TORONTO — The Ontario government announced Monday it is investing almost $1.3 million in Ontario Creates grants to provide 99 organizations with funding to help promote Canadian film, TV and digital content globally.
The announcement was made by Lisa MacLeod, Ontario minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries, who was joined by Ontario Creates board chair Aaron Campbell and Shaftesbury chair and CEO Christina Jennings, at 401 Richmond in Toronto, an arts-and-culture hub which is home to imagineNATIVE and Reel Asian, two previous and ongoing Ontario Creates grant recipients.
The Ontario Creates grants are being provided through several investment programs, including:
- 67 grant recipients were approved through the Film and TV Export Fund, supporting export development activities such as market event attendance and targeted sales trips which will encourage company growth and success.
- 20 recipients through the Industry Development Program, supporting activities that help businesses in the book, magazine, film, television and interactive digital media sectors expand skills, business capacity, market share, sales and innovation.
- 12 recipients through the Interactive Digital Media Fund’s marketing support and global market development streams, helping to strengthen and stimulate economic growth in the interactive digital media sector by supporting opportunities for producers of interactive content to create new products, access existing and new markets and grow their business.
“For more than 10 years, Ontario Creates has supported Reel Asian’s mandate to give young, aspiring filmmakers in the Asian community the opportunity to learn from film and TV professionals at the festival and year-round, leading to award-winning films produced right here in Ontario,” said Deanna Wong, executive director of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, in the press release. “The Industry Development Program has helped us to propel the careers of filmmakers like Shasha Nakhai, who won our pitch competition in 2012 and went on to produce the 2017 short film Frame 394, which was shortlisted for an Oscar. We are thankful that the government still sees the value in supporting the arts during this time.”
Ontario Creates awarded a total of $29.2 million in grant funding to 655 projects last year.
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