The Harold Greenberg Fund and Tattersall Sound and Picture have signed on as sponsors for the Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC) program providing additional funding and in-kind services to the initiative, and expanding the scope of its Feature Film Award.

Women in the Director’s Chair is a professional development program which aims to advance the skills, careers and screen projects of female directors. The Harold Greenberg Fund sponsorship includes a $40,000 grant to support the program overall, as well as a $35,000 investment in the film selected for the Women in the Director’s Chair Feature Film Award.

The additional cash has enabled Women in the Director’s Chair to make its Feature Film Award national in scope, and consider women-directed projects from across the country. Previously, the prize supported women-directed films hailing from British Columbia. Tattersall Sound and Picture, meanwhile, has committed to providing post services to the project which wins the Feature Film Prize. The total value of the prize (with in-kind contributions) is now $155,000.

It was announced in March this year that Jordan Canning’s Suck It Up was the winner of the 2015 Feature Film Prize. Canning (pictured) said the Women in the Director’s Chair backing was the first major financial backing the project received, which will have a total budget of under $400,000.

Production on Suck It Up is currently slated to start in May or June 2016 in Invermere, B.C. The film is produced by Marc Tetreault and Jason Lavangie.

Suck It Up was one of eight projects selected to participate in this year’s Women in the Director’s Chair Story & Leadership program. The other seven filmmakers and selected projects are Mary Walsh (A Christmas Fury), Anita Reilly McGee (Black Mammy), Maya Gallus (Nights in the Underground), Frances-Anne Solomon (Hero), Nicole Dorsey (Black Conflux), Ana De Lara (The Virgin Mary had a Little Lamb) and Marie Clements (Crooked Bones).

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Correction: An earlier version of this article indicated the Feature Film Award supports women-directed films hailing from British Columbia. With the additional sponsorship from the Harold Greenberg Fund, the award is now national in scope. 

Updated on Dec. 5 at 1:25 p.m.