Grants to Film and Video Artists
Deadlines
1 March or 1 October
If either of these dates falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Your completed application and all support material must be postmarked on or before the deadline date.
The Canada Council will not accept applications postmarked after the deadline, incomplete applications, or those submitted by fax or email.
Description of Program
The Grants to Film and Video Artists program supports Canadian professional independent artists who use cinema and video as a mode of artistic expression, and provides them with opportunities for creative renewal and for production of independent film and video works.
The program offers three components: Research/Creation Grants, Production Grants and Scriptwriting Grants. There are separate application guidelines and a form for each of the components.
Research/Creation Grants provide artists with opportunities for creative renewal, experimentation, professional development and research. Grants enable artists to concentrate full-time on a program of work for a specific period of time. This component addresses artists whose practice combines experimentation, exploration and research in conjunction with production.
Production Grants cover the direct costs of production and post-production of independent film or video works.
Scriptwriting Grants cover the direct costs of scriptwriting (which includes research for artists’ documentaries) for independent film and video artworks.
To ensure the vitality and continued excellence of film and video art, Canada Council for the Arts grants help support individual artists committed to film and video as independent artist-controlled art forms. Independent means that the artist initiates and is the driving force behind the proposed project. The artist must maintain complete creative and editorial control over the work.
Independent means that the artist initiates and is the driving force behind the proposed project. The artist maintains complete creative and editorial control over the work. This project consists of a program of work including all of the activities required to successfully complete it.
These grants are not intended to support work created for the cultural industries of commercial film and television.
All Canada Council programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists from diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Type of Work Supported
This program is explicitly aimed at supporting projects involved in the renewal and exploration of cinematographic and/or videographic practice. Projects involved in the renewal and exploration of new media and audio should be submitted to the Grants to New Media and Audio Artists program.
Priority is given to programs of work that involve innovation and artistic expression.
A) Innovation
Only the most innovative proposals are supported. Innovation may be found in the renewal of formal elements in terms of style, technique or process. It can mean a contribution based on the uniqueness of the subject or content of the project, or on the uniqueness of the artist’s perspective or process of expression.
B) Artistic Expression
The Canada Council considers artistic expression in media arts to mean a commitment by artists to contribute to the evolution of the medium from their own unique perspectives, using their unique talents. This can also be called their artistic voice or vision.
Priority is given to proposals from artists whose work demonstrates the development of an individual style or expressive approach, and/or a commitment to questioning and expanding the formal language of media arts.
The grants not intended to support work created for the cultural industries of commercial film and television.
Eligibility
Eligible Applicants
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They need not be living in Canada when they apply.
Individuals or groups of up to three artists working collaboratively on a project may apply.
Only directors may apply; producers are not eligible. Applicants may work with a producer, but the artist/director must maintain full creative and editorial control of the project.
Only the following models are acceptable:
- the director is also the producer or co-producer
- the director is a partner in the production company, and
- the director signs a clear, final and binding contract with a producer guaranteeing the director full control of the creation, ownership of the final film, and a significant part of the rights generated by the work.
Established, mid-career and emerging artists are eligible.
An established artist is one who has been practising for at least seven years and who has created and released a body of independent film or video work in a professional context.
A mid-career artist is one who has been practising for at least three years and who has created and released more than one independent film or video work in a professional context.
Also considered as mid-career artists are:
- professional established and /or mid-career artists in other artistic disciplines who meet the Canada Council’s eligibility criteria for their discipline. To be eligible, these artists must have had a recognized practice for at least five years. During this period, artists must have presented their works nationally and/or internationally in a professional context (as defined by the relevant art section or unit of the Canada Council for the Arts). Artists must also demonstrate that they have basic training in film or video, or solid support in independent film and video from experienced individuals, such as recognized advisors or technicians, and
- film and video directors with at least five years’ experience as directors in the industry.
To be eligible, established and/or mid-career artists must include with their application a copy of one work that they have created.
Note to Emerging artists:Please read the guidelines carefully as the definition of an emerging artist has been recently modified.
An emerging artist is one who has less than three years of practice, has completed basic training, and has completed at least one independent film or video work that has been presented in a professional context. The basic training in media arts can be formal (university or college studies) or informal (production courses, workshops, hands-on experience in media arts production, etc.). Applicants must include with their application a copy of at least one independent production where they were the director. Applicants can also include with their application a copy of another production (as the second item) where they made a significant creative contribution as the director, co-director, director of photography or editor.
In the media arts, a professional context means venues and organizations (real or virtual) primarily devoted to presentation. These may be artist-run centres, exhibition centres, museums, galleries, film clubs, television, cinematheques, festivals and competitions (other than those reserved for student productions), other recognized presentation venues or organizations where the selection of participants is made by media arts professionals.
Applicants must meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, defined as someone who:
- has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- is recognized as such by her or his peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition)
- is committed to devoting more time to the artistic activity, if financially feasible, and
- has a history of presentation in a professional context.
Undergraduate students at a school, college or university are not eligible to apply.
Graduate students are eligible to apply only if they meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, and the proposed production is not related to their program of study. A letter from the applicant’s program director is required to verify this information, and it must be included with the application.
Eligible Projects or Programs of Work
Research/Creation Grants
These grants support artists to undertake a program of work that advances their individual creative development. Eligible programs of work include development, analysis and/or research of ideas, concepts, themes and/or techniques; experimentation and research workshops with actors, choreographers, musicians, etc.; experimentation with processes or techniques; travel to pursue professional development activities; and shooting, production and post-production of a work.
Production Grants
The normal production and post-production activities of an independent film or video artwork are eligible for support. Independent animation, documentary, drama, experimental, art and essay works are eligible.
Feature-length films are not a priority for emerging artists.
Scriptwriting Grants
Eligible programs of work may include research, scriptwriting and/or development of a storyboard, workshops with actors and essential travel. Independent animation (storyboards), documentary (research), drama (scriptwriting), experimental, art and essay productions are eligible for support.
Ineligible Projects or Programs of Work
Ineligible projects include those done on contract for, or produced by, a government agency or private company; industrial, promotional, educational, instructional or student projects; pilots for television; commercial television programs; music videos; public service announcements; projects using film or video simply as a tool to record or document existing artworks; projects that transfer a film or video project finished in one format to another without modification of the original; post-production projects that have no creative element, such as blow-up processes or subtitling; productions involving commercial or journalistic approaches to film and video; conventional forms of theatrical and television entertainment; and “calling card” films.
Development of financing for a project is not an eligible activity.
Other Restrictions
Artists may submit the same project only twice to any component of the Grants to Film and Video Artists program.
Applicants may apply to only one Grants to Professional Artists program each fiscal year (between 1 April and 31 March). Applicants may receive a maximum of two grants in any 48 month period (excluding Travel Grants). They may also apply once each year for a Travel Grant.
Professional, established artists who work in more than one discipline and meet the eligibility criteria for established artists in both disciplines may apply to two Grants to Professional Artists programs per fiscal year. However, they must accept or refuse the first grant offered by the Canada Council within two weeks of notification. If they accept this grant, any other application made during the same fiscal year will be withdrawn.
Artists must submit their final reports for any previous grants from the Canada Council before they can apply for a new grant. They may, however, apply under the Scriptwriting Grants component before they have completed a prior Production Grant or a Research/Creation Grant. Artists can also apply to a Production Grant or a Research/Creation Grant while holding a Scriptwriting Grant.
Grant Amount
Grants cover only the costs that are incurred after the application deadline. Grants may not be used to purchase equipment or to offset capital costs.
Expenses associated with the project financing process are not eligible.
Research/Creation Grants
Candidates may request the following amounts:
-
established and mid-career artists – grant amounts range from $3,000 to $60,000, in increments of $1,000
-
emerging artists – grant amounts range from $3,000 to $16,000, in increments of $1,000.
Eligible expenses include subsistence costs for the time spent working on the program of work (up to $2,000 per month per applicant), equipment and space rental costs, costs of experimentation or technique development, professional development costs, professional and other fees and honoraria, travel expenses and production costs.
Production Grants
Candidates may request the following amounts:
- established and mid-career artists – grant amounts range from $3,000 to $60,000, in increments of $1,000
- emerging artists – grant amounts range from $3,000 to $16,000, in increments of $1,000.
Applicants are asked to submit reasonable, carefully thought-out proposals based on well-researched budgets.
Production Grants provide a one-time-only contribution towards the total cost of the project. Only the direct costs of production and post-production are eligible.
Peer assessment committees want to ensure that Canada Council grants contribute significantly to a project’s overall budget. Therefore, if the total budget (including all cash and in-kind costs) for the entire production through to completion exceeds the following amounts, the project may not be funded by the Canada Council:
for established and mid-career artists, $250,000, and
for emerging artists, $100,000.
Eligible expenses include subsistence costs for the time spent working on the production (up to $2,000 per month per applicant); fees for actors, performers, technicians and other participants; rental costs for equipment, studios, and other facilities; travel costs; payment for technical services, materials and processing; post-production costs; the costs of promoting, launching, reproducing and copying a work; and contingency funds.
Scriptwriting Grants
Grants range from $3,000 to $20,000. Eligible expenses include subsistence costs for the time spent working on the project (up to $2,000 per month per applicant); rental costs for equipment, studios, and other facilities; costs for training and/or development; fees for consultants, technicians and other participants; travel costs; contingency funds.
Application Forms
Please note that the Research and Creation Grants and Scriptwriting Grants components are not available via our Grants Online (GO) system. Solely the Production component is available via GO.
Further Information
This program summary provides an outline of the Grants to Film and Video Artists. For more details, contact one of the Program Officers listed below.
- Anglophone established and mid-career artists should contact Ian Reid, Media Arts Section Officer, toll-free at
1-800-263-5588 or 613-566-4414, ext. 5203.
- Anglophone emerging artists should contact Joanne Desroches, Media Arts Section Officer, toll-free at
1-800-263-5588 or 613-566-4414, ext. 5254.
- Francophone artists should contact Marie-France Thérien, Media Arts Section Officer, toll-free at 1-800-263-5588 or 613-566-4414, ext. 5253.
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
Fax: 613-566-4409
Media Arts Section
Canada Council for the Arts
P. O. Box 1047, 350 Albert Street
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
September 2006