The Rogers Documentary Fund, operated by Rogers Documentary and Cable Network Fund, has awarded $1.6 million in grants to 25 doc projects, in a move that it is calling “an unprecedented show of support for independent documentary producers.”

The recently announced grants bring the total funding for 2011 to $2,600,000, which is a 30% increase from its annual budget of $2,000,000.

“This is a critical time for the documentary production industry as broadcast windows for this genre disappear,” said Phil Lind, chair of the board of the Rogers Documentary and Cable Network Fund, and vice chair of Rogers Communications.  “Canada has a well deserved, world-wide reputation for its excellence in documentary production and we felt it was important that the Rogers Doc Fund increase its funding of projects as a much-needed boost to the doc community.”

The fund offers grants of up to $75,000 per project for documentaries pre-licensed by a national Canadian broadcaster with a prime-time broadcast commitment.

Projects receiving the latest round of grants include Que vive la mer morte from Intuitive Pictures in Montréal; Fruit Hunters, produced by EyeSteelFilm in Montréal; and Ice, Sweat & Tears from Toronto’s Markham Street Films. In total, 42 French and English documentaries have received monies through the fund in 2011.

Funding guidelines and deadlines for 2012 will be released by Rogers Documentary Fund in December.

The 42 docs receiving funding from the Rogers Documentary Fund in 2011 are:

1000 jours pour la planète- Mission Biodiversité

1812: War of the Worlds

Blood Relative – Mumbai’s Forgotten Children

Boredom

Broken Jade

Buzkashi!

Cheaters

Dérivation

Destination Taxi

Do You Really Want to Know?

Face à face, sur les traces de Richard Ferron

Father Figures

Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children

Fruit Hunters

Hannah Arenot

High Risk: Why Men Cheat

Hue

Ice, Sweat & Tears

La fidélité +ou-

Last Woman Standing

Les Ailes de Johnny May

Les derniers hommes-éléphants

Les Roms

Lights Out

Lost Heroes

Lunarcy!

Mort ou Vif

Operation Greenup – The Real Inglourious Basterds!

Que vive la mer morte

Rahul Singh Documentary

Secondaire 5

Sous la ville

The Assassination of Gandhi

The Beaver Whisperer

The Boomer Biz

The Carbon Rush

The Defector (Pyongyang Express: Escape From North Korea)

The Jungle Prescription

The Young and the Jobless

Trouble in the Peace

When Dreams Take Flight

WIND Documentary

-From Realscreen