Astral’s Harold Greenberg Fund’s (Fund) English-Language Program and The Movie Network are looking for the next Amal or Patch Town (pictured), a Canadian short film that can be expanded into a feature film.

John Galway, president of the fund’s English-language program, said the new Short Film Program aims to encourage emerging filmmakers to make short films that can become their debut feature film.

“We’ve mostly been focused on features, but are also looking at where the next generation of filmmakers will come from, and giving them a head start,” Galway tells Playback Daily.

The short film program will begin modestly: two prizes of $20,000 are available, made up of a $10,000 grant from Astral’s Harold Greenberg Fund to make a short film, and a $10,000 pay-TV broadcast licence fee from The Movie Network to get it on air.

Eligible projects need not be an idea for a feature film, but filmmakers will need to explain how their proposed short relates to a first feature film they have in mind.

Earlier Canadian film that solved the short-to-feature challenge include writer/director Richie Mehta’s 2007 feature Amal, which was originally released as a short film in 2004 with the same lead character, a poor rickshaw driver, Amal Kumar.

And the short film Patch Town, by writer/director Craig Goodwill, saw Suki Films come on board to produce a feature version of his short film after it performed well at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

The strategy is to choose short films that can succeed on the festival circuit, and fit the TMN pay TV movie brand.