Vancouver, B.C. (October 1, 2026) – Today, Creative BC announces the 14 projects that will receive production and post production financing for their long-form scripted feature length films, documentaries, and series projects. With grants of $20K to $200K each, this is the eighth round of filmmakers funded through the Production Program (the Program). These provincial funds are part of B.C.’s $42M historical investment in the creative sector, which includes supporting the continued growth and competitiveness of B.C.’s motion picture industry through the Domestic Motion Picture Fund.
This round of funding represents a $1,355,000 investment for production phase financing, and these projects bring the total number supported by the Program to 100. The Program allows B.C. filmmakers to complete their projects for broadcast, sale, and distribution. All recipients of the program are B.C. resident individuals, or B.C.-owned and controlled production companies, that own the intellectual property behind their projects.
The Program’s financial support boosts each production’s budget, enhancing its appeal to attract additional investments from private and public funders. This enables projects to move into the production phase and transform fully developed scripts into screen-ready products.
The following projects are this round’s successful recipients:
1. Project: HATCH
Trapped in a decaying apartment with her domineering mother, a neurotic PhD student becomes obsessed with the mysterious artist who moves upstairs.
Company: Fire Rabbit Films
Producers: Yuqi Kang, Gillian McKercher, Damon D’Oliveira, Clement Virgo
Amount/Type: $200,000, Scripted Feature Length Content
2. Project: HOW DARE YOU
On a week-long vacation, a group of queer friends become possessed by the ghosts of a conservative family who died in the holiday home.
Company: HDY Films Inc.
Producers: Madeleine Davis, Liam Coutts
Amount/Type: $200,000, Scripted Feature Length Content
3. Project: KAGE NO HANA
Decades after losing her parents in the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, a young woman journeys to a rural seaside town, seeking to connect with the estranged grandfather who raised her.
Company: Renaissance Films
Producers: Latif Ullah, Mako Fujimoto
Amount/Type: $50,000, Scripted Feature Length Content
4. Project: SHANGHAI FOLLIES
Set during the Great Depression, this animated film follows two sisters in a travelling Chinese circus as they navigate the tension between ambition and family.
Company: Stickgirl Productions Inc.
Producers: Ann Marie Fleming, Ruth Vincent, Haydn Wazelle
Amount/Type: $125,000, Scripted Feature Length Content
5. Project: WOLVES DON’T LIVE BY THE RULES
While working in her ancestral territory on the chaotic set of a “visionary” indie director’s latest film, a queer Blackfoot filmmaker fights back against abuse on set and on the land with the help of mysterious ancestral spirits.
Company: Experimental Forest Films Inc.
Producer: Tyler Hagan
Amount/Type: $200,000, Scripted Feature Length Content
6. Project: BETS’ŲNE YĮNESHĄ (HIS GRANDMOTHER RAISED HIM)
An Indigenous filmmaker preserves a key Dënesųłiné story by searching for migrating etthen (caribou) with her father.
Company: Phoenix Skye Productions Inc.
Producers: Linda St. Pierre, Greg Compton
Amount/Type: $20,000, Documentary or Factual Content
7. Project: GAYBLEVISION: THE DOCUMENTARY
Seeing no one like himself on television, Greg Cutts partnered with Mary Anne McEwen to create one of the world’s first LGBTQ+ TV shows in 1980. Amid conservative backlash and the AIDS crisis, they proved that telling their own stories was vital to survival.
Company: Habitat Productions Inc.
Producers: David Rodden-Shortt, Jack Fox
Amount/Type: $50,000, Documentary or Factual Content
8. Project: SEARCH AND RESCUE: LEGENDS
Legendary stories of search and rescue in the B.C. wilderness told by the volunteers and survivors who lived through them.
Company: Search Mountain Films Inc.
Producers: Jenny Rustemeyer, Grant Baldwin
Amount/Type: $100,000, Documentary or Factual Content
9. Project: SKI THE WONG WAY
Wayne Wong, a Canadian athlete who re-wrote the rules, inspired a generation and became the unlikely face of the counterculture sport of freestyle skiing.
Company: Wong Way Productions Inc.
Producers: Daniel Berish, Joanna Wong, Leah Mallen, Ryan Mah
Amount/Type: $120,000, Documentary or Factual Content
10. Project: TO CARRY THE SKY
An intimate exploration of altruistic surrogacy and the line between selflessness and desire.
Company: 1588161 B.C. LTD.
Producers: Josephine Anderson, Jenni Baynham, Brian Ceci
Amount/Type: $120,000, Documentary or Factual Content
11. Project: TRANS GIRLS: RAW AND UNCUT
As a groundbreaking all-trans comedy show takes Vancouver by storm, trans women are fighting back and redefining trans stories on and off the stage.
Company: Uncut Films Inc.
Producers: Mily Mumford, Erin Purghart
Amount/Type: $50,000, Documentary or Factual Content
12. Project: WHALE FALL
A team of scientists descends into the deep ocean off the British Columbia coast to study a whale fall: a rare ecosystem birthed from a whale’s death, seeking to understand our ocean’s future and life’s earliest beginnings.
Company: River Road Films Ltd.
Producer: Jeffrey Turner
Amount/Type: $50,000, Documentary or Factual Content
13. Project: WHERE THE HERON LANDS
As she struggles to adapt to life in a new country, a conservationist finds an unlikely guide in a Great Blue Heron, which leads her through Vancouver’s urban wilderness and toward a new beginning.
Company: Where the Heron Lands Films Ltd., Beyond Premieres Films Ltd.
Producers: Saiyam Wakchaure, Gunjan Menon
Amount/Type: $20,000, Documentary or Factual Content
14. Project: ZINDABAD
Four actors trace the 40-year fight of South Asians to reclaim their right to vote in Canada, reviving a forgotten story of identity and belonging.
Company: Real People Real Stories Inc. (dba JUGAAD Sisters Inc.)
Producer: Priyanka Desai
Amount/Type: $50,000, Documentary or Factual Content
To learn more about the Production Program, visit Creative BC’s website: https://creativebc.com/funding-programs/domestic-motion-picture-programs/production-program/
Quotes:
Robert Wong, Vice President, Creative BC
“This latest round of Production Program funding marks a significant milestone, bringing the total number of supported projects to 100. Production financing is essential to helping B.C.’s independent filmmakers turn creative visions into completed projects and bring locally owned stories to market. With support from the Province of British Columbia, these projects strengthen B.C.’s presence in the global screen marketplace and contribute to a vibrant, competitive motion picture industry.”
Ann Marie Fleming, Director, Program Recipient
“Public funding for the arts and cultural industries is so important in this country, and regional support is so meaningful. I make films with stories based in B.C, made in B.C. and I am proud to receive financial support from Creative BC. It takes a village to make a film, and that includes funding. Creative BC has supported SHANGHAI FOLLIES at its script development stage and I am honoured that it is still supporting this project now it is ready for production.”
Media Contact:
Creative BC
Lisa Escudero
media@creativebc.com
+1 604-730-2235
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About Creative BC
Creative BC is an independent non-profit society created and supported by the Province to sustain and help grow British Columbia’s creative industries: motion picture, interactive and digital media, music and sound recording, and magazine and book publishing. The society delivers a wide range of programs and services with a mandate to expand B.C.’s creative economy. These activities include: administration of the provincial government’s motion picture tax credit programs; delivery of program funding and export marketing support for the sector; and provincial film commission services. Combined, these activities serve to attract inward investment and market B.C. as a partner and destination of choice for domestic and international content creation. The society acts as an industry catalyst and ambassador to help B.C.’s creative sector reach its economic, social, environmental, and creative potential both at home, and globally. Website: www.creativebc.com