TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced Wednesday a $10.7-million investment through its Pilot Program for Racialized Communities (PPRC) in 20 audiovisual projects led by production companies owned and controlled by Black people and people of colour.
Part of the CMF’s Convergent Stream, the PPRC “recognizes the historic barriers members of equity-seeking communities face and supports the growth of English- and French-language audiovisual production by underrepresented producers,” reads a CMF press release.
For CMF’s 2023-2024 fiscal year, production funding invested through the PPRC has been awarded to companies based in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, with a total of 13 projects in English and seven in French. Broken down by genre, 10 of the production projects are dramas, six are documentaries and four fall into the children and youth category.
Projects submitted for funding were evaluated by a jury of professionals from racialized communities, the release explains. English-language projects were evaluated by a jury composed of Juan Baquero, Tristan Barrocks, Ravida Din, Julie Hackett, Baljit Sangra and Aonan Yang. The French-language projects were evaluated by a jury comprised of Carla Beauvais, Larissa Christoforo, Amandine Gay and Jaime Alberto Tobon.
More information about the 20 funded projects is available here.
“Advancing opportunities for racialized storytellers is critical,” Marcia Douglas, vice-president of growth and inclusion at the CMF, said in the organization’s release. “The federal government’s three-year investment in the CMF to support underrepresented groups, as part of its 2021 Budget, has allowed the CMF to establish the Pilot Program for Racialized Communities. This is an important program that meaningfully enables these opportunities. We are excited to see these amazing projects come to life.”
Since the program’s launch in CMF’s 2021-2022 fiscal year, the PPRC has provided more than $33 million in development and production funding to 57 audiovisual projects, according to the release.
