National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; French: Office national du film du Canada, ONF) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 43,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.

The Exhibits and Publicity Bureau was founded on 19 September 1918, and was reorganized into the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau in 1923. The organization's budget stagnated and declined during the Great Depression.

Frank Badgley, who served as the bureau's director from 1927 to 1941, stated that the bureau needed to transition to sound films or else it would lose its access to theatrical releases, but the organization did not gain the equipment until 1934, and by then it had lost its theatrical distributors. Badgley was able to get a 16 mm film facility for the bureau in 1931. The bureau was reorganized into the National Film Board of Canada on 11 June 1941, following John Grierson's recommendation.

Ross McLean was working as the secretary to High Commissioner Vincent Massey when he met Grierson, and asked for Grierson to come to Canada to aide in the governmental film policy. Grierson made a report on the Canadian film industry in 1938, and the National Film Act, which he drafted, was passed on 2 May 1939 causing the creation of the NFB. The position of Film Commissioner was left vacant for months, as Ned Corbett declined the appointment, until Grierson, who proposed Badgley and Walter Turnbull for the position, accepted the position for six months in October 1939, but served until 1945. Grierson selected McLean to work as assistant commissioner and Stuart Legg to oversee the productions. Grierson sent in a letter of resignation on 27 November 1940, in protest of the CGMPB and NFB not being merged, but agreed to stay on for another six months and the merger happened. Employment rose from 55 to 787 from 1941 to 1945, although it was cut by 40% after the war ended.

The Case of Charlie Gordon was the NFB's first English-language film and Un du 22e was its first French-language film. In 1944, Grierson established twelve units to handle production; The World in Action and Canada Carries On, Industrial Relations, Health and Rehabilitation, Newsreel and Armed Forces, Animation, Dominion-Provincial, Travel and Outdoors, Armed Services, Foreign Language Programme, French Language Programme, Agriculture, and Education. Employees were contracted for three months as Grierson believed that job security hurt organizational creativity, but most employees worked longer than three months.

Grierson made efforts to increase the theatrical distribution of NFB films, primarily its war-related films, as he was coordinating wartime information for the United Kingdom in North America. Famous Players aided in distribution and the Canadian Motion Picture War Services Committee, which worked with the War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry, was founded in 1940. NFB productions such as The World in Action was watched by 30-40 million people per month in the United Kingdom and United States in 1943, and Canada Carries On was watched by 2.25 million people by 1944. The audience for NFB newsreels reached 40-50 million per week by 1944. In 1942, the NFB and the Wartime Information Board organized 30 film circuits that would bring NFB films to 20 rural areas once a month. By 1945, this number grew to 92 circuits with an attendance of 2,220 per circuit.

Grierson opposed feature film production as he believed that Canada did not have a large enough market for an independent feature film industry. He supported working with American film companies and stated that "the theatre film business is an international business, dependent when it comes to distribution on an alliance or understanding with American film interests". He travelled to Hollywood in 1944, and the NFB sent scripts to American companies for consideration.

With 800 employees in 1945, the NFB was one of the largest film studios in the world.