As it increases its support for commercial filmmaking, Telefilm Canada is to invest in the winning film from the CineCoup Film Accelerator, to be announced in Banff.

Telefilm on the weekend included CineCoup president of distribution and sales Brad Pelman as part of its Talent To Watch event at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film financier will next partner with CineCoup as a short-list of five proposed films are pitched to industry experts at the Banff World Media Festival in June, before a winning film receives $1 million in production financing.

Pelman told Playback that Telefilm will invest a still-to-be-determined amount in the winning CineCoup project.

“We have not defined the monetary contribution and won’t until we announce the selected picture at Banff,” Pelman said.

“Telefilm’s support is validation for our model and it ensures that our new discovery will have access to the strength of the Telefilm and Cinecoup partnership,” he added.

CineCoup recently unveiled its top 10 submissions.

Telefilm, which declined comment on its investment in the winning CineCoup film until plans are finalized, is backing the Vancouver-based film accelerator as part of its New Ways of Discovering Canadian Talent marketing campaign.

Carolle Brabant, Telefilm’s executive director, said the newly-created marketing campaign was created to promote “the next cinematic gems.”

“But to do this, we rely on partners who share our passion for cinema and who want to push the boundaries of development, production, distribution and marketing. That’s why we were so delighted to join with CineCoup as the first collaborator in our promotional campaign,” Brabant added in a statement.