Guidelines for Canada-South Africa Co-Development Incentive for Television Projects 2018

Guidelines for Canada-South Africa  Co-Development Incentive  for Television Projects  2018

These Guidelines are divided into seven Sections as follows:

1.   Introduction

2.   Project Eligibility

3.   Application Process

4.   Important Information and Required Documentation

5.   Evaluation Criteria

6.   Contacts for the Program

Introduction 

The Canada-South Africa Co-Development Incentive (“the Incentive”)  is a collaboration between the Canada Media Fund (CMF or “Party”) and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF  or “Party”) (the CMF and NFVF collectively the “Parties”) to fund the co-development of eligible television projects between producers from Canada and South Africa.

It is the intent of the Parties to partner on this Incentive for a period of 3 years (2018 to 2020). The CMF and NFVF reserve the right to modify these Guidelines for the 2019 and 2020 iterations of the Incentive.

The total amount of funding available through the Incentive for the 3-year period is CDN $360,000 (approximately ZAR3,600,000) with CDN$180,000 (approximately ZAR 1,800,000) contributed by each of the CMF and NFVF. Amount available for each year of the Incentive will be CDN $120,000 (approximately ZAR 1,200,000) with CDN$60,000 (approximately ZAR600,000) contributed by each of the CMF and NFVF. The Canadian contribution will take the form of a repayable advance while the South African contribution will take the form of a repayable contribution.

To be considered for funding through the Incentive, projects must comply with both Parties’ general funding criteria, with the CMF determining eligibility for the Canadian portion of a project and NFVF determining eligibility for the South African portion of the project. Projects will be evaluated and chosen by a committee comprised of representatives from each of the CMF and NFVF through a selective process (using the Evaluation Criteria listed below). It is important for Applicants to note that eligibility to or financing through the Incentive does not guarantee the Applicant eligibility or financing for further CMF or NFVF funding in development or in production.

The total maximum contribution for each project funded through the Incentive shall be the lesser of CDN $40,000 (approximately ZAR 400,000), consisting of (a) a CMF contribution which shall be the lesser of CDN $20,000 (approximately ZAR 200,000) or 75% of the Canadian portion of the development budget and (b) a NFVF contribution which shall be CDN$20,000 (ZAR 200,000) or 75% of the of the South African portion of the development budget.

The total contribution from each of the CMF and NFVF for each project will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

While the ownership, financial control, and creative contributions shall be determined in the co-development agreement between the applicable international co-producers, the minimum minority co-producer share shall not be less than 20%. As a general guideline, the CMF and NFVF encourage that such elements be proportional to each country’s respective funding contributions.

Project  Eligibility

Eligible projects must meet the following criteria:

· Is a television project;

· Be one of the following formats – drama, documentary, and children & youth;

· Fulfil the themes, objectives of mandate and vision of both the CMF and NFVF;

· Involve at least one Canadian producer (eligible under CMF criteria) and one Qualifying producer (eligible under NFVF’s criteria );

· Comply with the rules pre-established in the Canada-South Africa Audio-visual Co-production Agreement, signed November 5, 1997;

· A project that has already received funding from CMF or NFVF in the same fiscal for the same stage of development is not eligible tothe Incentive.

· The project must be supported by an eligible Canadian broadcaster1  through a Letter of Commitment. However, such Letter of Commitment is not mandatory at the application stage but will be required for selected projects before any contracts are signed or funding released. The Letter of Commitment must include a Development Fee of 10% of the Canadian share of the development budget by an eligible Canadian broadcaster.

Ineligible projects include:

· live recordings, TV games, talk shows, reality shows or teaching and ‘how-to’ programs to be shown directly in schools;

· documentaries promoting tourism, “making-of”, reports, news and current affairs programs and “docu-soaps”;

· projects including pornographic or racist material or advocating violence;

· works of a promotional nature;

· institutional productions to promote a specific organisation or its activities;

· any other genres of programming listed in section 3.2.TV.2 of the 2018-2019 CMF’s Performance Envelope Program, and any exclusion as set out in NFVF’s funding policy.

Application Process

Key dates for 2018

Call for Projects:                                               August 21, 2018

Deadline to apply:                                             October 10, 2018

Decisions announced to applicants:                    December 10, 2018

No additional material can be submitted after the deadline. Projects for funding will be selected according to the evaluation

Criteria set out below.

1 Eligible Canadian broadcaster is a broadcaster, public or private, licensed to operate by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

accordance with the stipulations noted in the application form;

· The project must be submitted in (a) English in South Africa and in (b) English or French in Canada;

· Only recent costs (i.e. costs incurred up to 6 months prior to application) will be considered eligible costs under the Incentive. However, the cost related to the acquisition of author right is eligible retroactively for a period of 12 months preceding the date of the submission;

· While each co-producer shall first find and formalize their involvement with a co-producing partner before applying

together with a common project, each co-producer will be responsible to submit the complete application to the authority (CMF or NFVF) of its own country. The same set of documents must be submitted by each co-producer and the application form must be signed by all co-producers.

Applications must include the following Administrative information:

· A list of the films/ audio-visual projects produced by the South African company/ies;

· A list of the films/ audio-visual projects produced by the Canadian company/ies;

· The deal memo or the co-development agreement;

· Contracts proving the acquisition of necessary rights (e.g. option contract, script writer’s contract, etc.);

· Calendar on project development stages;

· Development budget;

· Development financing plan;

· Details on the proposed eligible broadcasters that meet the criteria described above. Applications must include the following Creative information:

· CV of screen writer(s) and, if already selected, the director;

· Script writer’s notes;

· Director’s notes (if applicable);

· Producer’s notes;

· Brief project summary (maximum 5 pages);

· Treatment (maximum 20 pages);

· A document explaining the stage at which the project has reached as of the date of this application and identify its needs in terms of development (max 600 words);

· A document describing the envisaged activities during the development of the project including the schedule until the start of production (e.g. schedule and timeline, scriptwriting, script editing, research work, director recruitment, proposed casting/casting methods, proposed locations/ location scouting) (max 600 words);

· A  document describing the  financing strategy envisaged for  the  production  of  the  submitted project  and a

preliminary/proposed finance plan, including, if relevant, suitable potential partners (applicants will not be bound by proposals submitted at application stage).

The Parties reserve the right to require other documentation from applicants for the completion of the assessment of the project.

Canadian Producers should submit the complete application via  https://telefilm.ca/en/log-in.

South Africa producers should submit the complete application via the online NFVF portal on  www.nfvf.co.za