Tom Permutter
Film Commissioner and Chair
National Film Board
A fervent advocate of groundbreaking and socially engaged independent cinema, Tom Perlmutter becomes on June 11th 2007, the 15th Government Film Commissioner and Chair of the National Film Board.
Since joining the NFB in 2001 as Director General, English Program, Mr. Perlmutter hasa been one of the organization’s leading ambassadors at the national and international levels. He has notably revitalized documentary and animation programming, forged critical ties with important partners abroad and provided greater accessibility to up-and-coming filmmakers and those from cultural minorities. He also led the NFB through major technological advances in terms of multiplatform production. Under his aegis, the NFB has won many prestigious nominations and awards, including its first Emmy® nomination as well as four Oscar® nominations and two Oscar® wins.
Mr. Perlmutter enjoyed a prestigious career in the Canadian film industry before becoming a member of the NFB team. As the founding head of documentaries at Barna-Alper Productions, today one of Canada's top production houses, he created and produced the award-winning history series, The Turning Points of History, and created the seminal mini-series, The Sexual Century. In addition he supervised and produced The Body: Inside Stories and countless documentary one-offs. He also initiated Barna-Alper's first international co-productions. In 1999 he became a partner in Primitive Entertainment and created and produced a number of distinctive documentaries including the eight-part series, The Team, which he co-directed.
Mr. Perlmutter previously partnered with one of Canada's most noted documentarists, John Walker,
on several award-winning documentaries. Prior to this, he was director of creative development for
CineNova Productions where he worked with many of the world's leading broadcasters, and executive director of Alliance for Children and Television from 1993 to 1995. He has also worked as a writer and reporter, with a number of articles and publications to his credit, and is the former editor-in-chief of the Toronto bureau of the trade magazine Cinema Canada.