May 12, 2017 – The IPF is providing three Canadian web drama series producers/creators with complementary full registration and a travel grant of up to $1500 to attend the 2017 Banff World Media Festival and receive mentorship while at the Festival.

The participants selected are:

Lauren Corber
How to Buy a Baby;  Hit on Me
ON

Julian Di Zotti
Conversations for the End of the World
ON

Pierre –Mathieu Fortin
L’arène
PQ

In addition, given the record number of outstanding applications this year (45) the IPF is also providing four runner-ups with complimentary accreditation to the Festival:

Mika Collins
Deep Six
ON

Kate Green
NarcoLeap
BC

Brendan Halloran
Atom AM
ON

Ant Horasanli
Petrol
ON

Eligible applicants were English or French producer/creators of scripted digital dramatic content, with previous web drama series experience and a new digital drama project in development. Applications that included specific goals to accomplish while attending Banff were reviewed by a selection committee.

The IPF invests approximately $1.8 M in the production of 12 – 15 web series each year.  These series represent all demographics and genres, including action, animation, thriller, comedy and science fiction.  They also offer a variety of interactive activities for viewers.  The web series previously funded can be accessed at www.ipf.ca/webseries.

The IPF has invested $11 M in the production of 99 web drama series in the past 6 years.  It is incorporated as a charitable foundation with an endowment valued at $36 M.  It uses the interest generated by the endowment and return on its project investments for its annual operations and project funding.  The Board of Directors is composed of representatives from the industry and undertakes all final funding decisions.