Talent to Watch program

The Talent Fund-supported Talent to Watch Program (formerly Micro-Budget Production Program) finances emerging content creators who are recent alumni of a partner educational institution, active members of partner cooperatives or recent participants of partner film festival incubator initiative, or who have directed a short film that was selected at a recognized film festival. The program also provides automatic funding to projects directed by an emerging director having previously directed a short film that has won a prize at a recognized film festival.

Overview of the program

The Talent to Watch Program – Funding of First Feature Films and Web Projects from Emerging Filmmakers aims to support emerging filmmakers, accelerate their career development, and to allow them to develop an expertise in digital marketing and promotion of audiovisual projects.

The maximum contribution amount through this program is $150,000 for feature films and $125,000 for narrative-based projects of over 75 minutes.

Support under this Program is provided through three separate streams: the Selective Stream, the Festival Selection Stream and the Fast Track Stream.

Note: Telefilm Canada would like to advise its clients that web series will not be eligible under this Program starting next fiscal, 2021-2022.

Selective stream:

Financing will be given to projects chosen among those recommended by designated industry partners for each component of the Program (see full list of partners in documents below). The different components are:

• Main component
• Indigenous component
• Official-Language Minority Communities (OLMC) component

Festival Selection Stream:

Financing will be given to projects chosen among submitted films directed by an emerging director having previously directed a short film that was selected at a recognized film festival (see the list of recognized film festivals in documents below). Funding under this stream is not automatic.

Fast Track Stream for first feature films by selected emerging directors:

Automatic financing will be given to projects directed by an emerging director having previously directed a short film that has won a prize at a recognized film festival (see the list of recognized film festivals in documents below).

Overview of eligibility requirements

The main eligibility criteria under all three streams is:

• Key members of the creative teams of all submitted projects must be emerging talent: they must have previously produced, directed and/or written at least one short film  but cannot have previously held the same key position in a feature length film.

Additional eligibility criteria apply to each separate stream. Please consult the guidelines for the complete description of the eligibility criteria under this Program.