Telefilm Canada has released updated guidelines for its Canada Feature Film Development program.

Starting July 2, funding for the Canada Feature Film Development Program will be allotted based on a new scoring system. Scores will be tabulated based on points assigned to each film the applicant production company has produced in the past five years. The points assigned will be based on the films’ success, and a cumulative score for the production company based on the sum of those points.

The system is separate from Telefilm’s Success Index, but has many of the same elements (the Success Index, for example, measures the performance of a film over a one-year period). The development program’s points system is weighed 60% to commercial elements such as international and domestic box office returns and sales, and 30% weighted to cultural criteria like entries into film festivals and critical awards.

For the most part, development financing provided by Telefilm will be automatically based on the total score each applicant production company receives. Producers applying for funding will be able to access the total score given to their production company by Telefilm via the eTelefilm portal before they submit a final, formal application for development financing.

Overall, these changes were meant to better meet “the intent of the program to align the access to dollars to the track record of the companies,” said Michel Pradier, director of project financing with Telefilm Canada, as well as help production companies plan for future projects.

“All of our clients are companies, so they need some predictability,” Pradier said.

Applications for projects coming from “targeted groups” under Telefilm’s criteria, including Aboriginal, minority language communities and new talent, will not be automatically given a score but rather reviewed in a subjective selection process. Production companies that are eligible to apply to the development program but achieve a score of zero on the aforementioned criteria can apply in a selective decision making round that will occur in the fall.