Jacques Bobet

Jacques Bobet OC (1919–1996) was a French filmmaker who played a key role in the National Film Board of Canada's move into French language filmmaking.

Bobet joined the National Film Board (NFB) in 1947, at a time when 90% of the NFB staff was English-speaking, and its French Unit found it hard to retain French Canadian filmmakers. Bobet worked to strengthen the French Unit and retain French talent, and was appointed producer of French versions in 1951. By 1956, when he was named executive producer of the newly created Versions Unit, he had been involved in versioning approximately 500 films. That same year, the NFB's headquarters was relocated from Ottawa to Montreal, improving the NFB's reputation in French Canada and making the NFB more attractive to French-speaking filmmakers. In 1959, Bobet assumed responsibility for producing more original French-language films. In 1964, a separate French production branch was finally established, with Bobet as one of the four executive producers.^[1][2][3]

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