Province invests another $3.2M in northern Ontario film industry
New funding to support 5 film projects shooting in Sudbury
The Ontario government announced on Wednesday it's investing $3.2 million in five Sudbury-based film productions through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).
The NOHFC promotes economic growth, job creation and workforce development across northern Ontario. The new injection of funds is aimed to raise the region's profile as a premiere destination for film production in Canada.
Fella Films and Woods Entertainment Canada will each receive $1 million to produce the movies Ballistic and Violence, respectively. Hangar 18 Media and Next Phase Motion Pictures will each get $500,000 to produce Deathstalker and Ripping off Othello. The remaining $227,206 goes to Fittonia Productions to produce Rêver en Néon.
"This support from the NOHFC is key for not only the film industry itself in our region but it touches on all facets of our community." said Sudbury-based film producer, David Anselmo.
"When a film or a television series comes to town to shoot, they are spending a dollar here and a dollar there, between car rentals, hotels, restaurants it adds up. Even taking over a local flower shop to shoot a scene as we did years ago, and then we continued too keep our business at that shop, having them do all our subsequent flower arrangements." he said
"All this is thanks to the NOHFC support that allows film companies to come north for their productions." Anselmo told CBC Radio Sudbury.
"The modernized programs are attracting production partnerships in the industry that give communities like Sudbury the opportunity to showcase their natural beauty on screens worldwide," Greg Rickford, Ontario's minister of northern development, said in a news release.
William Woods, the Toronto-based producer of Violence, said support from the NOHFC helped him get the movie made.
"Violence was a movie without a home," Woods said in a news release.
"When looking around at potential shoot locations, Sudbury not only became an obvious perfect fit, but also an inspiration for many of the spaces we needed to turn a mythical punk rock milieu into a reality."