TORONTO – Cinespace Film Studios Toronto has formally launched a program that offers rent-free facilities to select Canadian film, TV and digital media projects.
Known as the Nick Mirkopoulos Canadian Content Initiative, the program is accepting applications from writers, directors and producers for studios, production offices or support spaces to assist projects that feature culturally impactful Canadian stories or that are helmed by rising Canadian artists. Notable past projects that benefited from this rent-free assistance include the 2013 feature Empire of Dirt, about generational drug addiction in a Native Canadian community, and the 2014 feature Bang Bang Baby, by Jeffrey St. Jules, the first Canadian film director ever admitted to the Cannes Film Festival’s residency program for emerging filmmakers.
The initiative is named after Cinespace founder Nick Mirkopoulos (pictured), who spearheaded the development of over 2.5 million square feet of studio and support space in both Toronto and Chicago, and who passed away in late 2013 in his birthplace of Kastoria, in northern Greece.
"Our founder and my late brother Nick was continually focused on finding ways to give back to our very creative and dynamic domestic production industry”, said Cinespace president Steve Mirkopoulos, in the announcement. “Since we at Cinespace have always supported domestic projects whenever possible, we have now made a commitment to assist three Canadian projects per year, with as much rent-free space capacity as possible, to help them put as much money on the screen as possible."
