Building A World Class Creative Tech Hub In Vancouver

BusinessMediaBuilding A World Class Creative Tech Hub In VancouverByDavid Bloom,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I’m an LA-based columnist & consultant focused on tech & entertainmentFollow AuthorMay 25, 2026, 02:09pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. (Image courtesy of A24)It can be disconcerting for a long-time Angeleno to visit Vancouver, as I did earlier this month to moderate two on-stage conversations for Web Summit Vancouver, including a talk with executives of three leading companies in the region's booming "creative technology" sector, which includes visual effects and animation.The town’s local talent will showcase itself once again with this week’s release of Backrooms, an A24 horror film directed by Kane Parsons, built around his nearly two-dozen hit YouTube videos based on the long-running “no-clipping” Internet meme. The 19-year-old YouTube wunderkind uprooted from his Petaluma, Calif., hometown to live for months in Vancouver, where an elaborate and sprawling 30,000-sq.-ft. set was constructed to bring to life Parsons’ grim vision of a man (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) lost in endless fluorescent corridors like a character in a glitchy game, and the therapist (Renate Reinsve) who ventures in to rescue him.Parsons’ move north mirrors that of many Hollywood craftspeople since the days of The X-Files in the 1990s, the first major Hollywood TV show filmed largely in southwestern Canada rather than southwestern California. That work continues, to the distress of many in the foundering Los Angeles industry cluster. The initial Hollywood foothold in this verdant international city less than 2.5 hours’ flight from Los Angeles also has broadened, to include the more than 100 VFX and animation companies in the region. That, said my panelists, was because of a focused, coordinated effort to build a...