Montreal: The National Screen Institute and Telefilm Canada have launched a ‘break the mold’ professional feature film development program for emerging filmmakers based outside of Ontario and Quebec. The program coincides with an upswing in feature production in Western Canada with as many as a dozen films slated to go forward this year.

An nsi initiative, the Features First program is open to first- and second-time filmmakers who are not in school and are resident in Western Canada or Atlantic Canada.

The development program has a year one budget of close to $300,000 with nsi putting up two thirds of the funding with the balance from Telefilm Canada’s Vancouver office.

nsi executive director Jan Miller says the applying groups could be composed of an independent filmmaker/writer, as well as an expanded group made up of a director, screenwriter and producer.

‘What we are doing is calling for projects. We would encourage a producer being part of the component because you need it no matter what, but it is the project that will be selected first,’ says Miller.

‘The program’s real strength will be its ability to respond to the realities rather than forcing shape and structure on projects,’ she says.

A maximum of five projects will be selected with the deadline for applications delivered to nsi’s Edmonton office set for August 13.

Per Miller, getting second film projects off the ground is often as difficult or more than first time films. Pure happenstance sometimes drives a film debut, but second features have the added pressure of expectations and higher standards with no real assurances of sufficient funding or experience on the filmmaker’s part, she says.

Last year, five low-budget features were produced in Alberta.

‘My feeling is the five that were produced would have benefited greatly and their films would have gone further had this program been in place,’ says Miller.

Ralph Holt, Telefilm director, operations, Atlantic regions, says the new development program ‘is a golden opportunity’ for new filmmakers.

Holt says two features were produced in Atlantic Canada last year, Love and Death on Long Island, a u.k./Canada coproduction, and first-time director Tom Fitzgerald’s Hanging Garden.

The hope is to have at least two features go forward this year including Writer’s Block, a coproduction currently in front of the cameras, with a larger, unspecified project – requiring a major u.s. presale – also a possibility.

‘Feature film (in the East) is really a delicate little flower that has to be nurtured,’ says Holt. ‘There is some amazing talent that’s ready to go, but the environment for features is so precarious.’

The Atlantic office hopes to invest about $2 million in features this year.

John Taylor, Telefilm’s director, Western operations, says the production cycle is high in Western Canada with as many as a dozen features set to go forward this year. Feature funding from Telefilm in Vancouver will grow from $2 million last year to approximately $5 million this year.

‘But there is also a wonderful synergy that is happening in the West in the past two or three years with a number of emerging filmmakers – including Bruce Sweeney (Dirty) and Gary Burns (Kitchen Party), Lynne Stopkewich (Kissed) and Mina Shum (Double Happiness) and others that I could mention – bouncing off each other in terms of ideas and cultivating what I would call a film culture,’ says Taylor.

As many as four of the new films will be in the low-budget (under $1 million) category, free of distribution or broadcast deal requirements, with the balance falling into the $1.5 to $2.5 million range and one or two budgeted at $3.5 million and more. Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces are the only ‘regional’ jurisdictions with production tax credits.

Telefilm in Vancouver is also providing completion funding of up to $100,000 for films (such as Kissed, Live Bait, Suburbanators, Horsey) produced without upfront agency money. In this case, a rough cut edit and ‘some market interest’ (i. e. a festival invitation) are required, he adds.

Taylor says the Features First program is indeed part of an overall growth plan and is effectively the feature film continuation of the nsi’s short film Drama Prize program. He says the office’s low budget program will subsequently be in a better position to invest in the production of projects emerging from Features First.

nsi’s ongoing flagship programs include the short film showcase Local Her’es Screen Festival and Drama Prize, which supports short film production.

Per Miller, one of the primary goals is to quickly expand the Features First program with additional funding from industry sources across the country.