Cambridge has record autumn for film inquiries despite pandemic slow-down

The burgeoning film industry in Cambridge, Ont., took a hit last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the city's film liaison, but it still hosted several significant film and television shoots and had its best autumn ever for inquiries. 

Filming in the entire province ground to a halt over the course of four months during the lockdowns instituted in the middle of March. But once it resumed, Ontario went on to have its busiest year ever, Devon Hogue said.

"Even for ourselves in Cambridge, our inquiries from August to December were six per cent greater than in 2019, and 2019 was our best year ever," she said.

Despite delays brought on by the pandemic, popular productions such as the Handmaid's Tale and the Good Witch shot in Cambridge once again last year.

The city also hosted a shoot for a Christmas movie called the Letter.

What's more, it "celebrated" – to quote Hogue – films and television shows partially shot in the city in 2019, notably the Netflix series the Queen's Gambit.

In fact, the City of Cambridge has created an online map identifying locations around the city where film and TV projects have been shot.

In 2021, audiences can look forward to a new season of Murdoch Mysteries that, for the first time, contains scenes from the Preston area, Hogue said.

This will be the first season of the show in which viewers will see the exterior of Police Station 1, and it's played by a building on Argyle Street, she explained.

However, she said, it's hard to predict how the New Year will unfold in terms of shoots.

The city had four projects lined up for January but lockdown restrictions preventing any project from filming with 10 or more cast members will mean that three of those are on hold.

"Unfortunately until this lockdown is released and we know what the numbers are looking like, we're kind of in a holding pattern," she said. "If you look at a lot of the scenes that are filmed outdoors, they involve a great number of cast sometimes."