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The Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) was formed on 10^th March 1967 by an act of parliament to ‘foster and promote the development of a feature film industry in Canada.’   This new corporation, which arose as the result of a memo sent from Michael Spencer to Jack Pickersgill, the then minister responsible for the National Film Board of Canada in September 1963, was given $10 million to invest in the national film industry as a loan thanks to the pressure brought upon the government by a number of the country’s filmmakers.   Spencer would become the first Executive Director of the new organisation – which operated out of offices based in Montreal and Toronto – in March 1969 after first performing the duties of acting secretary.

Under Spencer’s leadership, the CFDC invested in a number of low-budget English and French films in an attempt to establish a viable film industry in Canada.   In 1971 the government allocated a further $10 million to the Corporation.  In the early 1970s, however, the CFDC found itself under mounting commercial pressures as many of the films it helped finance were never seen by Canadians, and by 1973 it was clear that the corporation was in favour of co-producing films with other countries where possible.

 In 1976, the government increased the corporation’s budget to $25 million and decided to finance it with an annual parliamentary appropriation.   Michael McCabe replaced Michael Spencer as Executive Director in 1978, and reinforced the policy of financing international co-productions as well as encouraging the use of foreign stars and favouring producer initiated (rather than director-driven) projects.

 McCabe increased investment in Canadian feature films from $19 million in 1977 to $165 million in 1980 thanks to shrewd use of the Capital Cost allowance tax, but many completed films were not released and production of truly domestic-made films practically ceased completely.

 In 1980 Michael McCabe was replaced by André Lamy, who set about attempting to rectify the problems created by the Capital Cost Allowance tax.   In 1983 the Canadian Broadcast Program Development Fund was established.   With the aim of revitalising Canadian television, the fund allocated £245 million over a five-year period towards films mainly co-financed by TV networks, the private sector and the CFDC.  The arrangement effectively overcame the distribution problems that had blighted the domestic film industry until then, and guaranteed the broadcasting of Canadian films, while reducing the airtime of imported programmes (which was as high as 85% during prime time viewing hours).   In 1983 the government also raised the CFDC’s budget by a further $5 million.

 In order to reflect the Corporation’s increasing investment in television production, its name was changed in 1984 to Telefilm Canada and new offices were opened in Vancouver and Halifax.   Peter Pearson replaced André Lamy as executive director in 1985, the year that saw the Film Industry Task Force’s ‘Canadian Cinema – A Solid Base,’ a report which resulted in the formation of the Feature Film Fund in 1986.   Assisted by a Feature Film Distribution Fund established in 1988, the Feature Film Fund’s aim was to provide finance for the production of domestic theatrical feature films.

 The internship of Pierre Des Roches, who replaced Peter Pearson as executive director in 1988 heralded an era which saw Telefilm assume a shift in focus from a subsidiser of film production to an investor.   The Broadcast Fund achieved permanent status in the same year that Des Roches took the helm, with an annual budget of $60 million.   The organisation’s investment in television proved to be more successful than its ventures into film; although a number of domestic films won awards at major film festivals, commercial success proved elusive, although by the late 90s Québec films did account for as much as 20 per cent of the local market. 

 In 2000, the new Canadian Feature Film Policy – From Script to Screen – came into being, and Telefilm was responsible for administering the new Canada Feature Film Fund.   The CFFF came into operation on 1^st April 2001 with an annual budget of $100 million and a brief to increase Canadian and international audiences by improving marketing and distribution of domestic product.

 By 2005 Canadian films accounted for 5% of domestic box office, in line with a target set by executive director Richard Stursberg in 2002, but English-language Canadian product still only made up 1% of the marketplace.  The previous year, Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), a film financially backed by Telefilm Canada, won Canada’s first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In November 2009, Telefilm Canada and CBC announced that they would co-finance domestic movies that would be shown on the TV company's channel shortly after receiving a theatrical release.

In April 2010, the organisation announced that it would provide more than $25 million financing for French-language films through the Canada Feature Film Fund.

 The importance of Telefilm’s role in the development of the Canadian film and television industry is undeniable, but it is widely believed that its effectiveness has been undermined by uncertainty as to whether it's primarily a cultural or commercial agency.

CFDC/Telefilm key personnel

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