The French-language children’s animation industry is set to get a much-needed boost this fall. The Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Quebec-based government org Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC) have teamed up to launch a new US$2.1 million (CAD$3 million) program to fund development of Quebec-made animated series for kids. 

The funding could cover up to 80% of eligible costs for developing a series, up to a maximum of about US$363,000 (CAD$500,000) per project. The program starts this fall, and specific guidelines and terms will be announced ahead of its opening. This funding partnership was announced at Annecy on Wednesday. 

The program covers “prototyping” of an animated series, including animation tests, animatics, trailers with voices, animatics with voices, casting, market testing, sound design, dubbing, additional pitch materials and additional scripts, says a CMF spokesperson. 

“The CMF is concerned about the decline of kids’ content in general and we will be proactive to understand and adjust if needed in both the English and French markets, but this is not why this funding will be made available,” says the spokesperson. “This program is addressing a funding gap for this specific activity—prototyping—that we don’t normally provide financing for, but that the animation sector has a need for.” 

The joint program aims to help Quebec-based producers develop their French-language kids series before they’ve managed to get the financing and support from broadcasters or distributors. The end goal is to make it easier for these producers to get projects to a point where they’re ready to be pitched to local and international broadcasters, distributors and producers. 

“Prototyping will allow producers to present animated material to potential international partners,” says the spokesperson. “Animation is expensive, but we see the potential with existing talent in Quebec, and the goal is to support Canadian IP and bring it to the next level.” 

SODEC will provide two-thirds of the program’s budget and the CMF will cover the rest. These organizations previously partnered in 2020 to support the pre-development of French-language fiction, documentary and animated series for kids that are based on books from Quebec. That program is closed at the moment but will reopen in the coming months, according to the CMF website.  

French-language content has been undergoing challenges in recent years, with the amount being spent on its production in the 2022/2023 year declining 3.3% to about US$849,000 (CAD$1.17 million), according to the Canadian Media Producers Association’s Profile 2023 report (covering April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023). 

Another telling statistic is that only US$16 million (CAD$23 million) was spent on French-language animated children’s and youth TV series productions during that period, compared to US$172 million (CAD$237 million) on English-language ones (according to estimates based on data the CMPA collected from the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office). 

“Overall, I’d say that any funding is good news,” says Ken Faier, founder of Epic Story Media, who also co-founded the Quebec-based 2D studio Loomi Animation with Steve Couture in 2020. “More is always better!” 

“I think it is excellent news for the Canadian animation industry,” says Marianne Lambert, TFO’s director of acquistions and co-productions. “It is so difficult for producers to finance animated children’s series as the costs of production are so high. Even though TFO is an Ontario-based francophone broadcaster we often work with Quebec-based animation companies together with other canadian broadcasters (TVO, Knowledge Network, SRC, APTN) in order to finance canadian creations and stories. Hopefully this news will mean more content for kids in French in the future.”

“Animation travels well internationally and in a time when producers rely on international co-productions and partnerships, this initiative will give a big-leg up to producers in the arena, and offer them the opportunity to more fully develop their pitches and be more competitive, which we think will pay dividends, particularly, though not exclusively, with France,” says Mindy Laxer, SVP and co-executive producer at Montreal-based Apartment 11 (Interstella Ella).

Image courtesy of Jason Hafso via Unsplash. Updated 6/17/2024 with additional quotes from Canadian industry executives.