Why mid-sized cities could be the future of Canadian film production
In a new report, filmmaker and producer J. Joly advocates for the decentralization of the Canadian film and TV industry.
As the cost of living continues to rise in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver, and along with it the cost of production, more filmmakers are turning their attention elsewhere. One of them is J. Joly, CEO and co-founder of prodco Branded to Film (B2F), who left Toronto during the pandemic to return to Kingston, Ontario, with an idea: What if mid-sized cities were to become the next generation of film production hubs in Canada?
Together with Canadian historian Joanne Archibald, Joly authored a report called the Hyperlocal Ontario Action Plan (HOAP), which aims to future-proof Ontario’s domestic film and TV sector. Using case studies from the making of two of Joly’s feature films — Den Mother Crimson and Doom Boogie — the report examines the practical challenges and opportunities for mid-sized cities like Kingston to grow into successful hubs.
Now & Next met with J. Joly to discuss the report and learn more about his vision for shifting the centre of Canadian film production to mid-sized cities.
How did mid-sized cities become the focus of your report, and of your vision for the industry?
I really love Kingston, and I always have. And when I was in my mid-20s I didn’t necessarily want to go to Toronto, but I had to if I wanted to work in film. At that time there was lots of domestic production in Toronto. I worked a lot. You could get permits anywhere. There was this real sense of creativity because a lot of us were aspiring independent filmmakers, and Toronto was still a very affordable place to live. But later, one of the pain points I came to realize is that low- and mid-level domestic producers can’t really afford to shoot in Toronto anymore.
During the pandemic I remembered my love affair with Kingston and moved back. What I realized was that mid-sized cities like Kingston represent the hope, affordability and efficiency, and those things that I first saw in Toronto in the late ’90s and early 2000s. You know, permits are still easy to get here, and the city wants to build a creative industry. That’s why I think we need to start deurbanizing the industry, to facilitate greater opportunity for independent, domestic and young filmmakers.
It’s not just about making movies; it’s actually about investing in the future. I want to make sure the next J. Joly, no matter who she is, can stay in her little town and do her stuff.
How would decentralizing film production away from major urban centres benefit the industry?
I use the example of Victoria, in B.C., as a case study in the report because it demonstrates it well. Last year, it was published that Kingston made roughly $2.6 million in production, which is what you would expect for a growing city like this. Victoria was making that around 2014. Five years later, in 2019, it was making $25 million in production. I asked the film commissioner there how they turned a $2- to $3-million industry into $25 million in just five years, and he told me that it basically started with someone like me — an independent producer who couldn’t afford to make his films in Vancouver came to Victoria. And his three small $1-million movies alone created a real catalyst effect.
Also, when you’re building a business, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. If you look at what happened in L.A., with the Palisades fires at the beginning of 2025, it was devastating for the industry. How do you shoot a movie when your friends’ houses are burning? Same thing with the COVID-19 pandemic. When everything was on lockdown in Toronto, Kingston and the Thousand Islands remained a green zone for a while because they were less congested. This aggregation in one place can cripple an industry. So, I think deurbanizing can create greater resiliency overall by dissipating the risk.
What are the “must‑haves” that distinguish a true production hub from a one‑off shoot location?
For a hyperlocal production hub to function, you need producers to actually live there. Because once everything is in your own backyard, that’s when things really start to grow. You don’t want producers from Toronto coming to your town, exploit it, and go back home to cut their movie. A true sector has both a worker labour class and a producer class. But how does a city attract filmmakers? You need a nighttime economy, a cultural scene, easy access to and from other cities. You need really good broadband. And to get a full-stack ecosystem, you build a film studio at the same time as building crew capacity.
What are the hardest skills or roles for mid‑sized cities to source locally and, in the longer term, to retain?
The hardest roles to source are what I would call specialized roles — special effects, stunts, pyrotechnicians, the people who blow stuff up, or gun wranglers. Those are harder to find because there aren’t many of them in the country. Then there are what we call the “above-the-liners,” meaning the directors, the actors, producers, etc. But when you look at a film crew, what’s interesting is that most of the roles are technical jobs, like sound, lighting, makeup, catering and so on. You can find that kind of talent in most mid-sized cities. For the online part, like the final mixing suite and the colour grading, that’s not something you’re going to find right away, and might have to start by sourcing these roles in Toronto or Montreal.
On our first film, Den Mother Crimson, the goal was to get 60 percent of the crew locally, and we managed to get to 63 percent. For the second film, Doom Boogie, we hit 87 percent of local hires. One of the ways we got there was to put out an open call for local actors, and we were able to find a lot of people that way. Part of the hyperlocal model is being able to control the creative side of things like that.
The model you propose envisions a revenue ecosystem that supports the creative sector and flows back into the community. Could you give examples of how that takes shape?
I find that film and art done successfully is when the private and the public come together. When we started the production company it was important for me to show that we could raise $1 million locally, and we raised $1.3 million. We targeted influential cultural and business leaders from the region who believed in our vision — to create a vital cultural sector that will attract and retain young people. The money we received from investors to power our small movies helped build a local crew, but it also went to local vendors and services, like restaurants, hotels, hardware stores, porta-potties, etc. You realize how much money flows back into a community when you start thinking in a hyperlocal way.
