s Top 25 Entertainment Dealmakers of 2026

What’s happened to Canadian film and TV during the past year was so pivotal, you could put it on a bumper sticker. Donald Trump threatening Canada with economic tariffs and 51st-state taunts unleashed a groundswell of Canadian patriotism. Borrowing from hockey, an “Elbows up!” movement followed, as audiences countrywide embraced homegrown movies and TV shows. Producers behind breakout hits like Heated Rivalry and Backrooms became rare Canadian talents that Hollywood covets, while Canadian financiers found new ways to make local media content for world markets — without relying on Hollywood.

Whether it’s Mike Myers mouthing the words “Elbows up!” on Saturday Night Live, Bryan Adams singing his “51st State” song or creators building global careers beyond Hollywood, Canada is having a cultural moment. The Hollywood Reporter looks at the 25 executives, producers and creatives behind this flashpoint with our second annual list of the 25 top dealmakers and decision-makers north of the border.

Michele Austin

President and managing director, Motion Picture Association Canada

In January, Austin became the top lobbyist for Hollywood studios in Canada, while navigating the Canadian government’s effort to compel U.S. streamers to subsidize local content production as part of the Online Streaming Act. Then Ottawa dramatically reversed course in an effort to not antagonize Trump during trade negotiations. Like many Canadian decision-makers, Austin says the local industry needs more stability in the face of multiple challenges happening simultaneously, from American streaming dominance to Trump bullying. “A rising tide lifts all boats, and Canadian policymakers, the business community and entertainment sector leaders need to work together to stabilize policies to attract long-term investment to our industry,” Austin says, pointing to global competitiveness as the industry’s biggest challenge. Her guilty Canadian content pleasure? Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing, a Netflix figure skating documentary. 

Cameron Bailey

CEO, Toronto International Film Festival

As CEO of TIFF — among the top film festivals internationally in terms of prestige and awards season impact — Bailey oversees the film programming and overall management of the world’s largest public film festival each September. TIFF annually screens 300 films from roughly 75 countries and attracts around 750,000 moviegoers to its star-studded premieres. This year, TIFF is set to launch its first official media content market for international buyers and sellers. The global industry will be watching closely to see if the festival’s gamble on a content market will pay off, especially with AFM right around the corner in early November.

Nicole Bell

Head of Canada, YouTube 

Bell wasn’t surprised by the breakout box office for the YouTube-to-multiplex directors of Backrooms (Kane Parsons) and Obsession (Curry Barker). “Those who understand YouTube culture were confident they would be successful,” says Bell. As head of Canada at YouTube since January, she looks for new Canadian indie voices and helps proven homegrown creators like Lilly Singh, Aysha Harun, AsapSCIENCE and Doctor Mike reach a global audience. “We see that Canadian creators continue to export their content at an extraordinary rate,” Bell adds. Her guilty pleasure? “Forever and always Degrassi.”

Sean Cohan

President, Bell Media

Cohan’s Bell Media has long sought Canadian TV hits to go up against dominant U.S. platforms in Canada like Netflix and YouTube. Then a breakout gay hockey drama came along. Bell Media partnered with HBO Max for Heated Rivalry and with Canal+ for the Quebec-made international standout Empathie. “Both are great examples of how Canadian stories and creators can go toe-to-toe globally when you give them the platform and resources to realize their vision,” Cohan says. Bell Media struck partnerships with Lionsgate, Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures and Elliot Page’s Pageboy Productions for yet more original IP destined for international markets. 

Valerie Creighton

President and CEO, Canada Media Fund

As Canada’s largest indie TV financier, the CMF struck gold when it invested in Heated Rivalry. Now Creighton is taking a victory lap: “I’m not above a little boasting. Seeing the CMF’s logo in that credit-roll sequence at the end of Heated Rivalry‘s first season filled me with pride.” That international audience underpinned her strategy to support Canadian producers turning homegrown series into global sales. The CMF’s track record is impressive — it also backed local TV exports like Schitt’s Creek and CBC/Netflix’s North of North. But for Creighton, she says there’s no rest for a Canadian TV industry facing the continuing challenge of “steering through an unprecedented transition and staying unified.”

Chris Ferguson

Producer, founder, Oddfellows Entertainment

Gen Z flocked to Backrooms, which Ferguson produced for $10 million. After Kane Parsons’ thriller became a global box office phenom, taking in $395 million, Ferguson and his Oddfellows Entertainment banner signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Picture Group for projects he brings to the Hollywood studio. Ferguson’s advice to local producers is to look beyond Canadian borders to survive: “The entertainment industry in Canada used to be able to survive on the domestic market alone. That’s becoming less and less feasible,” he argues.

John Gossling

CEO, Corus Entertainment

Gossling knows the perils and profits of traditional pay TV and has positioned the Canadian broadcast giant to revamp its business model for the streaming age. That means series volume must give way to “purposeful investment decisions that are grounded in audience demand and deliver meaningful engagement,” he says. This strategy is seeing Corus move beyond linear cable channels to provide content for local streaming platforms like StackTV, Teletoon+, Vivéo and the Global TV App. Trump’s U.S. tariff war on Canada led Corus to embrace rising nationalism north of the border, with multiplatform features like Proudly Canadian and Bye American, Buy Canadian. 

Suzanne Guèvremont

Government film commissioner and chairperson, National Film Board of Canada

Guèvremont oversees Canada’s publicly funded producer with the dual challenge of honoring a pioneering Academy Award-winning cultural institution — the NFB boasts 12 Oscars to its name — while driving the organization hard into the digital age. Breaking new ground, Montrealers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski won this year’s Oscar for best animated short for their stop-motion fable The Girl Who Cried Pearls, produced by the NFB. The public institution released 41 new productions in the past year, spanning animation and documentaries and featuring creators and stories from across the country. That includes a focus on creators from Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, Black and other underrepresented communities.

Emily Harris

Executive vp, business and legal affairs and operations, Lionsgate Canada

The Canadian government, by deciding against Canadian content spending requirements from U.S. streamers, has complicated future planning for Harris and Lionsgate Canada. “While I’m proud of the work our industry continues to produce and the success Canadian content is achieving globally, regulatory uncertainty remains a challenge,” she says. Having absorbed Entertainment One in Canada into Lionsgate after a 2024 merger deal, Harris launched new headquarters in Toronto and added around 6,500 film and TV titles to the studio’s content library. Her guilty pleasure is Heated Rivalry, but “with two young kids in my house, we’re more likely to be watching Wild Kratts!”

Alistair Hepburn

National executive director, Directors Guild of Canada

Canadian film and TV are having a moment, but Hepburn says local content makers won’t thrive if their work can’t be found. “We create extraordinary work, but great storytelling only succeeds if people can discover it. Building those audiences is one of the most important investments we can make in the future of our industry,” says Hepburn, who became head of the DGC Canada in February. He represents around 7,000 Canadian directors, editors, craftspeople and other key Canadian creatives and crews. His most immediate challenge? AI: “Technology should amplify artists, not diminish authorship behind a veil of convenience.”  

Marie Kelly

National executive director and chief negotiator, ACTRA

When the Hollywood studios and Canadian indie producers negotiate new labor deals for local performers, Kelly is the person sitting on the other side of the bargaining table. Kelly, who represents more than 30,000 Canadian performers, says digital doubles, voice replication and AI-generated actors represent the biggest threat to her union members. “No issue is as existential to performers as unchecked — and lawless — artificial intelligence abuse,” she says. Kelly has been key in securing stronger actor protections around AI-generated performances and residuals. “AI must never become a loophole to use a performer’s voice, image or work without permission or pay. Consent, compensation and control must be non-negotiable,” she emphasizes. 

Adam Levine

Co-founding partner, Verve

Canadian creatives are seizing and sustaining Hollywood careers they previously only fantasized about thanks to this Montrealer. From his Los Angeles co-founding perch at the Verve talent agency, he’s helped Canadian writers, directors and producers find work on both sides of the 49th parallel and elsewhere internationally. His Canadian talent roster includes the Final Destination: Bloodlines writing-directing duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Sherren Lee (Float, Cross), Allan Ungar (Bandit) and Chris Yost (The Mandalorian, Thor: Ragnarok). “I’ve seen firsthand that Canadian talent no longer has to choose between working in Canada and succeeding globally,” Levine says. 

Michael MacMillan

CEO and director, Blue Ant Media

MacMillan says “adapting to a domestic Canadian TV market that is getting smaller” necessitates a strategic shift to find “access to international markets.” The company extends the reach of its programming through YouTube, social media and its own digital platforms while also operating a growing portfolio of FAST channels and the MagellanTV subscription streaming service. Over the course of the past two and a half years, Blue Ant has expanded its YouTube business from two channels to 50 in 11 languages. In 2025, Blue Ant oversaw around $145 million in original productions. MacMillan’s guilty TV pleasure: Megan Park’s YA series Sterling Point on Prime Video.

Reynolds Mastin

CEO, Canadian Media Producers Association

How industry disruption plays out in Hollywood is a focus for Mastin, as his trade association represents Canadian independent producers. “From market consolidation to trade negotiations to regulatory policy, what we need most right now is stability so producers can plan with confidence instead of worrying about what’s next around the corner,” he says. Mastin says Trump’s tariff war and 51st-state taunts have inspired the Canadian industry to raise its game: “It’s reinforced how important it is for Canada to have a strong, independent domestic production sector that isn’t dependent on what happens south of the border or anywhere else in the world.”

Mark Montefiore

Founder and CEO, New Metric Media 

Montefiore is among Canada’s biggest TV hitmakers. He’s hatched comedies like Letterkenny, Shoresy and Children Ruin Everything. Echoing what many of his peers have said about the Canadian industry’s uncertainty at the moment, Montefiore notes the biggest challenge facing Canadian creators is that “our system isn’t built to move fast nor to encourage innovation or risk-taking. Now is the time to double down to take advantage of the instability.” To that end, New Metric has diversified and adapted, expanding into live events (Letterkenny Live and Shoresy Classic), consumer products, gaming and podcasts by acquiring Vancouver-based producer Kelly&Kelly. Montefiore says positioning the Canadian industry for global growth can’t come fast enough: “I’m energized and emboldened to see Canadians start finding more innovative ways to work together but also independently.” 

John Morayniss

CEO, Blink49 Studios

With a global entertainment sector in transition, Morayniss sees the Canadian industry needing to quicken its embrace of change and take chances. Risk-taking at Blink49 Studios is paying off with Canadian scripted series like Don’t Even, Late Bloomer and Sight Unseen as well as reality series like Blue Collar. More is on the way via first-look deals with Andrew Phung and Scott Townend, creators of the CW sitcom Run the Burbs; Will Arnett’s Electric Avenue; Emma Roberts’ Belletrist Productions; and Punctuation Media. Says Morayniss: “In a borderless global content economy, Canada needs more well-capitalized media companies with the creative expertise, distribution and infrastructure to take meaningful risks on Canadian talent and IP.”

Aren Prupas

President and CEO, Muse Entertainment

Indie studio Muse Entertainment has a long track record in scripted event projects like miniseries The Kennedys for Reelz, Three Pines for Amazon Prime Video and Sullivan’s Crossing for The CW, Fremantle and Netflix. But making global hits these days is complicated by tightening production budgets internationally and regulatory reversals at home. “For an industry that depends on long-term investment and predictable financing, uncertainty has consequences,” says Prupas, who is based in Montreal and has satellite offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Prupas’ favorite Canadian movie? Bill Murray’s summer camp classic Meatballs. “My brothers and I must have watched it a hundred times growing up,” he says.

Roma Roth

President, Reel World Management

Like many in the Canadian entertainment industry, Roth says much of the instability created by Trump’s antagonism toward Canada has been a double-edged sword. “The threat of tariffs has created a fear of what might come, which has caused U.S. studios to become hesitant to film in or invest in Canada,” she says. “This creates a sense of job insecurity for our crews, but it’s also had a positive impact as it’s created a new surge in Canadian pride and nationalism.” Roth is particularly proud of the CW romantic drama Sullivan’s Crossing, which she produces and has helped put a lesser-known shooting destination on the map: “What I love about the show is that it puts Nova Scotia and the amazing talent there front and center.”

Julie Roy

CEO and executive director, Telefilm Canada 

With Canadian indie film dependent on government support to drive dealmaking, Roy is the queen of financiers. Telefilm invests around $150 million each year in indie homegrown films while also promoting them at international festivals and markets with a flag-waving Canada pavilion. The goal is championing diverse storytellers in the world market. “Rapid industry disruption is reshaping the audiovisual sector to remain competitive and influential. We must continue to create opportunities to strengthen international partnerships, expand into emerging markets and elevate Canada’s global presence through export and cultural diplomacy efforts,” Roy explains. Her guilty Canadian pleasure? The “record-breaking global phenomenon” that is Heated Rivalry (again!).

Noah Segal

President, Elevation Pictures

Segal, who runs the country’s top indie film distributor, sees co-production treaties and tax credits helping ease industry upheaval. “If Americans are serious about co-productions as the path forward, they need to understand it’s a two-way street — shared IP, shared risk, shared reward — and for us, that’s exactly the ownership model Canada has been fighting to establish for decades,” he says. That partnership model led to two recent Elevation releases: the irreverent musical Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie and the doc Run Terry Run, Sean Menard’s look at Terry Fox’s 1980 Marathon of Hope. Says Segal: “One film is audaciously creative and wildly entertaining; the other will stop you in your tracks and remind you why Canadian stories matter.”

Stephanie Shinkoda

Co-country manager, Canada, and vp distribution, Sony Pictures Entertainment Canada

Shinkoda says she needs agility and innovation to distribute Sony movies and TV series into a disrupted Canadian market. “Weaving together deals is increasingly complex,” she reports. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is soaring in Canadian cinemas (after a $360 million North American opening weekend, the film has taken in $2.1 billion worldwide), and Shinkoda negotiated a first-time streaming deal with Bell Media to get the iconic game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune to online audiences. And she secured licensing deals in Canada for Starz’s S.W.A.T. Exiles, the MGM+ crime anthology series American Hostage and the British drama Up to No Good, starring Glenn Close. Her favorite Canadian film is Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. “It was distinctly Canadian and so proudly set in Toronto, my hometown,” she says.

Douglas Smith

Executive vp, CBC/Radio Canada

Smith broke free of Hollywood in early 2026 and now reaps the rewards. After overseeing local launches of Paramount+ and Pluto TV while at Paramount Canada, Smith became the top programmer at CBC/Radio Canada, Canada’s public broadcaster that eschews American TV series for homegrown programming. “This is our moment. The world needs more Canada,” Smith says of the country’s patriotism in the face of Trump’s tariffs war and taunts. As for the Canadian industry’s biggest ongoing challenge: “Same answer every year: pivoting, again. Being nimble and finding new ways to get new ideas and projects into production and onto screens.”

Karen Thorne-Stone

President and CEO, Ontario Creates

The major studios and streamers have deep roots in Canada’s most populous province. Here’s how that happens: Thorne-Stone’s Ontario Creates offers generous tax credits on top of currency savings to keep Reacher, Ginny & Georgia and The Boys shooting locally. She also has incentives and IP funds for Ontario producers behind the province’s film, TV and interactive digital media sectors. That’s no easy feat: “Industry consolidation, cost pressures and uncertainty about the U.S. market have made it challenging to finance projects and secure green lights for all the great content in development,” says Thorne-Stone, whose favorite Canadian TV show is Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. “I get to see the story playing out in neighborhoods that are so familiar to me.” 

Jacob Tierney & Brendan Brady

Co-founders, Accent Aigu Entertainment

Tierney and Brady turned their extensive Canadian industry experience into a global phenomenon: Heated Rivalry. Click here for the story behind Tierney and Brady’s Accent Aigu, THR‘s International Producers of the Year.

Danielle Woodrow & Tara Woodbury

Directors of content, Netflix Canada

Thanks to Netflix, global audiences have discovered locally produced series like the Indigenous comedy North of North and the thriller Wayward from creator Mae Martin. Woodrow says continued success for Canadian creators begins and ends with connecting with global audiences. “If Canada can consistently make shows people genuinely want to watch, most other challenges become more manageable,” she says. Think shows like Schitt’s Creek and Kim’s Convenience, which both caught fire worldwide without giving up their distinctively Canadian sensibilities. “There are so many challenges — some new, some old,” she adds. “But the key is staying focused on delivering high-quality shows.”

This story appeared in the Sept. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.