Paulina Abarca-Cantin
- Producer
- Director
- Actress
Paulina's career has evolved on stages and screens, spanning content creation, business affairs, communications, programming, production, post-production and distribution, primarily within Canada's English and French-language creative industries.
As a programming specialist, she has developed, curated and delivered award-winning, multi-year projects, programs and events reporting to public and private stakeholders.
During her tenure as Programming and Operations Lead of the Encore+ YouTube channel created by the Canada Media Fund in unprecedented collaboration with industry partners, Paulina oversaw the digitization and promotion of 3000+ iconic Canadian films, documentaries, television series and short films. In 2020, she launched and executive produced Encore+ Originals featuring A-list Canadian talent revisiting famed past collaborations, recorded via Zoom during the pandemic and leveraging the YouTube Premiere feature. Encore+ and its French-language sister channel Encore Plus, fostered discoverability, stimulating sales, remakes and engagement with global audiences, festivals, streaming platforms and Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
Passionate about the preservation of Canadian and Indigenous audiovisual heritage, over 2018-2022 Paulina commissioned and oversaw the restoration of iconic Canadian feature films including Bethune: The Making of a Hero (Philip Borsos), Eclipse (Jeremy Podeswa), L'Arrache-coeur (Mireille Dansereau), The Wars (Robin Phillips), When Night is Falling (Patricia Rozema), Monica, la mitraille (Charles Binamé), Johnny Mnemonic (Robert Longo), A Silent Love (Federico Hidalgo), Remembrance (Stephanie Morgenstern) 2 rue de la mémoire (Marilú Mallet) and Farley Mowat's The Snow Walker (Charles Martin Smith).
Deepening her knowledge of film preservation practices, she served as Programming Specialist of the Canadian Film Institute's Save As Symposium: The Future of Restoring, Preserving, Distributing, and Exhibiting Heritage Cinema presented at the International Film Festival in Ottawa (IFFO) in 2024, 2023 and in 2022. She programmed and hosted bilingual case studies of recent Canadian legacy film restorations. Other national curatorial programs under her lead include First Person Digital (National Film Board of Canada / Ada X) and HTMles 2020: Festival of Media Art + Digital Culture (Ada X).
Founder and executive producer of Women in Film and Television International's Short Film Showcase in 2005, Paulina curated three editions of the Showcase, presented in twenty cities across three continents. Featuring award-winning short films directed by women from all continents to advocate for increased gender balance in the global film industry, the Showcase proved highly popular with audiences. Prior to this role, she served as Vice-President, Programming and later as President of Montreal Women in Film and Television (Alliance des femmes des industries créatives). She is co-founding board member of the English Language Arts Network and past vice president of the Quebec Drama Federation.
An alumna of the the National Theatre School of Canada, the Media Leadership Program at York University's Schulich School of Business, HEC Montréal, the University of Toronto and The Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity. She was Intern Director in the Neil Munro Directors Project at The Shaw Festival.
As a programming specialist, she has developed, curated and delivered award-winning, multi-year projects, programs and events reporting to public and private stakeholders.
During her tenure as Programming and Operations Lead of the Encore+ YouTube channel created by the Canada Media Fund in unprecedented collaboration with industry partners, Paulina oversaw the digitization and promotion of 3000+ iconic Canadian films, documentaries, television series and short films. In 2020, she launched and executive produced Encore+ Originals featuring A-list Canadian talent revisiting famed past collaborations, recorded via Zoom during the pandemic and leveraging the YouTube Premiere feature. Encore+ and its French-language sister channel Encore Plus, fostered discoverability, stimulating sales, remakes and engagement with global audiences, festivals, streaming platforms and Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
Passionate about the preservation of Canadian and Indigenous audiovisual heritage, over 2018-2022 Paulina commissioned and oversaw the restoration of iconic Canadian feature films including Bethune: The Making of a Hero (Philip Borsos), Eclipse (Jeremy Podeswa), L'Arrache-coeur (Mireille Dansereau), The Wars (Robin Phillips), When Night is Falling (Patricia Rozema), Monica, la mitraille (Charles Binamé), Johnny Mnemonic (Robert Longo), A Silent Love (Federico Hidalgo), Remembrance (Stephanie Morgenstern) 2 rue de la mémoire (Marilú Mallet) and Farley Mowat's The Snow Walker (Charles Martin Smith).
Deepening her knowledge of film preservation practices, she served as Programming Specialist of the Canadian Film Institute's Save As Symposium: The Future of Restoring, Preserving, Distributing, and Exhibiting Heritage Cinema presented at the International Film Festival in Ottawa (IFFO) in 2024, 2023 and in 2022. She programmed and hosted bilingual case studies of recent Canadian legacy film restorations. Other national curatorial programs under her lead include First Person Digital (National Film Board of Canada / Ada X) and HTMles 2020: Festival of Media Art + Digital Culture (Ada X).
Founder and executive producer of Women in Film and Television International's Short Film Showcase in 2005, Paulina curated three editions of the Showcase, presented in twenty cities across three continents. Featuring award-winning short films directed by women from all continents to advocate for increased gender balance in the global film industry, the Showcase proved highly popular with audiences. Prior to this role, she served as Vice-President, Programming and later as President of Montreal Women in Film and Television (Alliance des femmes des industries créatives). She is co-founding board member of the English Language Arts Network and past vice president of the Quebec Drama Federation.
An alumna of the the National Theatre School of Canada, the Media Leadership Program at York University's Schulich School of Business, HEC Montréal, the University of Toronto and The Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity. She was Intern Director in the Neil Munro Directors Project at The Shaw Festival.
