Why more New York marketing teams are shooting bilingual campaigns in Montreal: the exchange rate, the tax credit, and the French-Canadian creators who make it work.
A growing number of New York marketing teams are discovering something Quebec production companies have known for years: the math on filming in Montreal works in a brand's favor twice over, once on the exchange rate, and once on the tax credit most American brands have never heard of. Add a genuinely bilingual crew and creator pool, and a short flight from LaGuardia or JFK, and it stops looking like an outsourcing decision and starts looking like a strategy.
- 1 US dollar currently buys about 1.42 Canadian dollars
- Quebec offers a 25 percent refundable tax credit on qualified production spend, plus up to 16 percent more for visual effects and animation
- Montreal is roughly a 90-minute flight from New York
- A bilingual crew means an English and a French-Canadian version from the same shoot day
The exchange rate changes the budget before anyone negotiates anything
As of early October 2026, one US dollar converts to roughly 1.42 Canadian dollars, according to XE's mid-market exchange rate. That means a production budget set in US dollars simply goes further the moment it crosses the border, before any negotiation on crew rates, locations or gear. A brand does not need to find a cheaper vendor to stretch its budget in Montreal. The currency already does part of the work.
This is why so many of the production companies a New York brand already recognizes from national campaigns, SOMA, Cinelande, Moonstruhk and others, are based here rather than in Toronto or New York itself.
Cinema-level coverage, shot and delivered by One Way for the Montreal premiere of Wil Aime's film WHO.
A tax credit most American brands do not know exists
Quebec also offers a refundable tax credit for film and television production services, including work done for foreign companies. The headline rate is 25 percent of qualified production spend, with an additional bonus of up to 16 percent on labour tied to visual effects, animation and green screen work, according to the Bureau du cinema et de la television du Quebec. The program generally applies to productions with an overall budget of at least 250,000 Canadian dollars and a registered Quebec production office, so it matters most for a full brand film or a broadcast campaign rather than a single social clip, but for anything in that range, it is real money most New York marketing teams never factor into their first budget conversation.
| Factor | Why it matters | Source or detail |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange rate | 1 USD is worth about 1.42 CAD | XE, October 2026 |
| Tax credit | 25 percent refundable, up to plus 16 percent for VFX and animation | Bureau du cinema et de la television du Quebec |
| Distance | About 90 minutes by air from New York | - |
| Language | Bilingual crews and creators as standard | - |
One shoot, two languages
Montreal is one of the few North American production markets where a genuinely bilingual crew is the norm rather than the exception. For a brand entering the Canadian market, that means an English version for the US and the rest of Canada, and a French-Canadian version for Quebec, built from the same production day rather than a separate, costlier shoot later. It also opens the door to working directly with French-Canadian content creators for a market a New York team otherwise has no easy way to reach authentically.
A Quebec shoot is rarely a translation of a US campaign. Done well, it is a second, native version built on the same production day.
None of this works without a crew that already thinks this way: cinema-quality lighting and camera work, fluent English on set, and a process built for brands that have never shot north of the border before. Montreal's leading production agencies and a short guide to choosing the right one are a good starting point for any team weighing the move.
And for brands that want to pair the shoot with a French-Canadian creator campaign, One Way's talent team can build both from the same trip.
