These power players are shaping the future of movies and television north of the border.
Amid unprecedented disruption, Canada’s most influential corporate and creative leaders stepped up to reshape the business this year. Whether confronting Donald Trump’s tariff threats and “51st state” taunts, safeguarding IP and content libraries from the rise of AI or launching the next Canadian TV hit globally, these decision-makers led with strategy, resilience and vision.
“The biggest challenge in 2025 has been navigating the significant uncertainty and ‘noise’ facing both consumers and advertisers,” says Sean Cohan, president of Bell Media, the media and entertainment division of telecom giant BCE.
But there’s no slowing down. U.S. digital giants continue to tighten their grip on Canada’s media landscape even as cord-cutting and cord-nevers erode the audience share of private Canadian broadcasters. Netflix and Prime Video are aggressively chasing Canadian TV ad dollars, drawing revenue from traditional and emerging local platforms.
Against that backdrop of disruption and competition, meet the Canadian power players driving the industry forward — and gain insight into the hows and whys of their biggest wins and challenges.
Clement Virgo
Canadian film and TV director
From his first feature film, Rude, which premiered at Cannes in 1995, Virgo has been among Canada’s leading auteurs. He’s back at TIFF this year with the erotic thriller Steal Away, continuing his cinematic perspective as a Black filmmaker. That’s a point of view that extends to his extensive episodic work, including on TV dramas like HBO’s The Wire, Ryan Murphy and Netflix’s Monster, Billions for Showtime and the drama Greenleaf. for OWN. That TV work helps pay the bills as financing indie movies remains a challenge, but so, too, does getting films discovered in the streaming era: “My biggest challenge in 2025 has been the same challenge I’ve had from the start: How do I finance and realize the films that I want to make? It’s easier to practically make a film than when I started out, but it’s more challenging to get that film seen in a crowded marketplace.”
Clement Virgo’s Steal Away, starring Mallori Johnson (left) and Angourie Rice Courtesy of TIFF