The audience is the missing link in how Canada’s film, television, and creator ecosystems connect and grow.

What I do

I am Annelise Larson. I connect the digital creator economy, legacy media (film & television), and public policy through audience insight. My work helps:

CREATORS

Build & sustain audiences

FILM & TV

Reach audiences in a fragmented landscape

FUNDERS & INSTITUTIONS

Adapt to changing audience behaviour

POLICYMAKERS

Design programs that reflect how media works today

Why this matters

Audience behaviour has fundamentally changed how stories are discovered, engaged with, and shared.

Digital creators build audiences before and alongside their work. Film and television have traditionally built audiences after production, through marketing and distribution. That model is broken.

As platforms fragment and attention shifts:

  • films and series struggle to find and retain audiences

  • creators operate outside traditional systems to reach global audiences

  • institutions are working to support both, often with different assumptions

The result is a growing disconnect between how stories are made, how they reach audiences, and how they are supported.

My role

I act as an intermediary between systems that don’t always align.

I translate:

  • creator-led audience development into film and television contexts

  • film and television industry practices into the realities of digital audience behaviour

  • policy objectives into how audiences actually discover and engage with content

The goal is alignment between how stories are created, financed, distributed, and experienced.

Selected work

  • The Department of Canadian Heritage

    • Research on digital-first creators and cultural policy

    • Navigating the Shifting Screen: Connecting Canadian Films to Audiences in 2025 and Beyond

  • Telefilm Canada

    • Futureproofing Canadian Film: Working Towards a Sustainable Feature Film Ecosystem

    • Thanks COVID! 15 Lessons for Film Distribution from the First Wave

  • Audience Strategy & Research

    • Supporting hundreds of film, television, and digital-first creators across Canada, the US and Europe

Get in touch

Please reach out to Annelise Larson of veria.ca for research, strategy, or speaking

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
— Thomas A. Edison