Filmmakers looking for attention on the international scene could get help from Telefilm Canada, which this month announced plans to put up to $200,000 annually into the promotion of English- and French-language films screening at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Pusan, Sundance and Venice.

The money will go toward P&A, acquiring a publicist, subtitling the film into third languages, and airfare for the film’s artistic crew.

In addition, a second program will see French-language pics receive between $350,000 and $500,000 annually to help bolster global sales. The program is capped at $50,000 per project and is intended to help find new ways of financing Quebec films following Telefilm’s shortfall earlier this year.

No new money was collected for the two promotional programs, according to Michel Pradier, director of French operations at the Quebec office of Telefilm.

‘We basically reconfigured funding that was already available in a way that would make it more focused on some of the objectives that we’ve outlined,’ Pradier said during a press briefing.

Though French-language films are receiving the largest portion of the pie, industry development operations director Danny Chalifour says it’s not a question of fairness.

‘We are investing proportionately equal amounts of dollars, but on the problems which have been identified with [the French] market,’ he explains. ‘In terms of the English market, we’re spending a lot more on training and development of scriptwriters and marketing strategies [than in the French market].’

Applications for both programs will be accepted until Jan. 15, 2007.

Meanwhile, the federal agency recently released its annual report for 2005/06, citing higher box office and ratings for English-language feature films and TV shows as positive signs. Canadian productions, including those from Quebec, reached a 5.3% share of the overall feature film market during the year ending March 31, generating $44 million, according to the report.

‘The challenge that now faces us is to reach an increasingly connected public who has access to sources of entertainment as numerous as they are inventive,’ writes Telefilm exec director Wayne Clarkson.

Earlier this year, Telefilm launched a five-year plan, billed as From Cinemas to Cell Phones, to address the changing realities of new media business models and financing.

www. telefilm.gc.ca