VANCOUVER — Infinity Features scored top marks with Telefilm Canada this week, beating 12 other applications to bag $250,000 from the agency’s new Slate Development pilot program.

‘Infinity came in with a strong slate, covering a range of genres, at various stages of development, and with a distributor [Seville] already attached, which was key,’ says Telefilm exec John Dippong. ‘They’ve a proven track record, they’ve spent 10 to 12 years developing strong partners around the world. Companies like that don’t need as much money for production.’

Which raises the question: Why give public money to a prodco that already has an Oscar under its belt — for Capote — and solid ties to the likes of REM’s Michael Stipe, Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment and Pierce Brosnan’s Irish DreamTime?

‘Because all companies can use assistance at the development stage,’ Dippong counters. ‘We want to help them develop stuff that might normally take years to get to the market.’

Making a feature film, he adds, ‘is like an oil patch — you have to drill lots of holes before it produces. This money can give them more freedom, leverage, more mileage. It gives them more creative autonomy at the development stage, and meets our primary goal — to increase Canadian audiences in theaters for Canadian feature films. It’s all about getting Canadian films into the marketplace, rather than just getting them made.’

Infinity producer Robert Merilees concurs. ‘We’re exactly the type of company who should get public funding like this. We’re still trying, working hard, to make a viable business here in Vancouver. Programs like this are part of the reason we can stay in Vancouver.’

Merlilees notes they’ve been lobbying Telefilm to invest in development for years. ‘Development is the most important part if you want to compete in the world market,’ he says, ‘instead of rushing a project into production which gets made but never gets seen.’

Merilees is about to shoot a 13-episode medical drama series with Fox in Bogota, Colombia. Still on hold is the Terry Gilliam copro The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, following the death last month of star Heath Ledger. For now, Merilees will only say, ‘we’re standing by our director.’

Telefilm is considering establishing another application date in 2008.