Telefilm Canada Focuses on Finding Fresh Voices But Faces Financing Roadblocks
Katherine Brodsky Last year, at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Telefilm Canada had launched a campaign to invite audiences to return to cinemas. They called it “Feel Again” and had partnered with distributors, cinemas, festivals, broadcasters, Air Canada — and even filmmaker Director X — to help drive audiences to re-discover Canadian films. “We really spent last summer doing different audience-focused partnerships,” says Francesca Accinelli, VP, promotion, communications and international relations at Telefilm Canada and interim CEO for the past 10 months. “As always, we try and connect with audiences where they are versus creating a whole new audience.” That meant that if they were going to Tim Hortons, part of their strategy was to reach them there.