The Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) has it eyes on new and expanded partnerships in 2025 after hiring Melanie Nepinak Hadley (pictured right) as VP, industry partnerships and growth last month.

The former senior director at Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada is tasked with growing the ISO’s partnerships with international and domestic organizations, building on Hadley’s expansive experience working with large broadcasters and U.S. companies.

“This includes existing partners while also being open for potential new opportunities all of which must align with our overall strategy and mandate,” Hadley tells Playback Daily. “We are hopeful to deepen the relationships we have while also diversifying them.”

The ISO has also hired Candice Jacko as program manager of post-production and market opportunities. She will support the growth of ISO’s funding team as they take over the administration of the Canada Media Fund’s $10 million Indigenous Program, effective April 1.

Tash Naveau and Kaya Wheeler are the program managers in charge of CMF and ISO for production and development, respectively. Jacko is in charge of post-production, marketing, distribution and travel funding.

The growth follows a landmark year for the ISO, which secured permanent funding from the federal government to the tune of $13 million per year. The ISO was also one of the organizations selected by the CRTC to receive contributions from foreign-owned streaming platforms.

“For us, we still see an expansive landscape of opportunity, whereas everyone else sees only shrinking and contracting,” says ISO CEO Kerry Swanson (pictured left).

Another goal is to streamline the ISO and CMF programs to reduce the workload for producers and applicants. Hadley says that involves changes to the application portal to make it more “approachable” and to be able to access more data.

With the organization’s estimated $37 million annual budget, the goal is to plan for the future and for what the community needs, says Hadley. That involves further plans to expand the ISO team. A new three-year strategy is scheduled to be released in the summer.

“I think we’re realistic about wanting to sustain what we have in terms of government funding, but also to look at the opportunities we have to partner,” says Swanson. She cited the organization’s track record of partnerships with Netflix, Google, Sundance and MIT. While Netflix pulled back training and development support in September 2024, Swanson says that five-year partnership is an example of what the ISO wants to continue to pursue.

“I don’t know if it’s [that the] number of projects increase or we just go deeper with the ones that we have,” says Hadley. “The reality is that it will be competitive in the Indigenous side of the industry, which is not completely new, but I think new for the ISO.”

Swanson says Hadley’s experience with Warner Bros. Discovery will also be helpful in expanding the ISO’s involvement in mentorship opportunities, along with education and training programs for crew. She highlighted the ISO’s crew training program on CBC, APTN and Netflix’s North of North (Red Marrow Media, Northwood Entertainment) and the ISO’s support of actor Tantoo Cardinal’s Tap Root Actors Academy in the Kikino Métis settlement in Alberta as examples.

The ultimate goal, she says, is to have an Indigenous production fully crewed by Indigenous people, “and to be able to do that in different parts of Canada.”

Hadley also highlighted the breadth of the ISO’s mandate despite the team’s small size, stating that more than 30% of its funding goes to people in non-urban centres.

“It seems like the Indigenous communities have always been doing stuff in these little pockets with whatever they have available to them,” says Hadley. “And now, with the ISO, we’re hoping to tap into those and give them what we can to elevate that.”

Images courtesy of the Indigenous Screen Office