Invest Vancouver / Key Industries / Digital Media & Entertainment

Digital Media & Entertainment

The Metro Vancouver region is North America’s fastest-growing digital media & entertainment hub, home to top creative tech companies creating films, animation, games, and visual effects. The region has a strong and specialized talent pool, supported by dedicated educational institutions and a thriving ecosystem.

Competitive tax incentives make our region a smart place to do business, and our Pacific time zone allows for easy collaboration with Hollywood. With a focus on creativity and quality, the Metro Vancouver region is where technology and creativity come together to bring stories to life.

Where creativity meets cutting-edge technology

Building from its origin as an internationally renowned destination for filming, global leaders in video games, animation, and visual effects choose the Metro Vancouver region for its skilled talent, strong industry ecosystem, and seamless collaboration with Hollywood.

3rd

largest Film and TV production centre in North America¹

1,000+

Digital Media & Entertainment businesses in the Metro Vancouver region²

40,000+

skilled workers in Digital Media & Entertainment³

From the creators at Electronic Arts who put you “in the game”, to the only Walt Disney Animation Studio location outside of Burbank, you’ll join some of the world’s biggest names in digital entertainment if you choose to make the Metro Vancouver region your home.

Video Games	Immersive Media (AR/VR)	Animation	Visual Effects
Electronic Arts Nintendo The Coalition Take-Two Interactive	3D Evolution Studios Virtro Microsoft	Walt Disney Animation Sony Pictures Imageworks Animal Logic Bardel Entertainment	Industrial Light & Magic Framestore DNEG Image Engine

The region’s workforce brings together expertise from diverse fields like software engineering, digital media, and gaming, enabling innovation across industries. It’s this ability to draw on cross-disciplinary skills that sets Vancouver apart.

Code Wizards

What’s been amazing is the partnership and collaboration. Invest Vancouver and Creative BC have been incredibly responsive, always ready with connections and solutions to help us grow.

Bob Woolsey

Public Relations Manager at Peliplat

Supporting ecosystem

The Metro Vancouver region’s thriving creative ecosystem is built on a foundation of collaboration.

DigiBC: The creative technology industry association for British Columbia where the creative tech ecosystem includes over 250 companies and dozens of specialized post-secondary programs. DigiBC is dedicated to fostering and advancing BC’s Creative Technology industry, focusing on video games, interactive media, visual effects, animation, and VR/AR. Their mission encompasses education, advocacy, ecosystem development, and events.
Creative BC: An independent agency supported by the government of BC to foster the development of BC’s creative industries. The agency offers various programs and services including film and television tax incentives, film commission services, and project funding.
Vancouver VR/AR Association (VRARA): Vancouver’s chapter of an international organization designed to foster global collaboration in XR, mixed reality, spatial computing, and AI, fostering growth, research, and industry connections.
Screen BC: The motion picture production industry association of BC, representing 140+ member organizations.

Educational institutions

Government incentives

Support exists at both the provincial and federal levels for creative and innovative projects that help bring the “next big thing” in entertainment to market. Digital media & entertainment firms can access various credits to significantly reduce qualified labour costs in production, post-production, and game design⁴.

Provincial

Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC): Provides financial incentives for low-carbon fuel use based on measurable greenhouse gas reductions.
Film and Television Tax Credit (FIBC): Provides a 36 per cent refundable tax credit on eligible labour costs to Canadian-controlled production companies with a permanent establishment in BC.
Digital Animation or Visual Effects (DAVE): Provides an additional tax credit of 16 per cent on qualifying labour costs to production companies that employ BC talent for post-production and sound activities.
Interactive digital media tax credit (IDMTC): Canadian taxable corporations with a permanent establishment in BC engaged in the development of interactive digital media products may qualify for a refundable 25 per cent (starting September 2025) tax credit on eligible labor expenditures.

Federal

Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC): Provides eligible productions with a 16 per cent refundable tax credit on qualified labor expenses. This credit is administered by CAVCO and the Canada Revenue Agency to enhance Canada as a location for film and video productions that employ Canadians.

Footnotes

1 Creative BC

2 Digital Media and Entertainment Sector Profile, Nordicity (prepared for Invest Vancouver)

3 Digital Media and Entertainment Sector Profile, Nordicity (prepared for Invest Vancouver)

4 For additional details, see BC Government, Film and television tax credit and Interactive digital media tax credit.

Learn more

Digital Media & Entertainment industry overview

Ready to connect?

Contact Nikola Fischerova, Sector Development Lead, Digital Media & Entertainment

Invest Vancouver acknowledges that the region’s residents live, work, and learn on the shared territories of many Indigenous Peoples, including 10 local First Nations: q̓ic̓əy̓(Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), máthxwi (Matsqui), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), Semiahmoo, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), scəw̓aθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh).

Invest Vancouver respects the diverse and distinct histories, languages, and cultures of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, which collectively enrich our lives and the region.

View Metro Vancouver's translated territorial acknowledgment

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