Telefilm Canada is pleased to announce that one television project and one feature film project have been selected to receive development funding through its Official Language Minority Communities Strategic Initiatives for the development of English-language films and television programs in Quebec.

Launched by Telefilm in January 2007, and operated under the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Interdepartmental Partnership with Official-Language Communities (IPOLC), these initiatives support Anglophone writers, writer-directors and producers working in a linguistic minority context in Quebec. They are aimed at developing market-driven comedy feature film and television projects, and at expanding Quebec’s creative pool of English-language talent.

In Phase I, the selection committee – representing the broadcasting, distribution, production and creative sectors and Telefilm – chose five television projects and five feature film projects (from 26 proposals) for further development. The creative teams participated in a two-day writing workshop followed by a rewriting period supervised by script consultants from the Canadian Screen Training Centre.

Subsequently, one project was chosen from each category. The selection was based on a project’s improvement during Phase I, its originality and creative quality, and its broadcast potential (television) or theatrical audience potential (feature film).

The chosen creative teams will receive development funding in fiscal 2007-2008. The funds provided by Telefilm will be in the form of a recoupable advance of a maximum of $20,000, and must be used to develop a first draft script.

Television Initiative

Feature Film Initiative 

Telefilm Canada takes this opportunity to announce that this initiative will be renewed later in the year, but for feature films only. A call for entries will be sent out in the fall.