Canada Media Fund – Convergent Stream: First Come, First Served Programs: Francophone Minority Program: Development

ByMaurice

Description:

The Francophone Minority Program supports productions which reflect the realities of living in French-language communities outside of Quebec. Funding under this Program is open to Canadian companies located outside of Quebec who produce primarily in French.

Comments on Funding:

Funding will take the form of a mix of licence fee top-ups and equity investments of up to 49% of the Eligible Project’s Eligible Costs or the following amounts (depending on the applicable genre):

  1. drama: $1,400,000;
  2. animation: $750,000;
  3. other genres $550,000.

Eligibility:

“The applicant must:

  • operate and have its head office outside the province of Quebec for at least three years (unless the company is an emerging one) and with all of its shareholders residing outside the province of Quebec for at least three years prior to the date the CMF funding application is submitted;
  • use French as the original language of production for the majority of its development and production slate;
  • have initiated and meaningfully participated in the Eligible Project’s development. Furthermore, the Applicant must exercise full control of the creative, artistic, technical and financial aspects of the project and hold all copyrights to the Eligible Project;
  • hold all copyrights to the production on a permanent basis and retain an ongoing financial interest in the project;
  • be either:
    a) a company that:
    i) is a for-profit (i.e., a taxable Canadian corporation, within the meaning of Canada’s Income Tax Act) production company.
    ii) is Canadian-controlled as determined in sections 26 to 28 of the Investment Canada Act;
    iii) is in good standing with all applicable talent and industry associations and guilds;
    b) or be a Canadian Broadcaster, such as:
    i) a Canadian programming undertaking, public or private, licensed to operate by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC);
    ii) an online service owned, controlled and operated by a Canadian CRTC-licensed programming undertaking;
    iii) an online service owned, controlled and operated by a Canadian broadcasting distribution undertaking (“BDU”), licensed to operate by the CRTC or CRTC-licensed VOD services;”

Applications Steps:

Applicants must:

1

carefully review the program guidelines and all reference documents before submitting an application;

2

review the PERSONA-ID by Program document to confirm if the program requires them or their team to register to the CMF PERSONA-ID Self-identification system;

3

register online to create their Dialogue accounts on the Telefilm website and complete the funding application;.

4

sign the contract, if the project is approved.

Documentation Needed:

“Applicants must submit:

  1. a completed and approved dialogue broadcaster agreement form (BAF) linked to the application form for each Canadian broadcaster providing an eligible licence fee and/or a contribution from its 2022-2023 CMF performance envelope;
  2. a completed dialogue application form with persona-id # entered in the applicable sections;
  3. development letter(s)/agreement(s) from a Canadian broadcaster confirming financial participation;
  4. all financing agreements from other committed sources;
  5. signed and dated development budget;
  6. synopsis (document detailing the themes, subject matter and setting of the storyline);
  7. creative material (script, bible, treatment, outline, rundown);
  8. rewrite proposal (if applicable);
  9. project description;
  10. summary of chain of title;
  11. all rights documentation (with all underlying rights agreements and signed writer(s) and director(s) agreements);
  12. publisher’s release (if applicable);
  13. signed writer(s) and director(s) agreements;
  14. co-production and/or joint venture agreement(s) (if applicable);
  15. C.V.s for all producer(s), writer(s), and director(s);
  16. declaration of the corporation’s Canadian status, and its shareholders and directors;
  17. complete incorporation documents;
  18. corporate profile including company mandate for all applicants, co-applicants and parent companies, as applicable;
  19. shareholder’s or partner’s agreement (if applicable);
  20. corporate secretary’s certificate (name the officers and indicate their signing authority);
  21. corporate financial statements for the past three years for all television component applicants, co-applicants and parent companies.”

About the author

Maurice

Maurice (Moe) Muise learned the ins-and-outs of government while an employee of the Government of Canada in Ottawa for 10 years. His current focus is helping small businesses in Ontario to identify and maximize government grants to grow their business. Click here to learn more about Moe’s background and how he can help your business.

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