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.