The effort, which is being called Canadian Cinema – Reignited, started taking shape last year after a conversation between Telefilm executive Francesca Accinelli and "Comic Book Confidential" documentarian Ron Mann bemoaned how some of the country's seminal movies were "starting to disappear" in the digital era and risked being lost to time.
Many older Canadian films have never received a proper digital transfer, leaving them to languish on old video cassette transfers from the 1980s and 1990s, or in a low-quality "standard definition" format that falls below the expectations of streaming giants such as Netflix.
Some Canadian films have been cleaned up with significant 4K restorations that ensure they'll live on for decades. David Cronenberg's controversial "Crash," Don McKellar's apocalyptic drama "Last Night" and John Greyson's AIDS musical "Zero Patience" were all refreshed by various film organizations in recent years.