Short-Form Digital Series

 There will be two opportunities to apply to the Bell Fund's Short-Form Digital Series Program in 2022.

  • First deadline: April 4, 2022 (7pm EST)

  • Second deadline: September 26, 2022 (7pm EST)
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    Short-Form Digital Series Guidelines 2022 Financing and Budgeting Policy 2022 Summary of Changes 2022

    The following changes have been made to the Short-Form Digital Series program in 2022:


    • Application clinics: One-on-one meetings with applicants to the Short-Form Digital Series program will no longer be required. Instead, we will be conducting application clinics in French and English. First-time applicants must attend an application clinic. Visit our bookings page for dates and sign up information. Applicants are encouraged to sign up as soon as registration opens.

    • Self-Identification Process: Going forward, we request that each company shareholder and key creative personnel involved in a project’s production team be identified in the 'Self-Identification Contact List'(available under application components)
      After the application is submitted, a link to 'Bell Fund’s Online Self-Identification Questionnaire' will be emailed directly to each individual listed in the 'Self-Identification Contact List'. The questionnaire must be completed within 7 days of receipt of the email invitation. In this manner, the applicant no longer has to collect this information on behalf of others.

    • Platform Pre-Approval: Pre-approvals for non-broadcaster and digital platforms must be completed no later than three weeks before the deadline. Bell Fund will review requests and make best efforts to provide an answer within five business days. We are not able to consider late requests. (see application components for Pre-Approval Form)

    • Funding Contribution: A 10% cash contribution is no longer required from a third-party source. (Funding, is still a non-repayable contribution for up to 75% of eligible production costs to a maximum of $150,000.)

    • Episode Length: Minimum episode length is 5 minutes. (The maximum episode length is still 20 minutes and the minimum number of episodes in a series is still 6.)

    • Subsequent Seasons: If applying for a subsequent season (regardless of Bell Fund’s involvement in the previous season) the majority of the previous season must have streamed in order to provide key performance indicators.

    • Changes to Assessment Criteria