Welcome to Durham Region’s Film and Television Industry

Durham Region plays a significant role in Ontario’s film and television multi-billion-dollar industry with a unique mix of industrial, urban, and rural locations that can be used as sets taking place in a different time periods. Its proximity to the Toronto film and television cluster and existing natural and cultural heritage assets offers the potential for a wide range of film, television, commercial and music video productions.

The region’s diverse geography offers a variety of locations from quaint downtowns, historic and modern buildings, rural settings, airports, marshes, rivers, lakes, and a deep-water harbour on Lake Ontario to rustic train stations, quarries, woodlands, parks, a western movie set and film studios. Home to Canada’s largest filming backlot operated by Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV (formerly William F White), and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park’s racing and automotive performance facility, a film production company can capture the perfect scene within an hour’s drive of downtown Toronto. The unions and guilds providing film crews, cast, directors and producers working in the film and television industry have many members that live in Durham, while hundreds of businesses provide a range of products and services required by the industry.

Since the film office opened in 2012, the film and television industry has been growing strong in Durham Region with production value increasing 15% annually from $19.7M in 2012 to $76.9M in 2022. The number of production days for grew at rate of 10% each year from 224 to 598. Major domestic and foreign studios bringing their projects to Durham are Disney, CBS, Paramount, Amazon, Netflix, Shaftesbury, CBC, Apple TV, and MGM. Well known film and TV series filmed here includes Anne with an E, Murdoch Mysteries, Defiance, Reacher, Schitt’s Creek, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thanksgiving, The Handmaid’s Tale, American Gods, The Marsh King’s Daughter, The Umbrella Academy, The Way Home, and the Oscar-winning film Women Talking.

Film Durham, a film commission under Durham Region’s Economic Development and Tourism Division, is the main point of contact for the film and television industry and acts as a one-stop- shop supporting the many projects that come film locally. Working collaboratively with Durham’s area municipalities, productions are provided with seamless, efficient, and timely service to help projects be completed on time and on budget, no matter where they are shooting in the region. As a member of the Ontario Green Screen Advisory Committee (organization of screen-based industries and government agencies) it supports their plan for sustainable film and television production in Ontario. For more information, please visit the Film Durham website.