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IPF taps nine series for short-form production funding

By Victoria Ahearn
November 23, 2022
Five short-form series in English and four in French will receive equity investments as well consultation, training and advisory services.

The Independent Production Fund (IPF) has chosen nine scripted, short-form series for production financing totalling over $1.7 million.

The approved series in the Short Form Series Production Program “have been created for exploitation primarily on digital platforms and channels,” with five of them in English and four in French, according to a news release. They’ll receive equity investments as well consultation, training and advisory services.

The latest crop of recipients represent a mix of new and established digital production companies. The majority hail from Ontario, and include the Ontario-B.C. dramedy Degrees of Separation from Fae Pictures’ Shant Joshi, Eva Grant, Abdul Malik, Lindsay Blair Goeldner, and Lauren Saarimaki.

The other Ontario series include the comedy Finding Green from Bone Vault Story’s Heidi Lynch; comedy-mystery-thriller It Doesn’t Show from Szaboteur Films’ Nason Markwell and Bronwyn Szabo; comedy-mystery-thriller Tales From The B Side from Fenton & Smordin Pictures’ Kate Fenton and Breann Smordin; and comedy Well Versed from Border2Border Entertainment’s Charlie David.

Quebec projects include animated comedy En ondes avec Ovide from Colegram’s Olivier Guillemette and Pierre-Alexandre Bouchard; comedy-thriller J’adore le jus from Casadel Films’ Patrick Francke-Sirois; comedy La dernière communion from Roméo & Fils’ Martin Henri, Francis Corbeil-Savage, Marina Khoury and Beatrice Moukhaiber; and musical comedy Purgatorio from SPORT’s Johannie Deschambault.

The series were chosen from a process that began in March, when 129 projects were submitted to the IPF from across Canada. A 30-plus member evaluation committee selected 20 projects from the submissions, to receive financing from the IPF/CMF Development Packaging Program for a total of roughly $600,000.

Seventeen of those 20 projects then completed their development phase and were eligible to apply to the Short Form Series Production Program on Oct. 5. A select jury of evaluators, as well as the IPF board of directors, analyzed and rated the production funding applications.

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