You may know Film.ca for its always hilarious social media presence, often featuring CEO, founder and yes, also Regional and Town Councillor, Jeff Knoll.
Film.ca is much more than just a cinema: They offer filmmaking and acting classes for children and youth via Film.ca Academy (the videos coming out of this Academy are not to be missed!), a film production studio facility with 32,000 square feet of space with Knoll Studios, and a digital conversion service to help you preserve your childhood memories with Film.ca Digital Works.
Deeply embedded in the Oakville community, Film.ca partners with many community groups to bring their ideas and events to life. And you don’t want to miss the concessions, featuring pineapple Dole Whip, Zuzu’s pizza, and Zuzu’s flavoured gourmet popcorn.
Jeff has a storied history in the film exhibition business, all starting in 1977 when he was just 13 years old as an part-time usher/snack bar attendant at the Centre Theatre in Windsor, Ontario. Today, he is expanding with a new single screen venue: Film.Ca Troyes Cinema in Petawawa, ON.
What makes Film.Ca unique?
We’ve been family owned and operated since 1998, and our prices aim to be as affordable as possible – tickets and snacks are the cheapest you’ll find at any Oakville theatre. Plus, our focus has always been on being an integral part of the community. We used to operate in three locations, but due to a lack of access to timely releases, the other two had to close.
We’re not just a cinema! We’ve expanded beyond movies to offer filmmaking and acting classes for children and youth via our Film.Ca Academy, Knoll Studios – a 32,000 square foot film production studio facility next to the cinema, Film.Ca Digital Works – a digital conversion service, and event hosting.
What sort of films do you show?
Our cinema offers a diverse array of films to cater to various tastes and interests. Primarily, we showcase the latest first-run releases, allowing our audience to stay up to date with the newest cinematic offerings. Additionally, we take pride in promoting Canadian cinema, providing a platform for homegrown talent and storytelling.
Complementing these contemporary selections, our special programming features timeless classics to cult favorites, usually to highlight a holiday, celebration, or film anniversary. As an extra treat during the summer season, we offer our Toonie movies – where we show family-favourite movies for only $2!
What are Film.Ca’s greatest challenges?
Encouraging guests back to the theatre after the pandemic, as well as overcoming the challenges faced by all cinemas, but especially independent cinemas like ours, such the pandemic inspired trend to streaming, the recent strikes in the film industry and increases in the costs of operating.
Like all cinemas we experience frustration when it comes to clean run restrictions by film distributors at both our 5 screen and soon-to-open single screen cinema.
What are your favourite compliments that Film.ca receives from your audience?
We take pride in our exceptional guest service, our commitment to inclusivity by showcasing and backing films from diverse cultures, and our dedication to supporting Oakville’s local community and filmmaking scene, all of which have been praised by our incredible guests. We also love hearing about the nostalgic feeling that guests get when they visit us, saying that it reminds them of the movie theatres of their childhood. As well as how much guests love our friendly cast members and our CEO Jeff Knoll, who stars in many popular promotional videos we show pre-show and on social media.
What’s a memorable film screening or event you hosted?
We’re proud Event Partners collaborating with the Oakville Festivals of Film & Art (OFFA) for their Annual Oakville Film Festival held every June. This vibrant event, hosted for two of the seven days at Film.Ca Cinemas, draws in a diverse crowd of movie enthusiasts numbering in the hundreds. While showcasing films from across the world, they also spotlight a significant selection of outstanding Canadian cinema. Collaborating with the OFFA team is consistently a pleasure, and together, we ensure the event is a resounding success.
We’re also fond of our fun holiday screening events like Christmas Vacation, Polar Express and free Christmas movies including Elf and The Grinch.
What are your most popular concession items?
Our delicious popcorn (the best in Oakville…maybe even the world) – we only use real butter! We also have a lot of unique food items that guests love, such as our pineapple Dole Whip, Zuzu’s pizza, and Zuzu’s flavoured gourmet popcorn.
What projects are you considering for the future?
We’re expanding Film.Ca Digital Works, our comprehensive in-house digital conversion service, beyond Oakville to a regional and ultimately national scale! Recognizing a demand in Oakville and nearby regions for a dependable and competitively priced solution enabling guests to access their memories stored on outdated formats, we’re excited to provide digital conversions of film, video, slides and photos. It’s gratifying to facilitate guests in revisiting their cherished memories.
We’re also excited to be bringing our community-focused mentality to our new single screen theatre Film.Ca Troyes Cinema in Petawawa, ON. Our Film.Ca Academy programming will be offered there too, which provides a variety of filmmaking, editing, and acting classes to kids, teens, and adults.
Tell us about yourself; how did you get your start in film exhibition?
CEO Jeff Knoll got his start in the business in 1977 when he was just 13 years old as an part-time usher/snack bar attendant at the Centre Theatre in Windsor, Ontario. He has had a hand in the industry ever since and over the years worked as staff and eventually as a manager for the former Canadian Odeon Corporation, Famous Players, the Drabinsky era Cineplex Odeon Corporation (now Cineplex Entertainment), as well as at other independents and at the former Tarrant Theatres in Newmarket. Jeff was a licensed projectionist from the time he was 18 until the requirement ended in the 90’s.
The Film.Ca Cinemas Oakville location opened on December 30, 2005 under the name Encore Cinemas. At the time, we also operated the Upper Canada Place Cinemas in Burlington and the Central Parkway Cinemas in Mississauga, which we would later close.
Knoll founded Encore Cinemas, now Film.Ca Cinemas after a visit to a competitor’s theatre. He had decided to take his family and two of his children’s friends to the movies and was shocked when the experience cost more than $120! After this experience, he decided that it was time to get back into the business and develop an affordable movie-theatre alternative where families could go to the movies without going broke.
In 2014, we rebranded, and changed our name to the current Film.Ca Cinemas, as the Encore brand was associated with older, second-run films, and not the first run. To this day we provide a reasonable cost alternative to see big movies for small prices and be a place where community and cinema connect!
