Canadian Feature Film Fund

The Writer’s First program is intended to “encourage and support and professional screenwriters to develop original script material that will be attractive to producers, financiers and the marketplace”.  Through the Writer’s First program, Telefilm provides support for first draft feature film screenplays based either on an outline, or a treatment. In order to be eligible for funding under this program, the applicable must be a professional screenwriter who satisfies the following minimum credit requirements:

•        Writing credits on at least one produced drama or animated feature film or television movie; or

•        Writing credits on produced episodic television, totalling at least 120 minutes in length.

Where the screenplay for which funding is requested is written by a team of writers, the team is permitted to apply as co-applicants, so long as at least one of the writers satisfies the above requirements.

The project itself must be a feature length, dramatic fiction film based on the applicant’s original idea or the applicant’s own previously produced or published work.  It is required that the project be eligible for certification by CAVCO as a “Canadian Film or Video Production” or by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission as a Canadian program.  In evaluating the applicants and projects, Telefilm considers the originality and quality of the material, the track record of the applicant, and the likelihood of the project eventually being selected for CFFF production financing.

Assistance is provided in the form of a non-interest bearing advance, repayable by the screenwriter on the earlier of the first day of principal photography of a production based on the script material, or the sale, transfer, assignment or other disposition of the production. Assistance is also available for the applicant to engage a professional story editor.

• is at least 75 minutes in length
• is aimed primarily at the Canadian theatrical market
• is under Canadian ownership and under Canadian financial, distribution and creative control and for which rights and options necessary for the production are held by an eligible production company (with appropriate exceptions for international treaty co-productions)
• with respect to Canadian content certification is either:
• eligible for certification as a “Canadian Production” pursuant to the CAVCO requirements or satisfies the CRTC definition of a Canadian Program and achieves a minimum of eight out of ten points of Canadian content using the CAVCO point scale; or
• eligible to be certified as an official treaty co-production deemed as qualified under established criteria (as set out in Telefilm's policy document entitled “Official Co-Productions”)
• has a Canadian scriptwriter, director and a Canadian performer in the lead role with appropriate exceptions allowed by official treaty co-productions (films co-written by a Canadian and non-Canadian may be eligible subject to Telefilm’s evaluation on a case by case basis)
• does not disguise its Canadian location except in cases where it is integral to the telling of a Canadian story;
• has a commitment from an eligible Canadian distribution company for theatrical release in Canada within one year of delivery (exceptions are available for low budget productions)
• does not contain any element of serious or gratuitous sexual violence or exploitation, and is not obscene, indecent or pornographic within the meaning of the Criminal Code, or libellous or in any other way unlawful.