Equity + Emerging Development
The Equity and Emerging Development Program aims to provide direct and targeted support to emerging and/or equity seeking B.C. filmmakers. Creators can receive a grant of up to $10,000 to cover the cost of bringing together a development team to do research, develop a concept or write a script. The grants are available for a wide range of content including scripted feature length films or series, animated features or series, and documentaries/factual one-offs or series.
Grant Deadline
2024-05-10
Funding Amount
Deadline not available
Type of Grant
Grant
Sectors
Film
Demographics
Black, Women, LGBTQ2+, Indigenous, Visible minority, Person with Disabilities
Incorporation
For Profit
Perks
Region Restriction
This grant is restricted to whole of Canada
Keywords
Film project, emerging professionals, filmmaker, acquire equity, skills development, encourage film, Media/Arts, Individual Filmmakers
Age Restriction
This grant is age restricted from 18 to 100
Eligibility and Requirements
Applicant Eligibility
Applications will be accepted from either individuals or production companies. Key Roles (Writer, Director, Producer) must be either/both from a systemically excluded group or an emerging filmmaker.
Each applicant may only submit one application to this program and should not be attached to multiple applications in different key roles.
Individuals applying must:
• Be a B.C. resident – either a Canadian citizen or a Permanent Resident – who has resided in British Columbia for at least 200 of the 365 days prior to the application, and
• Have filed income tax returns in B.C. for the taxation year prior to the application.
• To apply as an equity seeking filmmaker, you must actively self-declare within one or more of our systemically excluded groups (Indigenous, Black, People of Colour, LGBTQ2S+, Women, Non-binary or people with disabilities) during the application process;
• To apply as an emerging filmmaker, you cannot have more than one professional credit in the Key Roles you are applying for as: director, writer and/or producer.
Companies applying must:
• Be an audiovisual company incorporated in British Columbia or Canada with its head office in British Columbia.
• The primary owner / majority common voting shareholder(s) of the applicant company must meet the individual criteria.
Whether applying as an individual or company:
• 100% of the copyright of the project must be owned, controlled, or optioned by the applicant (except for inter-provincial or international treaty co-productions).^1
• You must be in good standing with Creative BC.
To confirm you are from a systemically excluded group, during the application process you will be asked to complete a SELF-ID form in which you must self-declare belonging to one or more of the following groups: Indigenous, Black, People of Colour, LGBTQ2S+, Women, Non-binary or people with disabilities.
To confirm you are an emerging filmmaker, during the application process you must declare that you have no more than one (1) previous professional credit in the key role(s) you hold in the project: director, writer and/or producer.
For the purposes of this program, a professional credit means a writer, director or producer credit on a longer form released project that:
• Was completed outside of film school or an industry training opportunity; or
• Was financed using mainstream funding sources (such as Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, broadcaster or online video on demand subscription services licensing etc.); and
• Subsequently either played on a broadcaster or online subscription service, was released theatrically, or toured extensively through major film festivals.
Project Eligibility
BC owned and/or controlled projects from all genres, lengths, formats and intended commercial distribution are encouraged to apply, with a few exceptions (see below).
Projects that receive funding must ultimately be produced in British Columbia – although it is not a requirement that the subject matter is BC-based, nor that the project is shot in BC.
The following projects are NOT eligible to apply:
• Web series
• Short films
• Excluded productions as defined by the Film & Television Tax Credit Regulations including, but not limited to: pornography, talk shows, news, live sports events, game shows, and advertising.
Eligible Costs
A range of early concepting and development phase activities and costs are eligible, including:
• Acquisition of rights or optioning fees;
• Research or conducting interviews;
• Script writing (all phases);
• Production of a demo tape, storyboards or animatic;
• Workshopping;
• Pre-production planning, finance packaging and/or casting;
• Business affairs and legal services associated with the above activities;
In the case of a company applicant (or an individual applicant applying in the role of producer), producer fees and corporate overhead can each be included, capped at 10% respectively.
Activities should be new costs for this phase of development. Creative BC will not finance costs retroactively that were incurred prior to contracting.
Grant Application website
Contact
Miranda Ryan
Program Analyst
mryan@creativebc.com
Katie Czenczek
Program Coordinator
kczenczek@creativebc.com