toronto film industry

Toronto was just crowned the best place to live and work in yet another category

Move over, Vancouver, because Toronto is laying claim to the contested title of 'Hollywood North,' taking the top spot of any city in the world for the best place to live and work in the movie industry — aside from the two obvious cities you're probably thinking of right now.

MovieMaker Magazine has ranked Toronto as the top spot on the globe to follow a career in the film industry in a ranking that specifically excludes legendary filmmaking locales Los Angeles and New York (which would obviously be ranked as the top two every single year if included).

Toronto beat out other Canadian cities, Vancouver (5th), Calgary (8th), and Montreal (10th) on the top-25 list of big cities for MovieMaker's Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker 2024.

Moviemaker writes that "with productions from Amazon Prime Video's The Boys and Cruel Intentions to Reacher to Paramount's Star Trek franchise to Hulu's What We Do In the Shadows to Netflix's Umbrella Academy, Toronto hosts just about every entertainment giant, thanks in large part to its more than two million square feet of studio space and ability to double for countless other locations around the world."

The outlet also notes the city has begun to take more roles starring as itself rather than as a stand-in for other cities, saying Toronto "plays itself quite adeptly" in media like the upcoming series Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent.

Here are the top 25 cities for movie makers:

  1. Toronto
  2. Albuquerque
  3. New Orleans
  4. Austin
  5. Vancouver
  6. Atlanta
  7. Miami
  8. Calgary
  9. Chicago
  10. Montreal
  11. Cincinnati
  12. Philadelphia
  13. Pittsburgh
  14. Salt Lake City
  15. Portland
  16. Baltimore
  17. Charlotte
  18. Cleveland
  19. Tulsa
  20. Boston
  21. Memphis
  22. Honolulu
  23. Kansas City
  24. San Antonio
  25. Dallas/El Paso (tie)

Canada was also featured in MovieMaker's Smaller Cities and Towns category, with Kamloops, B.C., taking the fifth spot on the list.

Lead photo by

Marc Mitanis


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