The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has allocated more than $2.5 million to 41 organizations through the 2024-25 Sector Development Support program’s fall and spring funding rounds.
The program supports industry initiatives run by organizations in Canada’s audiovisual sector that address gaps in specified areas. Selected projects target Indigenous, Black, racialized, official language minority or other underrepresented communities.
The program has two funding streams: Capacity Building, for initiatives that advance opportunities for participants while building their skills to advance individual or company growth; and industry participation and Market Access, for initiatives that advance opportunities for participants and their projects to obtain commercial opportunities and/or finance projects.
Eleven of the 41 initiatives were selected from the spring funding round with nearly $518,000 allocated. The remaining 30 were selected in the fall funding round with nearly $2 million provided, according to the Friday (Jan. 24) release.
In the fall funding, 73% of organizations are designed for English-speaking groups with 27% intended for French. In the spring funding, 82% are led by anglophones and 18% by francophones.
Of the 41 funded projects, 39 were designed for equity-deserving groups. Thirteen of the projects are led in Quebec, 12 in Ontario, 10 in B.C., two in Nova Scotia and one each in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Yukon.
The highest amount of funding any one project received is $100,000. Quebec-based organizations that received the maximum include Muslims in Media and Wakiponi Mobile. Ontario-based initiatives that saw investments of $100,000 include the Banff Television Festival Foundation, Canadian Film Centre, CaribbeanTales, Hot Docs and the Toronto International Film Festival.
DigiBC, Gender Equity in Media Society Vancouver, the Pacific Screenwriting Program and the Racial Equity Screen Office are among the B.C. organizations that received the maximum funding.
Other Western Canada-based programs that received funding include Alberta’s Scaffold Institute and the Saskatchewan Media Production Industry Association. Both received investments of $50,000.
From Nova Scotia, the Lunenburg Doc Fest received $47,500 and Women in Film and Television – Atlantic received $27,477.
Other funded initiatives include Manitoba’s Indigenous Futures Film Academy, receiving $75,000; Cultural Industries Ontario North, receiving $100,000; the Kingston Film and Media Commission, receiving $40,560; and the Screen Production Yukon Association with $30,125.
Funding from the Sector Development Support program is awarded on a selective basis and is juried by a team of CMF staff.
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