Telefilm Canada has selected 18 Talent to Watch projects to share $3.6 million from 126 submissions.
It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.
Let’s start with Genre.
| Documentary | 9 |
| Drama | 5 |
| Comedy | 3 |
| Horror | 1 |
Province?
| Quebec | 5 |
| Ontario | 4 |
| British Columbia | 3 |
| Alberta | 2 |
| Manitoba | 1 |
| Nova Scotia | 1 |
| NWT | 1 |
| PEI | 1 |
Let’s look at Language next.
| English | 6 |
| French | 2 |
| English/Farsi | 2 |
| English/French/Kinyarwanda | 1 |
| English/Hungarian | 1 |
| English/Plains Cree | 1 |
| English/Punjabi | 1 |
| French/English/Arabic | 1 |
| French/Vietnamese | 1 |
| Spanish | 1 |
| Wayuunaiki/Spanish/English | 1 |
And let’s finish up with Stream.
| Filmmaker Apply-Direct | 11 |
| Industry Partner | 5 |
| Indigenous | 2 |
In addition, if Gender is assumed from names:
| Female | approx. 26 |
| Male | approx. 16 |
Some observations:
- Non-fiction is as successful as Fiction.
- Half of the successful projects are from Quebec and Ontario.
- More than half of the successful projects include world languages in addition or instead of English and/or French.
- For the first time, the vast majority of successful projects are Filmmaker Apply-Direct.
- Less than one third of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
- Women far outnumber men and other expressions of gender.
- A project with only one director/screenwriter/producer is successful.
It appears Telefilm’s Talent to Watch program continues to compensate for the broader industry.
My take: this is the second year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them well! Therefore, if you can apply direct, bypass your local industry partner, for odds of better than one in fifteen.
Good article with numbers, Michael.
One nit from personal experience I wrote a letter with lots of questions to Telefilm earlier this year. It took them two months to reply. They left out two vital pieces of info in their letter. They never said how many persons with disabilities won a Telefilm grant (and from where) and – if any persons with disabilities ever won.
I know from a zoom seminar series earlier this year that they do have an “experienced” staff member who became legally blind while working for them and accommodated her. She was “still learning about her disability.” Hmmmm.
In the same series I had signed up for, at first they listed my name as being one of the few chosen with a script for a mentorship workshop so I and a few others could be teamed up with a pro. I was elated!
One hour prior to attending, I received an email stating that they were sorry that I would not be attending at all because there were too many! I was the only one from BC. All of the others were from eastern Canada. This seems to verify the numbers in your article.
Later that day, I was sent a survey asking how the seminar was plus various other questions! How could they ask me? I couldn’t attend, and yes, I tried to get into the link twice in case that email was in error – it wasn’t. I wrote scathing replies throughout that survey. They had wrongly garnered false hope.
I shared my experience on Facebook.
The Canada Accessible Act will not be enacted fully until 2040. Disabilities goes across the board whether one is man, woman, child, BIPOC, or LGBTQ2+, yet we remain excluded. There is no true recourse. Like DGC, Telefilm still does not understand real genuine inclusiveness.
I am not surprised at all. When Cinevic put through my feature film, Warrior, is there a cover letter, resembled something somebody would kick across the floor.