Telefilm Canada has selected 16 Talent to Watch projects to share $3.5 million.
It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.
Let’s start with Genre.
| Drama | 7 |
| Documentary | 5 |
| Comedy | 1 |
| Horror | 1 |
| Magic Realism | 1 |
| Mystery | 1 |
Province?
| Ontario | 8 |
| Quebec | 4 |
| British Columbia | 2 |
| Manitoba | 1 |
| New Brunswick | 1 |
Let’s look at Language next.
| English | 4 |
| French | 4 |
| Arabic | 1 |
| English/Arabic | 1 |
| English/Bosnian | 1 |
| English/Bulgarian | 1 |
| English/Farsi | 1 |
| English/Persian | 1 |
| French/English | 1 |
| Tibetan/English | 1 |
And let’s finish up with Stream.
| Filmmaker Apply-Direct | 7 |
| Industry Partner | 7 |
| Festival Selection | 1 |
| Industry Partner — Indigenous Component | 1 |
In addition, if Gender is assumed from names:
| Female | 23 |
| Male | 15 |
Some observations:
- Documentary is almost as successful as Drama.
- Half of the successful projects are from Ontario.
- Almost half of the successful projects include world languages in addition or instead of English and/or French.
- Only half of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
- Finally women far outnumber men.
One might be tempted to conclude that Telefilm Canada is using the Talent to Watch program to over-correct its EDIA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility) results, but that would be highly cynical.
My take: wow! This is quite a departure for Telefilm. This is the first year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them handsomely!
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