BravoFACT Zooms in on a Successful Year of New Mandates, Partnerships, and Funding

TORONTO (February 1, 2016) – As BravoFACT prepares for the BravoFACTUAL submission deadline on February 26, its first for 2016, it looks back on the fund’s accomplishments over the last 12 months, in particular the very successful Year of the Female Filmmaker initiative. This mandate committed 50% of BravoFACT funds, in perpetuity, to female-led projects. Since the implementation of the mandate in January 2015, 34 out of the 55 BravoFACT awards were allocated to female-led projects, with grants totaling $1.5 million. In total BravoFACT awarded $2.3 million to Canadian filmmakers in 2015, bringing total BravoFACT funding to $27.8 million, since its inception in 1995. “A gratifying endeavor for BravoFACT, Year of the Female Filmmaker was a resounding success,” said Tracey Pearce, Senior Vice-President, Specialty and Pay. “With 62% of the projects BravoFACT funded in 2015 being female-led, we were able to ensure that the voices of many new female talents in our country were heard.” BravoFACT Films BravoFACT-funded films enjoyed many successes in 2015:

• the female-led shorts Boxing and Boy were selected to screen at The 2015 Toronto International Film Festival®
• The Deaths of Chet Baker was adapted into the feature-length film, Born To Be Blue, starring Ethan Hawke
• One Last Dream which screened at the Ottawa International Film Festival and The St. Lawrence Film Festival.

BravoFACTUAL Documentaries The short documentary program BravoFACTUAL also celebrated many success stories in 2015:

• Kubo’s Crickets premiered at the Austin Film Festival and screened at Devour Film Festival
• My Enemy, My Brother directed by Ann Shin, screened at Hot Docs 2015 and was shortlisted for an Academy Award consideration.

Partnerships BravoFACT also invested in a variety of partnerships in 2015 including pitch contests with Women and Film in Television, Women in Film and Television-Atlantic, HOT Docs, The Victoria Film Festival, and the Documentary Organization of Canada. These partnerships allowed BravoFACT to provide increased value to the Canadian production community, and also to shine a light on initiatives such as Year of the Female Filmmaker. BravoFACT intends to expand its web of partnerships in 2016 with details to be announced in the coming weeks.   For information about BravoFACT and BravoFACTUAL program requirements, and application guidelines, visit http://bravofact.com.