Opening of the Micro-Budget Production Program

From February 15 to March 14, 2016, Telefilm Canada’s Micro-Budget Production Program will accept new project proposals from the designated Program partners

Montreal, February 3, 2016 – For a fourth year, Telefilm Canada is supporting emerging talent through its Micro-Budget Production Program, which focuses on the use of digital platforms in order to increase audience access to the first work of new Canadian talent. The program’s designated partners will be able to submit their recommendations to Telefilm between February 15 and March 14, 2016, inclusively. In its first three years, the Micro-Budget Production Program supported the production of 37 first feature films, several of which were screened at major festivals.

The Talent Fund, a private donation fund that offers strong support to emerging talent, will continue to support the Program, while Technicolor, whose partnership with Telefilm has been renewed, will continue to offer free digital distribution encoding services to the selected projects.

What’s new in 2016?

• Web-content is now an eligible format. These projects from first-time web-content creators must be narrative-based projects specifically created for online distribution and comprised of one or more segments which, in total, are between 10 and 74 minutes in length.
• Telefilm has increased its financial contribution by $7,500 per selected project. This additional amount is to be used to cover the costs of a specialist in digital marketing.
• At least 15% of Telefilm’s contribution (excluding the amount set aside for the digital marketing specialist) must be allocated to promotion and distribution expenses.
• All funded projects must be made available, by no later than 18 months after completion, on the Telefilm Canada channel which will be featured the National Film Board of Canada’s paid streaming platform.

Designated partners

• Main Component: 32 partners
• Aboriginal Component: 8 partners
• OLMC Component: 8 partners

To see the full list of partners, visit our website.

Telefilm is pleased to have the support of its designated partners as well as of the following promotional partners: National Film Board of Canada, Technicolor and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

To learn more about the Micro-Budget Production Program, we invite you to read the program Guidelines and FAQs, available on Telefilm’s website.