Category Archives: Funding

100 Million Dollars Crowdfunded to Indie Film

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In cased you missed it, Kickstarter has announced that over the last three years people have pledged over $100,000,000 to independent films on their platform.

60% of that in 2012!

I found the stats on the 8,600 successful film projects very interesting. 72% raised less than $10,000 and only 8% raised more than $100K.

Nevertheless, over 85% of film projects that raised more than 20% of their goal were successful.

See Kickstarter’s announcement.

My take: crowdfunding must be an integral component of most if not all independent films, whether to raise funds, build an audience or both.

CMF to fund Pre-Development

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The Canada Media Fund has earmarked $1 million for the new English Regional Pre-Development Fund.

“The English Regional Pre-Development Program, designed in consultation industry stakeholders, is intended to support producers in their preparation of documents to present to broadcasters at the early stages of development.  In addition to this new program, the CMF has also changed its regional definition in development to include Vancouver as a region.”

This first-come, first-served fund opens on Thursday, December 13.

The details are buried in the Development Program Guidelines 2012-2013.

Arts Innovation Deadline: November 30, 2012

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Got an idea about engaging audiences in new and innovative ways?

The submission deadline for the Arts Innovation Fund, a partnership between BC Film + Media and the BC Arts Council, is November 30, 2012. The goal is to encourage arts and culture organizations to collaborate with digital media creators to better engage audiences.

“The funding is a non-recoupable advance of up to $25,000 and does not require matching funding or market support to trigger eligibility.”

BC Film + Media is administering the program. See the details.

Winnipeg Film Group relaxes Telefilm Microbudget membership requirement

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The Winnipeg Film Group has extended its deadline for its upcoming Telefilm Microbudget Recommendation Submission to November 28, 2012.

More importantly, it has relaxed the co-op membership requirement so that members who joined more than three years ago can now apply:

“Telefilm has the following criteria for eligible applicants:
Be a recent member of the WFG’s production centre (max 3 years)
* there is now flexibility in this requirement, so long as the other eligibility requirements are met….”

No word as to whether other Telefilm partners are relaxing this requirement as well.

See all the WFG details here.

CineCoup coming to a city near you!

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Could you use $1,000,000.00 to make a feature — in six months?

Will your marketing package rise to the top of the social media heap?

After stealth-launching at the VIFF Forum, CineCoup is about to visit cities across Canada to pitch its innovative film financing and distribution model. As they put it:

“Launching December 1, 2012, CineCoup is a disruptive film accelerator that will ultimately option 10 Canadian projects [f]or development and select one for up to $1 million in financing and GUARANTEED release in Cineplex theatres.”

For dates and more, see CineCoup.

Interactive Fund Deadline: November 15, 2012

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Got a great idea for an interactive project?

Need $50K?

The deadline to apply for BC Film + Media and the BC Arts Council’s Interactive Fund is Thursday, November 15th.

Projects can be:

  • “interactive websites;
  • interactive narrative content;
  • mobile/tablet applications;
  • microgames; and
  • videogames.”

Check out the Guidelines for more detail.

Telefilm Microbudget Deadlines Approach

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In case you missed it in late June, Telefilm Canada has launched a Microbudget Production Program: “Telefilm will support eight to ten projects this year, through a non-repayable financial contribution of up to $120,000 per project to produce, distribute and promote a feature-length film that will be available to the general public through one or more distribution platforms, including digital.”

You must have either:

  • graduated from a film school in the last three years, or
  • joined a film coop in the last three years.

See Telefilm’s list of qualifying partners.

Be forewarned: each partner can only champion one project and their deadlines begin coming up later this month.

For instance, the NSI’s deadline is Monday, October 29, 2012.

Crowdfunding in a Canadian Context

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Nordicity and the Canadian Media Fund (CMF) have just released a new report entitled Crowdfunding in a Canadian Context: Exploring the Potential of Crowdfunding in the Creative Content Industries.

Although it concludes with these words:

Given the lack of clarity regarding legal, financial and policy issues related to crowdfunding and the relative novelty of the concept, producers exploring the potential opportunities offered by crowdfunding should adopt a philosophy of experimentation. In addition they should proceed with caution, ensuring they are aware of all the associated risks of engaging in this type financing activity before launching a campaign.

it’s one of the few documents I’ve seen that begins to wonder about the tax implications of crowdfunding in Canada.