François N. Macerola

François N. Macerola (born January 31, 1942) is a Canadian lawyer and film executive. He has held a number of senior positions with the National Film Board of Canada and Telefilm Canada.

Macerola was born in Montreal, Quebec. He studied at the Université de Montréal, gaining his BA degree there in 1963, and then becoming a Bachelor of Civil Law in 1970. He was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1971, and began practising law with the firm Malouf, Pateras, Macerola.

He became involved in the film industry in 1976, when he was appointed Director of the French Program at the National Film Board (NFB). During this time, Macerola tried to make sure that the predominantly freelance film-makers of the French Program could not claim the status of permanent employees, which helped to save the NFB money, as more salaried employees would mean less budget available for actual film production. There was also a concern at the NFB that if a core regular team of French Canadian film-makers was allowed to build up, they could cause political problems with Quebec nationalism.

In April 1979, Macerola was promoted to become Assistant Film Commissioner, making him James de Beaujeu Domville's deputy in the running of the NFB. Domville stepped down from his role in January 1984 and Macerola succeeded him, initially on an interim basis but from May 1984 as the official new Government Film Commissioner. One of his first tasks as Commissioner was to develop a new five-year-plan for the future of the NFB, after Minister of Communications Francis Fox tasked the organisation with becoming "a world centre of excellence in production of films and videos" and "a national training and research centre in the art and technique of film and video."

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