Telefilm Canada

It's backed by federal institutional investments.

Like I think there was $23 million I think was donated in this through the government of Canada and Telefilm Canada, you know, alongside Hollywood agencies, of course, like CA, like the Creative Arts Agency and United Talent Agency and even the William Morris Endeavor, you know, things like that.

So that was really, really cool.

I was lucky to speak to both the TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey afterwards and also Jeff McNaughton, who's the vice president market programming and theatrical.

Well, the market seems to be one of the big stories here.

So, uh, this is a multi-year, $23 million federal investment, uh, between, uh, the, the feds and Telefilm Canada, and it's a deal-making hub.

Now, TIFF has often been known as a place where producers would show up, and they'd see movies that, uh, didn't have distribution deals.

Um, this sort of formalizes it in a much different kind of way.

And I think just raising the finances to put together like Tim, my producing partner and I started from the ground up doing micro budget features out of Canada.

So we were very used to the financial structures in Canada, where to source our financing, you know, Telefilm Canada, OMDC.

We have strong support and tax credits here.

And then in the US, it was our first time financing completely out of our comfort zone.

Right.

During the shoot, the production was under intense scrutiny because of the CFDC funding.

Cronenberg had noted in interviews that he felt a lot of pressure to prove that he was making art and not just pornography with blood.

He intentionally kept the set very clinical and professional to distance the production from the exploitation reputation that followed Marilyn Chambers.