The Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Belgium’s Wallonia regions audiovisual public financing arm, Wallimage, have signed an agreement to renew their digital media incentive pact for another three years.

Started in December 2014, the Canada-Wallonia Digital Media Incentive for Multiplatform Projects aims to encourage the codevelopment and coproduction of digital media projects between the two countries. The pact was renewed again in September 2016.

Under the incentive, the two organization’s previously invested $400,000 in the Canada/Belgian copro Riftworld: Heroes in November 2015. Riftworld: Heroes is a mobile game linked to the web series Riftworld: Chronicles, a sci-fi copro between First Love Films and Sienna Films which launched on CBC in 2015. The web series follows a struggling journalist who partners with dimension-travelling wizard who accidentally landed on Earth.

The Canada-Wallonia digital incentive has an annual budget of $600,000, with the program providing up to $100,000 in funding for each of two projects at the development stage and $400,000 for one project’s production. Each organization provides about half of the program’s budget.

French organization Pôle Media Grand Paris, which oversees the regulation of the Paris region’s audiovisual economic development, will also be assisting the program as its logistical partner to provide support for in development projects.

The three-year deal was signed in a ceremony in the presence of Belgium’s King Philippe and Queen Mathilde as part of their state visit to Canada. 

Eligible projects must be interactive or immersive digital content that is innovative or experimental in terms of content, technology or delivery method and must be created on an appropriate platform.

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