The 1980s were a frontier of new opportunity for Canadian filmmaking. This period saw the rise of an unprecedented number of acclaimed Canadian filmmakers whose stature remains uncontested today. The vast majority of them have their roots within the film production centre system.

The Toronto New Wave and Prairie Post Modernism were two filmmaking movements of the 1980s and early ’90s that characterize this era in Anglo-Canadian cinema. New funding and programming initiatives promoted the trajectories of these independent Canadian directors, many of whom remained working in Canada.

This panel will consider the unique conditions that existed at the time to foster the talents of the independent Anglo-Canadian directors of the 1980s and early '90s, as well as their collective influence on the generations of filmmakers that came after them.

Panel moderator: Jonathan Ball