Jacques Bensimon was born in Morocco, grew up in Montreal, and completed his film studies in New York City. He is currently the president of the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal, a post he has held since June 2006.
He was named Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada on April 26, 2001 for a five-year term, which was extended for six months and ended on December 17, 2006.
From 2000 to 2001, Jacques Bensimon was the Executive Vice-President of the Banff Television Foundation (BTVF) and its Chief Operating Officer. The Foundation is a charitable organization that organizes a variety of broadcasting, television and new media events. The flagship event is the Banff TV Festival which is held every year in June and welcomes 2000 participants from the Canadian and international audio visual industry.
The BTVF also manages other events all over the world such as "The World Congress of Science Producers" and the "The World Congress of History Producers", and twice yearly training sessions, through the Alliance-Atlantis Executive Program for upcoming leaders of the broadcasting and production industry.
From 1986 to 2000 he was managing director of TFO, the French-language network of TVOntario, where he helped establish partnership and co-production agreements with major distributors all over the world such as the BBC, Arte and France Télévisions. He started as Program Director of the Adult sector, and in 1989 became its Managing Director. Among other responsibilities, he was in charge of acquiring feature films, and acted as the on-air host for all film presentations on the network. In 1994, La Chaîne was awarded the prestigious Prix du 3-juillet-1608 by the Government of Quebec, for its unique contribution to the North American French-speaking communities.
In 1967 he began working at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), as a scriptwriter, editor, director and producer. He has credits on over thirty NFB films either as screenwriter, editor, director or producer. He was, inter alia, responsible for an NFB production unit in Africa for the United Nations and CIDA. He later made several trips to Africa, making documentaries for the Carnets du Maroc series. Between 1981 and 1986 he was Director of the French Program's programming committee and subsequently Director of International Distribution.
Bensimon was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2005, received an honorary doctorate in Letters from York University in Toronto and, in 1998, was named "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" from the French Government for what he accomplished at TFO.
· Jacques Bensimon was also: Vice-President of AITED (International Association of Education and Discovery Television Companies) · Associate Member of the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) N.Y. · Board Member of TV5 USA · Honorary Board Member of the Toronto Cercle Canadien
| Cultural offices | ||
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| Preceded by Sandra M. Macdonald |
Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada 2001-2006 |
Succeeded by Tom Perlmutter |