Jacques Bobet

Jacques Bobet (June 29, 1919, in Saumur, France – March 7, 1996, in Montreal, Canada) was a French filmmaker who played a key role in the National Film Board of Canada's move into French language filmmaking. Following a brief stint teaching literature and philosophy in France, Jacques Bobet immigrated to Canada and joined the NFB in 1947 as a writer at a time when 90 percent of the staff was English-speaking and its French Unit found it hard to retain French Canadian filmmakers. Bobet worked to strengthen the French Unit and retain French talent, and was appointed producer of French versions in 1951. By 1956, when he was named executive producer of the newly created Versions Unit, he had been involved in versioning approximately 500 films.