Chris Hope, NHK, Toronto, ON, Canada

Production Category

Statement of Purpose

I am seeking a seat on the GSCA Board because I believe the giant screen sector has a distinctive opportunity: to build larger, more international markets for content that can still do something rare in modern media — genuinely wow an audience.

My career has taught me that remarkable content alone is not enough. Audiences have to know it exists. Exhibitors have to see a viable path to presenting it. Producers need confidence that ambitious projects can travel, while institutions need compelling reasons to invest in the experience. The opportunity for GSCA is therefore not simply to champion great content, but to help create the conditions in which that content can reach more people, in more places, with greater impact.

That is the perspective I would bring to the Board as NHK’s formal representative. At NHK, I work at the intersection of international content, rights, commercial strategy and public broadcasting. Earlier in my career, I worked across production, financing, licensing, distribution and intellectual property at companies including 9 Story Media Group, Rogers Communications, Alliance Films and Cookie Jar Entertainment. I have seen how content moves from an idea into a market and how the right partnerships can extend both its commercial life and its cultural impact.

I also understand audience-building from the ground up. Through the Toronto Japanese Film Festival and related film festival initiatives, I have worked to create sustained demand for Japanese-language cinema outside Japan. That has meant curating strong work, earning the trust of rights holders and sponsors, developing repeat audiences and creating an event experience that people actively want to return to. For me, that experience is directly relevant to GSCA’s future.

If elected, I would seek to help GSCA strengthen the bridge between producers, exhibitors, broadcasters, cultural institutions and new audiences. I am particularly interested in how the Association can deepen relationships in Asia-Pacific markets, make it easier for compelling international content to circulate and encourage partnerships that expand the economic base for giant screen production and exhibition.

The goal should be growth without dilution. Giant screen cinema should remain special precisely because it offers a scale and immersive sense of occasion that cannot be replicated on a phone, television or laptop. GSCA has an opportunity to turn that distinctiveness into an even stronger market advantage.

I would also bring a governance perspective shaped by years of board leadership at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and service on the Board of Governors and the Audit Committee of the Japanese American National Museum. I understand that a strong board sets direction while respecting management’s responsibility to execute, and that directors must ultimately advance the interests of the organization rather than those of the institution they represent.

I would approach GSCA in that spirit, while looking for practical opportunities where my relationships in Japan, Canada and the United States can help open doors for content, co-production, institutional partnerships or new audiences.

My purpose in serving would be straightforward: help GSCA build markets so that more remarkable content gets made, reaches more screens, attracts broader audiences and delivers the unforgettable experiences that remind people why the giant screen matters.

Biography

Chris Hope is a lawyer, business strategist, media executive and certified corporate director whose career has been built across content, commerce, governance and international relationship-building. He currently serves as Global Head, Business & Legal Affairs for NHK (Japan Public Broadcasting Corporation), where he advises on international production and broadcasting matters involving rights, contracts, commercial terms, risk allocation and cross-border partnerships. His work requires him to balance creative ambition with the practical realities of financing, distribution, public trust and long-term institutional strategy.

Across more than two decades in media and entertainment, Hope has worked throughout the content lifecycle. Before joining NHK, he held senior business and legal roles with 9 Story Media Group, Rogers Communications, Alliance Films and Cookie Jar Entertainment, and earlier worked in production at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His experience includes international licensing, content development, production finance, intellectual property strategy, acquisitions, distribution and the monetization of media assets. At Rogers, he devised and implemented an initiative that generated more than $1 million annually in revenue and tax credits from unmonetized video archives.

Hope also brings significant experience building relationships across business, cultural and public-sector communities. In parallel with his media work, he serves as Managing Director of The Pacific Bridge Companies / Pacific Bridge Wealth Resources, advising on cross-border investment and tax planning strategy involving the United States, Canada and Japan. That role has further strengthened his ability to connect institutions and commercial partners around shared objectives.

Governance has been another defining part of his career. Hope is President and Board Chair of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, where he has served as a board member since 2011 and has helped guide strategic planning, financial oversight, organizational renewal and executive accountability. Since 2013, he has served on the Board of Governors and the Audit Committee of the Smithsonian-accredited Japanese American National Museum, in Los Angeles. He holds the Chartered Corporate Director designation, an MBA, a Juris Doctor and an undergraduate degree in Radio and Television Arts.

His connection to film is practical as well as professional. Hope co-founded and co-directs the Toronto Japanese Film Festival, which grew into the highest-grossing Japanese-language film festival outside Japan in 2017, and has continued to expand since. He has also helped develop related Japanese film festival initiatives in Vancouver and Tokyo, building audiences for Japanese cinema while cultivating relationships with filmmakers, studios, rights holders, sponsors and public institutions.

As a producer and director, Hope created Hatsumi: One Grandmother’s Journey Through the Japanese Canadian Internment and served as a producer on the award-winning music documentary The Wrecking Crew. He is also serving as Executive Producer on an in-development feature project based on author Mark Sakamoto’s award-winning book, Forgiveness.

For the GSCA Board, Hope would bring an international perspective shaped by Canada, Japan and the United States, first-hand experience with content and audience development, and a strong belief that remarkable screen experiences succeed when creative excellence is matched by strategic and disciplined market-building and execution.