The Canada Media Fund and the Australian Government through Screen Australia announced at the Power to the Pixel conference in London, a near CAD$800,000* incentive specifically for digital interactive works.
“The Canada-Australia Interactive Digital Media Incentive is designed to not only encourage creatives from each country to work together, but to facilitate the production of truly innovative and original narrative pieces. This Incentive is their chance to push the boundaries of how a story can be told in an interactive way, whether it is in an app, online, virtual reality or any other mind-blowing idea they can come up with.,” said Screen Australia’s Investment Manager Mike Cowap.
The total maximum contribution for each funded project will be CAD$300,000 and the contribution of each country to each project will be determined on a case by case basis. These fundings will take the form of a non-repayable contribution.
“With 50 film and television co-productions between Canada and Australia, it’s a natural fit to build on this relationship and create an incentive for interactive digital media co-production,” said CMF president and CEO, Valerie Creighton. “We’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Australian officials at the Screen Producers Association of Australia Conference, Prime Time in Ottawa, MIPTV and TIFF in order to better understand our respective markets and devise a plan to offer producers on both sides of the ocean an opportunity to create stellar content for all audiences to enjoy”, she added.
In order to facilitate creatives from both countries working together, the Canada Media Fund has setup a Find a Producer portal for both Canadian and Australia creatives to register online. The projects will be evaluated and chosen by a selection committee composed of representatives from both funding organisations. Recipients will be announced in late February 2016.
*Fund is comprised of AUD$400,000 and CAD$400,000 which will fluctuate based on exchange rates.