Telefilm allocates $14.1M to 26 English market films

The funding is being allocated through the low-budget stream of the Production Program.

Telefilm Canada has selected 26 feature film projects to support via its investment of $14.1 million in the English market under the Production Program in the low-budget stream.

Three English-language projects from the Atlantic region were selected, including two from Nova Scotia: Baby (Peep Media), written and directed by Jackie Torrens, and The Shuttle (Brass Door Productions) from writer-director Winston DeGiobbi. The third, Blueberry Picking (Oversherry Productions) from writer-director Sherry White, hails from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Telefilm selected three features from Quebec for this latest round of funding. Among them is the majority copro between Canada and Colombia, Donde Comienza el Río (Where the River Begins; Midi La Nuit, Inercia Películas), written and directed by Juan Andrés Arango. The project is a Spanish-language and Emberá, Indigenous dialect film.

Also from Quebec is the English- and French-language Moving Day (Cotton Bush Productions), directed by Caitlyn Sponheimer, Tamara Scherbak, Carol Nguyen, Kaye Adelaide, Jill Carter and Kim Barr, and written by Diane Janna, Tamara Scherbak, M.J. Kang, Kathy-Ann Thomas, Deydra Baptiste, Katrina Bertrand and Alex Feldman. Rounding out the Quebec films is the English-language Red Acres (Slykid), written and directed by Chris Bavota and Lee Paula Springer.

Ten of the low-budget features hail from Ontario, including Deathstalker (Hangar 18 Media), written and directed by Steven Kostanski; Homebodies (Cave Painting Pictures), screenplay by Adrian Murray and Marcus Sullivan and directed by Casey Walker; I Come Home (Viddywell Films), written by Andreas Vatiliotou and directed by Glen Wood; and Lunar Sway (Cloudy Falls Pictures), from writer-director Nicholas Butler.

Also from Ontario are Morningside (Augusta Avenue Productions) from screenwriters Joanne Jansen and Ron Dias, with Dias directing; Pocket Mirror (Ravenea Pictures, Silent Tower) from writer-director Adrian Murray; The Temple (Babe Nation Creations, Lisa Pictures), written and directed by Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis; and UGLY (3 Legged Dog Films) from writer-director Ed Gass-Donnelly.

Rounding out the Ontario features are the English- and Somali-language film Nuur (Good Question Media) from writer Hassan Ghedi Santur and director Lula Ali Ismail, and They Echo (Snail Mail Media, Defar Media) from writer-director Lu Asfaha, filmed in English and Swahili.

Selected films from the Western region include the Alberta feature Grand Prairie (Grand Prairie Film) from screenwriters Evan Prosofsky and Chandra Melting Tallow, with Prosofsky directing, which will be filmed in English, Blackfoot (Siksika First Nation) and Carinthian German (Hutterite Colony). Out of Manitoba and Quebec comes Hair of the Bear (Hair of The Bear Films, HOTB Quebec Productions) from writer-directors Alexandre Trudeau and James McLellan, filmed in English and French.

Also from the west are two interprovincial copros, including One Perfect Date (Prairie Cat Productions, Megafun Productions) from writer-director Lucas Frison, a joint Saskatchewan and Quebec; and the Saskatchewan and Ontario project Split Rock (Prowler Pictures, Low End, Observer Effect Productions) from writer-director Ryan Glover.

Two B.C. projects made the cut, including director Melanie Oates’ Stranger in Town (Goodbye Productions), written by Patrick Whistler; and director Arnold Lim’s English-Cantonese language film The Bryce Lee Story (Blue Lake Films) from screenwriters Connor Gaston, Lim and Kyle D’Odorico.

Rounding out the 26 projects are three minority copros from Quebec and one from Ontario. The Quebec films include writer-director Lara Zeidan’s Birthday (Couronne Nord, Sevana Films), filmed in Arabic, English and French, a Canada/France copro; the English-language Quebec film Idling (9468-2713 Québec, Premier Studio) from director Theodore Ushev and screenwriter Chris Robinson, a Canada/Bulgaria copro; and Persian-language film Tahmina (Greenground Productions, Silkroad Film Salon) from writer-director Aboozar Amini, a Canada/Netherlands copro.

The Ontario copro is Terra (Khak; Borrowed Light Films, Aeternam Films, Doppio Nodo Double Bind). written by Giovanna Giuliani and Raha Shirazi and directed by Shirazi, a Canada/France/Italy coproduction.

Telefilm received an increasingly high volume of applications under the Production Program this year, according to a news release. In this first intake, 187 projects were assessed in the low-budget stream, including international coproductions, representing more than $106 million in funding requests. Films that qualify for the low-budget stream have a total budget of less than $3.5 million.

More funding decisions, including projects from the low-budget Indigenous Stream, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Image: Unsplash