The CineCoup Film Accelerator program, a competitive indie-film support initiative backed by Cineplex and that offers up to $1 million in production financing, has been launched.

Cineplex Entertainment first discussed its participation in CineCoup at last June’s Banff World Media Festival. It has guaranteed to release the winning Accelerator film in its theatres. The plan is for the first supported feature to be completed and screened by the chain within the next year, the organizers say in a statement Friday.

Filmakers can start applying Dec. 1 by uploading to Vancouver-based CineCoup Media’s website a two-minute trailer. CineCoup has committed to option ten projects for development and select one for up to $1 million in project financing.

CineCoup will stage a series of filmmaker and media events in cities across Canada to promote the initiative from Nov. 21 to Dec. 1. Attendees at these events will receive a reduced application fee, organizers say.

The tour ends at Whistler Film Festival (which runs Nov. 28 to Dec. 2) when CineCoup will host a national livestream event and open its platform for filmmaker submissions.

Beginning in mid-January, the platform is to be opened to the public and film fans can join to play a role in helping to uncover the strongest talent and ideas.

For ten weeks, filmmakers then participate in weekly challenges that package and promote their projects while fans provide feedback and support to help them advance to the finalist phase.

During a six-week finalist phase, the 10 top projects must run crowdfunding campaigns and prepare their presentations for the final jury panel. As well, as fans continue to rally around their favourite projects, one CineCoup “Superfan” will earn an advisory seat on the selection jury.