Ontario Studio

Located in Toronto, serving Ontario.

Based in Toronto, the Ontario Studio produces innovative works that push boundaries, champion original perspectives, and affect significant cultural and social impact. We actively collaborate with the most creative talent from across Ontario’s independent film landscape including directors, producers, editors, designers and more, to produce and coproduce award-winning, critically acclaimed documentaries for the world stage. Most of our slate is made up of features and short form documentaries.

We are a full production studio with three producers – Sherien Barsoum, Justine Pimlott and Kate Vollum (interim). The studio has approximately 20-25 projects underway from early development to post-production at any point in time. We champion creative non-fiction that pushes the form of documentary and are a pioneering producer of such ground-breaking works as Stories We Tell, The Book of Distance and What Walaa Wants. Our projects emphasise point-of-view storytelling, highlighting the diversity of Canadian perspectives that resonate at home and abroad.

Project proposals are reviewed quarterly in March, June, September, and December. We prefer to review projects early, in their pre-development or development stages.

What to submit

For directors (100% NFB productions)

  • Identify what stage the project is at along with your goals for working with us
  • Project synopsis (8 lines max).
  • Overview (1–3 pages) of the story, creative treatment and your point of view. Why do you want to tell this story? What perspective are you bringing to it?
  • An overview of the intended audience: Who are they, where are they most likely to see this work, and why is it relevant to them?
  • Your CV (including a list of previous projects) and samples of or links to previous work.

For co-producers (national and international)

  • All items listed above and;
  • Development budget, financing (confirmed and anticipated) and chain of title documentation.

Indigenous projects

We are accepting projects on Indigenous stories and subject matter only if they are directed by Indigenous creators.

Questions and project submissions can be directed to O.Info@nfb.ca.

Chanda Chevannes
Executive Producer, Ontario Studio
Sherien Barsoum
Producer, Ontario Studio
Kate Vollum
Acting Producer, Ontario Studio