Production program — English market budgets under $3.5M

Who is eligible?

The Canada Feature Film Fund Production Program is open to Canadian-controlled corporations operating as audiovisual production companies with head offices in Canada. Key creative personnel and copyright ownership must meet Canadian citizenship or residency requirements.

Who is not eligible

This grant outlines certain ineligible project types rather than specific companies or industries, focusing on the nature of the projects themselves. These restrictions ensure that funds are allocated to projects that align with the cultural and creative objectives of the fund.

• Projects done on contract for, or produced by, a government agency.
• Projects produced primarily for industrial, corporate, or institutional purposes.
• Advertising projects.
• Student projects.
• Projects using film as a tool to record or document existing artworks.
• Documentary or non-drama projects.
• Conventional forms of television entertainment, such as pilots, movies-of-the-week, news reports.
• Projects not destined for a theatrical or festival audience.

Eligible expenses

The grant covers specific expenses directly related to the production of feature films under the Canada Feature Film Fund.

• Telefilm’s financing may be used for the production costs of feature-length fictional films.
• Encoding and subtitling or dubbing costs should be included in production budgets.
• Closed-captioned version for hearing impaired productions available as widely as possible.
• Dubbing costs included in the production budget (excluding the Marketing Program).
• Cost associated with the final polish of the script, attaching cast, and early pre-production eligible for greenlight advances.

Eligible geographic areas

This grant is open to Canadian production companies that are based and carry out their activities within Canada. The program is designed to support and fund projects within the country's established guidelines.

• Companies must have their head office in Canada.
• Applicants must operate as audiovisual production companies within Canadian territory.

Here are additional relevant details for this grant:

• Telefilm aims for its participation to be approximately one third of eligible Canadian production costs.
• Projects funded by Telefilm must be made available in both official languages, subtitled or dubbed, and have a closed-captioned version available.
• Telefilm may provide greenlight advances under specific conditions, which will count towards its total funding for the project.
• An Indigenous Stream is available, which sets aside funds for projects by Indigenous filmmakers to overcome unique barriers in the audiovisual industry.
• Advisory committees evaluate projects using an evaluation grid and provide a priority ranking based on different portfolios, such as language market and budget level.
• Telefilm's decision-making considers the objective of fostering a diversity of voices to ensure project funding reflects various genres, budgets, and perspectives.