The National Screen Institute on Friday announced a three-year partnership with NBCUniversal Canada for the NSI’s Aboriginal training courses.

For one year of the agreement, NBCUniversal Canada will be the presenting sponsor of the new NSI Aboriginal Documentary course, which is set to launch this fall.

The course will provide four writer-director-producer teams with training for more than a year as they produce a short doc film.

“We have had the great fortune of working with NBCUniversal Canada on two other training programs for emerging Aboriginal content creators,” said John Gill, NSI CEO, in a statement.

“This new partnership ensures we can continue to deliver exceptional market-driven courses for Aboriginal writers, directors and producers in Canada,” he added.

The NSI has also ramped up its prize offerings for Canadian filmmakers through the NSI Online Short Film Festival, to the tune of a total of $4500.

GlassBox Television in March committed a $50,000 investment to online initiatives at the NSI, leading to the creation of the quarterly $750 Bite Comedy Award, a partnership between the NSI and GlassBox’s Bite channel, for best comedy short in the NSI Online Short Film Festival.

Also in March, the institute launched the $2500 quarterly Fearless Female Director Award, lead by an investment from Shaw Media into the short film fest.

All films part of the NSI Short Film Festival programming are also eligible for the quarterly A+E $1250 Short Filmmakers Award.

The year-round Canadian short film showcase presents its awards four times a year.

The submission deadline for this round is May 17.