Tom Perlmutter (born September 6, 1948) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

film and digital media writer and producer who was the 15th Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

, from May 17, 2007, to December 31, 2013.

NFB career

During his tenure as NFB commissioner, Perlmutter spearheaded the move by Canada's public producer into

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

production and

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, and developed its NFB.ca online screening room. He reallocated 20% of the NFB's production budget to

interactive media Interactive media refers to digital experiences that dynamically respond to user input, delivering content such as Text (literary theory), text, images, animations, video, Sound, audio, and even Artificial intelligence, AI-driven interactions. O ...

and committed the NFB to

digitizing Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english ...

60% of its most popular films over a five-year period. Perlmutter also started the NFB's Digital Studios, focusing on interactive works, based in Vancouver (for English-language works) and Montreal (for French productions). He had been appointed to the post by

Canadian Heritage The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage (), is the department of the Government of Canada that has roles and responsibilities related to initiatives that promote and support "Canadian identity and values, cultural develo ...

Minister Bev Oda, and began serving his first term on May 17, 2007. On May 8, 2012, Heritage Minister James Moore announced that Perlmutter was reappointed to the post of commissioner for a second term, until 2017. In his statement, Moore cited Perlmutter's "wealth of experience and leadership... s dedication to the film industry and his commitment to the NFB's digitization initiative" as reasons for the reappointment. On December 10, 2013, the NFB announced that Perlmutter would step down as NFB head to advise and write about the impact of technology on content creation and the challenges facing the public sector in the 21st century. On February 27, 2014, the NFB announced that Perlmutter's employment had ended and he was no longer with the organization in any capacity. Perlmutter had previously served as its head of the NFB's English Program since 2001. During his time as head of English Program, he led one the NFB's first forays into

mobile content Mobile content is any type of web hypertext and information content and electronic media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like text, sound, ringtones, graphics, flash, discount offers, mobile games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile p ...

, with its 2006 series '' Shorts in Motion''.

Pre-NFB

Prior to joining the NFB, his private sector film experience included serving as the founding head of documentaries at Barna-Alper Productions. A former writer and editor of the trade magazine ''

Cinema Canada ''Cinema Canada'' (1972–1989) is a defunct Canadian film magazine, which served as the trade journal of record for the Canadian film and television sector. The magazine had its origins in the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC), which be ...

'', Perlmutter had also served as executive director of the Alliance for Children and Television and as head of development at CineNova Productions in Toronto. In 2000, he cofounded the Toronto-based Primitive Entertainment.

Early life and education

Perlmutter was born on September 6, 1948, in Hungary. He arrived in Montreal with his mother at age four, after a brief time in Israel. He has an MBA from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. He also attended

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and spent a decade working in Britain in publishing before returning to Canada to work in documentary film.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlmutter, Tom Government Film Commissioners and Chairpersons of the National Film Board of Canada Film producers from Quebec Canadian documentary film producers Hungarian emigrants to Canada 1948 births Living people University of Toronto alumni Canadian film critics