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The Canadian Media Fund just announced a new pilot program that gives up to 100k to the richest media companies (exclusively) in the Canadian film industry. Here's some intel on this horrible decision.
This is a pilot program designed to give out development funding, with a key twist - zero broadcaster commitment needed. This is important because CAN Heritage has not approved the CMF for something like this previously. Broadcasters have traditionally triggered CMF funding.
The CMF has specifically allocated this fund for "Experienced Producers," but it excludes many companies with 15 or more years experience from eligibility - and this was their goal. A rep at CMF told me they were worried about volume of applicants, so set the threshold very high.
For documentaries, the reality is you need to have produced (in English Canada) 4-6 documentary one-offs (TV hours or features w broadcast support), or 5 doc series. If you qualify, you basically get the cash with very little input or judgement from the CMF (which is healthy).
The major issue is that only the companies who have produced the most VOLUME of projects are eligible, regardless of project quality. The fact CMF went in this direction, vs. supporting emerging or mid-career producers and prodcos, in some kind of equal measure, is ridiculous.
This is just another sad instance of the Canadian film industry being predisposed to support only 2 kinds of producers/creators: established companies who have sucked the teat for 30+ years, and shouldn't need this kind of support - or 'emerging' talent. No one in between.
I'm not sure my voice will mean much here, but the CMF rep I spoke to said they were flooded with calls about the bullshit-ness of this decision. Their hope is that it's a pilot and will enable more programs in the new year. That's fine, but no excuse to make it so inaccessible.
Tagging some folks who might care to share this, please help get word out so things like this can change moving forward: @pavanmoondi @amarwala @JesseBrown @HertzBarry @softrevcast
