John Dunning

John Dunning (April 27, 1927 – September 19, 2011) was Canadian film producer and distributor. He is considered a pioneer of commercial Canadian cinema, as the co-founder of Cinépix Film Properties with André Link.

Dunning produced early works by notable Canadian directors David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman. Their biggest commercial success—and the first Canadian box office hit—came with Reitman's Meatballs (1979). Cronenberg described him as the "godfather of an entire generation of Canadian filmmakers." Over the next number of years the firm produced a number of sex comedy films, including Here and Now (L'Initiation), Love in a Four Letter World, Heads or Tails (Pile ou face) and Oh, If Only My Monk Would Want (Ah! Si mon moine voulait...), which were labelled as "maple syrup porn" and saw Dunning compared to a Canadian Roger Corman.

Cinépix produced early work by David Cronenberg (Shivers) and Ivan Reitman (Meatballs). The company also distributed art-house films including the grunge rock documentary Hype, Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, and SICK: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist.

From 1989 to 1994, Cinépix was partners with Famous Players in C/FP Distribution, which was renamed Cinépix Film Properties (C/FP). In 1994, Cinépix bought Famous Players' stake in the organization.

By 1997, Cinépix had a New York-based U.S. distribution arm and owned 56 percent of Ciné-Groupe, an animated film production company. LGEC purchased Cinépix and kept its leadership; Dunning, in turn, left the company.

Dunning and Link were honoured for their contributions to the Canadian film industry at the 14th Genie Awards and were inducted into the Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame in 2007.

Dunning's memoirs, You're Not Dead until You're Forgotten, were published in 2014 by McGill-Queen's University Press.

In 2016, the Canadian Screen Awards introduced the new John Dunning Discovery Award, presented to honour the year's best Canadian microbudget film. In 2019, it was merged with the former Claude Jutra Award, presented for the year's best debut film by a first-time director, into the contemporary John Dunning Best First Feature Award.