Ontario Wildfires Prompt Mask-Up Orders and Drone Bans on Film Sets — But Production Rolls On

Film crews on Hollywood and local productions shooting in Ontario are being urged to mask up as fast-moving wildfires sweep across the province’s far north and southwest, blanketing southern Ontario — and at times the U.S. Eastern Seaboard — in thick smoke.

So far, however, the provincial film sector has largely weathered what is shaping up to be Ontario’s worst-ever summer wildfire season.

Production hubs in northern Ontario cities like Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay are feeling the effects most acutely, with film crews sharing hotels with evacuees from neighboring communities. A massive blaze covering some 3,200 square kilometers (1,235 square miles) north of Thunder Bay in Wabakimi Provincial Park has been of particular concern for firefighters. As of Wednesday, around 146 wildfires remained active across the province.

“While Thunder Bay has been affected by the wildfires in several ways, the active fires remain approximately 150 to 250 kilometers from the city and at the moment we aren’t in danger of being evacuated,” a spokesperson for Thunder Bay, which is a two hour flight from Toronto, told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.

Unlike the 2025 wildfires in and around Los Angeles that directly impacted Hollywood movie and TV production, the forest fires in Ontario and the ongoing devastation is mostly contained in sparsely-populated northern and southwestern regions of the province. That’s left fire crews to tamp down or attempt to put out destructive wildfires that have destroyed some communities in the province and led to the evacuation of others.

Even so, the distant spread of wildfire smoke has the province urging film crews to limit outdoor filming when air quality is poor. In addition, the Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources departments have asked film and TV productions not to use drones during filmmaking as they may interfere with firefighting aircraft, including water bombers and helicopters.

In Sudbury, which is only an hour flight from Toronto, city officials tell THR forest fires have not impacted filming in the region, and local shoots are under no specific forest fire-related restrictions when cameras roll in the city.  

At the same time, the city adds in a statement sent to THR: “Typically, safety-related decisions of this nature are left to the discretion of the production team. We would recommend that they follow applicable public health guidance regarding air quality.”

Local soundstage and location shooting in Ontario by the major studios and streamers in recent years has become a major business for the province. So no cancellations or major disruption evident from the current spate of wildfires in the province has eased concerns over the long-term recovery of the Ontario production sector after major disruptions from the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood strikes.