As early kudos and warnings roll in on the new Canadian Feature Film Fund (CF3), announced Oct. 5 by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, funding agency British Columbia Film has been first to dovetail its programs to the new $100-million fund.

Within five days of the announcement – which was long on ideas but sketchy on detail – B.C. Film found an additional $75,000 to fund a second call for feature screenplays for its script development program. The second call opens in December and closes in January.

The first round, which attracted 42 scripts vying for a share of the development kitty worth $100,000, closed earlier this month and applicants are being adjudicated now. In 1999, the first year for the script development program, B.C. Film received 68 scripts, 10 of which shared a $100,000 development pool.

‘We want to feed the monster,’ says B.C. Film president and ceo Rob Egan, referring to CF3 and its need for marketable material. ‘We want to ensure that more scripts get attention at the development stage to make them attractive to producers.’

A ‘very, very happy’ Telefilm Canada will administer CF3, which launches fully next April 1 and will double current domestic industry funding commitments to $100 million.

About $11 million of the new money is available almost immediately, however, providing a kick start to the program and features that have not yet found subsidy funding. Telefilm exec director Francois Macerola says since the agency has ‘so many applications on the desk’ for French-language features, Telefilm will not invite new applications until the full fund kicks in next year. Rather, it will announce English-track submission deadlines for its offices in Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver.

As Playback went to press, Macerola was also planning the schedule for cross-country meetings to discuss the fine points of the fund’s operations with producers, distributors, broadcasters, filmmakers, writers, technicians – all relevant parties. He says the details will be on Telefilm’s website.

According to Copps, much of the CF3 funding will be based on box office, Canadian content and critical acclaim. The average budget for a Canadian film will be $5 million or more and the average marketing budget will be $500,000 or more, she adds.

‘This is not a magic bullet,’ says Copps, referring to the implementation of the new feature film policy. ‘We are responding to the need to market our films better.’

Funding flowing from the new policy will largely come from an $85 million Project Development, Production and Marketing Program. Producers and distributors will be rewarded through ‘performance-based’ funding, and marketing monies will be increased to develop audiences.

Macerola outlines three broad categories features will fall into: ‘first first’ films without producers, of the type formerly supported by the Canada Council; first ‘films d’auteur,’ with producers and distributors attached; and market-driven projects which demonstrate a cultural component but whose producers ‘build their own line of credit and will be responsible for putting a commercially viable film on the screen.’ The percentage of the fund available to each category has not yet been detailed.

Related programs administered by Telefilm include a new Screenwriting Assistance Program (worth $2.3 million) and a Complementary Activities Program ($5 million), which is set aside for film festivals, film awards ceremonies and alternative distribution networks.

A total of $6.5 million is earmarked for ‘creative and professional development’ through programs for film production co-operatives, independent filmmaker assistance and a Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund.

Lastly, the fund provides $750,000 per year to restore, preserve and disseminate existing Canadian films.

According to Heritage, the goal of the new feature policy is to increase the Canadian share of domestic box office from 2% at present to 5% in five years.

Not surprisingly, most of the industry applauded the increased funding, the commitment to marketing, the emphasis on commercial success and the support of the emerging filmmaker. But the CF3 announcement – which was two years in consultations and development – generated a fair amount of skepticism because of the lack of detail on the rollout and its apparent embodiment of the Hollywood adage, ‘You’re only as good as your last film.’

Copps says a new round of consultations that has already begun will work out CF3’s finer points. Some of those details may include corporate caps to ensure large companies like Alliance Atlantis don’t overwhelm the fund. Other details may define the proportion of the fund dedicated to selective ‘non-performance’-based features and how performance will be measured.

‘[The minister] showed real wisdom in not changing the production services tax credit,’ says Egan at B.C. Film. ‘It shows she understands the role of the service industry in our province.’

About $68 million of the money is earmarked for producers with proven box office performance – a scenario that seems to benefit larger Toronto and Montreal production companies that have more established track records with audiences, says Egan.

One problem for filmmakers that is not addressed in CF3 is access to screen time, says Egan, pointing to the stranglehold exercised by u.s. multinationals on Canadian screens.

While actra is pleased with the CF3 in that it provides new resources to help Canadian filmmakers make marketable movies, Garry Neil, policy advisor to actra, is skeptical and warns not to expect too much from the new fund.

‘I think the government was pretty modest with its projection that we would increase to 5% (box office) in five years with only $50 million….That’s about the budget of one above-average American film.’

The real issue, he says, is control over film distribution.

‘Until we tackle the problem of controlling film distribution in Canada, we can’t expect significant inroads in the Canadian market,’ says Neil.

‘Ninety-seven percent of profits of film distribution in Canada go to the same companies that control the u.s. market,’ says Neil, who suggests content quotas and the restriction of North American distribution rights could keep the money in Canadian pockets.

cafde president Richard Paradis suggests that a higher level of risk-taking and, thus, accountability from distributors and producers is key to the success of the Canadian film industry.

While the CF3 includes many of cafde’s recommendations, including the box-office, success-driven reward system, Paradis would like to see a policy in place that would have distributors and producers putting up 50% of Telefilm funding from their own pockets. ‘We’d be doubling the capacity for Telefilm to fund films and we would ensure a strong commitment to projects,’ he says.

And while Paradis is thrilled with the fund’s commitment to marketing, he balks at Copps’ suggesting a fixed marketing budget ($500,000).

‘The producer and distributor should test market the film – if you see good potential then go ahead – it could be $500,000 or $1 million.’

Meanwhile, producer Robin Cass of Toronto’s Triptych Media (The Hanging Garden) and chair of the Feature Film Advisory Committee, estimates the industry will grow significantly thanks to the new level of funding, because it will ‘let us spend more money doing what we are already doing.’ The process of evaluation based on performance is going to be a ‘delicate issue,’ he admits.

‘I’m deliriously happy,’ says distributor Mary-Pat Gleeson, vp marketing at Red Sky Entertainment (recently purchased by Vancouver’s Keystone Entertainment). ‘It’s a sign the industry is maturing. There has been a lot of effort into this and it seems like [government] was listening.’

Marine Life director Anne Wheeler congratulated the tenacity of the film lobbyists. ‘It’s important that there is still room for new filmmakers and screenwriters.’

‘[It’s an] excellent framework,’ says cftpa president Elizabeth McDonald. ‘It looks at the whole life cycle of the feature film and I think that’s important.’

Among its many contributions to Canadian filmmaking, the fund provides the opportunity to leverage money from the private sector, McDonald says. ‘Some of the small and medium-sized companies, while they will still be taking enormous risk, will have better backing, which means they may attract more investment as well.’

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters also applauds the new fund. ‘The cab is pleased to see that the public/private partnership involved in crafting this policy has had such a positive result,’ says Michael McCabe, cab president. ‘The Canadian Feature Film Fund is a step in the right direction, one that will benefit Canada’s screenwriters, filmmakers and their audiences.’

Future Plan, the cab’s blueprint for broadcasting in the digital era, also calls on the federal government to award funding on the basis of domestic audience and foreign sales success.

A permanent Feature Film Advisory Committee will be struck to help guide CF3 for the ministry. *

With files from Susan Tolusso

-www.telefim.gc.ca