Telefilm Canada and the Talent Fund announced the recipients of the first 45 English- and French-language projects selected under the new Talent to Watch Program (formerly known as the Micro-Budget Production Program). In all, 38 feature films and 7 narrative web projects from across the country will benefit from the program.

Damascus Dreams, put forward by Doc Circuit Montréal, is one of the 45 recipients around Canada! Congratulations to director Emilie Serri (Talent Lab 2016’s participant) and producer Audrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre!

As a designated partner of the program, we are very excited to support emerging talent selected for Téléfilm Canada’s Talent To Watch Program 2018!

Keep an eye out for the many up and coming content creators who will be sharing their projects -- coming soon. You can see the full list of recipients here.

About Talent to watch

The Talent to Watch Program – Funding for First Feature Films and Web Projects from Emerging Filmmakers aims to support emerging filmmakers, accelerate their career development, and allow them to develop an expertise in digital marketing and promotion of audiovisual projects.

Selection process

Creative teams from across the country submit potential projects to one of the Program’s designated partners. From there, each partner submit projects to Telefilm for consideration by the decision jury.

The Festival Selection Stream allows emerging filmmakers whose short films have been selected at key festivals to submit a project directly to Telefilm for jury consideration. During the month of May, three separate peer-based juries were held comprised of industry representatives from English, French and Indigenous groups across Canada. Each jury strove to maintain a diverse and inclusive portfolio, while also ensuring exceptional content quality.