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NSI students & grads: apply for funding through Telefilm’s Talent To Watch Program

Posted: 21 Dec 2018 12:50 PM PST

The Telefilm Talent to Watch Program (formerly the Telefilm Micro-Budget Production Program) is back for its seventh year.

The program aims to support a diverse array of emerging filmmakers and accelerate their career development by providing the opportunity and autonomy to create their first feature film or web series.

The National Screen Institute is a partner organization and, as such, can recommend to Telefilm:

(1) up to two feature film projects and one narrative-based web project under the Main Component, and

(2) up to two feature film projects and one narrative-based web project for the Indigenous Component.

This is a competitive process – NSI can only make up to a total of six recommendations to Telefilm.

The project team’s director must be a graduate of, or currently enrolled in, an NSI training program.

NSI students/grads from 2014 to 2019 are eligible.

Please note: we have set our own deadline of Monday, January 28, 2019, 4:30 p.m. Central Time, ahead of Telefilm’s final submission deadline of February 18 – 25, 2019. This allows us to work with teams to refine their submissions before submitting to Telefilm.

To qualify for a recommendation from NSI, the following items must be emailed to Brendon Sawatzky, NSI’s director of programming:

1) Presentation video (YouTube or Vimeo link)

A downloadable pitch video (maximum 5 minutes) that will:

Note: the video must NOT include footage from other projects that are not the team’s own work.

2) Supporting material

The documents listed below must be provided as PDFs:

Projects submitted through the Indigenous stream and all other projects with Indigenous content should address the issue of how the team sought to engage the various Indigenous communities that will be impacted by the project.

Suitable means of achieving this may include the following, as applicable: letters of support from the community, letters of support from Indigenous advisors, contracts between the communities and the creative team for the project, community engagement plans, etc.

3) Completed screenplay

4) Link to previous work, if available

The above documents must be provided in PDF format. Please provide the video pitch as a YouTube or Vimeo link.

• • •

Once NSI determines which projects we will support with a recommendation, we’ll work with the teams to refine their submissions in advance of Telefilm’s February 18 – 25, 2019 deadline. In addition, NSI will provide a letter of support – a brief letter outlining why the team was chosen – to Telefilm Canada.

It is strongly recommended you read Telefilm’s full set of guidelines and FAQs (both PDFs) before approaching NSI.

Contact Brendon Sawatzky, NSI’s director of programming, with queries about submission requirements.

Note the following key program updates:

We invite every qualified student/grad seeking a recommendation from NSI to forward the required documents to us for review by Monday, January 28, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. Central Time. Only complete applications will be accepted.

If you have general questions about the Telefilm Talent to Watch Program, please contact your regional Telefilm officer.

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