Raison d’être, Mandate and Role: Who We Are and What We Do – 2021-2022

Raison d’être

Created in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a federal agency under the Department of Canadian Heritage. Its mandate is to create, produce, and distribute distinctive and original audiovisual works that reflect the diverse realities and perspectives of Canadians, and to share these works with the people of Canada and the rest of the world.

Mandate and Role

The NFB is governed by the National Film Act and a series of other statutes, including the Financial Administration Act (which sets out the government’s financial administration structure and process), the Access to Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Official Languages Act and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act.

As Canada’s public producer and distributor of audiovisual works, the NFB documents the history and culture of the nation, offering special insight into its diversity and vitality. It collaborates with emerging and established filmmakers, creators and co-producers in every region of Canada, from Indigenous, linguistic, racialized and underrepresented groups, to ensure that as many voices as possible can express themselves, and that the greatest number of points of view are seen. It seizes the artistic and technological opportunities that arise in the media landscape and invests in new creative forms in documentary, auteur animation and interactive media. Creativity and social relevance are the core features of its productions. Over the years, the NFB has set clear commitments with regard to gender parity, racial equity, and diversity and inclusion.

The NFB fulfills its role as a distributor by making sure that its works resonate and find a place with ever-growing numbers of people in Canada and around the world, on a variety of traditional and virtual distribution networks. This is particularly important, as these works embody a range of unique perspectives and creative approaches, provoke discussion, and lead to debate and dialogue within Canada and abroad.

For more general information about the NFB, see the “Supplementary information” section of this report. For more information on the department’s organizational mandate-letter commitments, see the Minister’s mandate letter.