Telefilm Canada’s Canada Feature Film Fund and Screenwriting Assistance Program have announced their selections for 2004/05.

This year, four films were chosen from 11 applications to be developed, produced and marketed by the CFFF, representing a potential $10.4-million commitment from Telefilm.

Step, for director Clement Virgo, tells of a teenager from a low-income Toronto neighborhood who is passionate about dance. Snowcake, to be directed by Marc Evans and coproduced with the U.K., looks at the friendship between an autistic woman and a quiet, brooding man in Wawa, ON. Partition, to be directed by Vic Sarin and coproduced with the U.K. and South Africa, is set during India’s break from the British Empire. This historical drama follows the love story between a former British Army Sikh officer and a Muslim girl he rescues. Citizen Duane, for helmer Michael Mabbot, is an offbeat comedy about a teenaged boy who runs for mayor of a southern Ontario town.

The CFFF was launched in April 2001 to increase Canadian audiences for homegrown feature films with good box-office potential.

Meanwhile, SAP has accepted 16 English-language and 11 French-language original screenplays selected by a jury of industry professionals, including screenwriters, producers, directors and distribution executives. A complementary program of the CFFF, SAP was started in 2000 to develop screenwriters and build a collection of Canadian feature film screenplays with wide audience appeal.

-www.telefilm.gc.ca