Realscreen’s Global 100: Canada

By Staff, Realscreen

RTR MEDIA
Headquarters: Toronto, ON
www.rtrmedia.com
Number of hours produced in 2021: 60+
Staff: 15 core, 75 freelance
Recent projects: Home Town (HGTV); Home Town Takeover (HGTV); Ben’s Workshop (Discovery+); Home Town Kickstart (HGTV); Help! I Wrecked My House (HGTV)
Upcoming titles: Farmhouse Fabulous (HGTV); Revealed (HGTV)

Toronto-based RTR Media is a female-owned and -operated independent prodco specializing in the home and lifestyle space, having conducted 380 home renovations for TV. Led by partners CEO Toni Miceli and COO Jenna Keane along with founding partner and executive chair Kit Redmond, the company tripled the number of content hours produced and doubled their total number of series in 2021.

RTR delivers a heaping helping of content to the Discovery family of networks, highlighted by the juggernaut HGTV franchise and ratings leader Home Town (pictured above), as well as Home Town Takeover, Home Town Kickstart and Discovery+’s Ben’s Workshop.

A peer who nominated the prodco for this year’s Global 100 cited RTR’s “commitment to gender equity in the industry,” spearheaded by its “phenomenal, all-female executive team.” RTR also drives an internal initiative called Green Light Giving, a charitable project dedicated to giving back with each project that gets a greenlight.

For its part, the company says it is poised to apply the company’s signature “human approach” to genres outside of home and lifestyle in 2022. —Justin Anderson

YAP FILMS
Headquarters: Toronto, ON
www.yapfilms.com
Number of hours produced in 2021: 11.5
Staff: 217 (core/freelance)
Recent projects: How It Feels to Be Free (PBS/CBC); The Machine That Feels (CBC/Arte); Black Liberators (History Channel)
Upcoming projects: Battle of the Alphas season two (Blue Ant/ Love Nature); two feature-length documentaries

Founded in 2002 by Elliott Halpern and the late Pauline Duffy, Toronto-based Yap Films has built a solid reputation for crafting factual and documentary series and specials across a wide range of subject matter for an equally diverse array of broadcasters and platforms.

Highlights for 2021 included How It Feels to Be Free, produced for PBS’s ‘American Masters’ strand. Directed by Yoruba Richen, and executive produced by Halpern, Alicia Keys, Lacey Delgado Schwartz, Mehret Mandefro, Elizabeth Trojian and Michael Kantor for ‘American Masters,’ the film took a loving look at the cultural contributions of six trailblazing Black performers — Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier — and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for outstanding documentary, as well as an Emmy, representing ‘American Masters’ for outstanding documentary or non-fiction series. Yap’s Unabomber: In His Own Words four-parter for Reelz was picked up by Netflix for international streaming, and was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards in 2021.

In nominating Yap Films for the Global 100, production and distribution partners described Yap’s approach to crafting content as “close and collaborative.” —Barry Walsh

MORE CANADIAN GLOBAL 100 COMPANIES

Alibi Entertainment
Toronto, ON | www.alibientertainment.ca
Sarah Off the Grid; Carnival Eats

Buck Productions
Toronto, ON | www.buckproductions.com
Fresh Water; Yo! MTV Maps

Cineflix Productions
Toronto, ON | www.cineflix.com
Rock Solid Builds; American Pickers; Mayday

Cream Productions
Toronto, ON | www.creamproductions.com
The Story of Late Night; All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs

eOne
(a Hasbro company)
Toronto, ON | www.entertainmentone.com
Growing Up Hip Hop; Project Bakeover

Frantic Films
Toronto; Winnipeg, MB | www.franticfilms.com
Backyard Builds; Still Standing

Great Pacific Media
(a Thunderbird Entertainment Group company)
Vancouver, BC | www.greatpacifictv.com
Highway Thru Hell; Heavy Rescue: 401

Insight Productions
(a Boat Rocker company)
Toronto, ON | www.insighttv.com
Big Brother Canada; Top Chef Canada

marblemedia
Toronto, ON | www.marblemedia.com
Blown Away; Race Against the Tide

Media Headquarters
Toronto, ON | www.mediahqs.net
Salvage Kings; The Brigade

Primitive Entertainment
Toronto, ON | www.primitive.net
Writing the Land; Borealis

Proper Television
(a Boat Rocker company)
Toronto, ON | www.propertelevision.com
Mary Makes It Easy; The Great Canadian Baking Show; Motel Makeover

Scott Brothers Entertainment
Toronto, ON | www.sbentertainment.com
Celebrity IOU; Property Brothers: Forever Home

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Omnifilm Entertainment
Vancouver, BC | www.omnifilm.com
Jade Fever

Peacock Alley Entertainment
Toronto, ON | www.peacockalleytv.com
Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur

Zone 3
Montreal, PQ | www.zone3.ca
Family Feud Canada

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