Because they don’t feel the Canadian feature film industry is doing enough to bridge the gender gap, Matthew Miller and Matt Johnson of Toronto’s Zapruder Films have launched a program to help support the development of one emerging female screenwriter.
They will be giving all of their $12,000 Telefilm development funds to one woman to develop a treatment into a first draft narrative feature script.
The rules:
“The contest opens September 8, 2016 and closes September 18, 2016.
The winner will be announced on Friday, September 30.
Applicants must not have written a produced feature length screenplay.
Scripts must be the original work of a female writer and must be written originally in English. Adaptations and translated scripts are not eligible.
The writer must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
The writer must agree to option the material to Zapruder Films for a 24 month period.
The writer must not be a member of any screenwriting unions or guilds.”
Your single PDF application must be at least seven pages:
“One page synopsis of the film
A short treatment of the film (5-10 pages)
A short brief addressing what your film means to you (300 word maximum)”
I asked Matthew and Matt what sort of response their program has received:
“The response has been really encouraging. There have already been several submissions and dozens of inquiries as to the specifics of the rules and regulations. For the most part, it is very hard for young writers without an agent to get their foot in the door. Most companies don’t accept unsolicited works so we think that alone has provided a breath of fresh air. And it is trying to help address the issue of gender disparity in our industry and that has helped to spawn a healthy and spirited debate on social media. We couldn’t be happier with where things are at this early in the program.”
My take: I applaud Zapruder Films for this program. It’s smart on two counts: firstly, they’re addressing the gender imbalance in the Canadian feature film industry. Hey, it’s 2016 already. Secondly, these guys want to encourage new, as-yet-unheard voices, with new, interesting stories to tell. As we all know, story is king, or in this case, queen.