The latest offerings from Vincenzo Natali, David Cronenberg and Sarah Polley have received financial backing from the Ontario Media Development Corporation, which handed out $1.6 million as part of its Film Fund.

Twelve new features will split the money, which enables producers to complete their financing on a ‘last-in basis,’ according to a Thursday release.

Cronenberg’s The Talking Cure, a film version of the 2002 play about the early days of psychoanalysis, is among six projects that scored production funding, alongside the romantic comedy I’m Yours from husband-and-wife team Jennifer Jonas and Leonard Farlinger. Other recipients include Larysa Kondracki’s drama The Whistleblower, a Canada/Germany coproduction starring Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), and Paul Barkin’s sci-fi The Colony.

Among the six recipients in the development phase are Sandra Cunningham and Norman Jewison for High Alert — inspired by Jewison’s 1966 comedy The Russian’s Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. Vincenzo Natali scored funding for a new film titled Permission, as did Sarah Polley for Take This Waltz.

Foundry Films’ Danny Iron received money for the teen fantasy Pig Tale, to be directed next year by Aaron Woodley (Toronto Stories, Rhinoceros Eyes). Noel Baker (Hard Core Logo) is adapting from a book by J.R.R. Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger.

The film follows an outcast girl and her pet pig as they face off against the cruel villagers who torment them.

‘I loved the story… it’s very moving,’ Iron tells Playback Daily, adding that Pig Tale is in the vein of fantasy films such as The Golden Compass or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Iron and coproducer Jessica Levin (Rhinoceros Eyes) are partnering with Toronto’s C.O.R.E. Digital to create a visual look for the film, which will have a combination of live-action, puppetry and CGI elements. Iron says Pig Tale will likely be a coproduction with Ireland or the U.K.

The OMDC’s Film Fund has contributed over $15 million to support 113 domestic feature films since 2005.