The Astral Media Emerging Documentary Filmmakers Scholarship

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Astral Media have created The Astral Media Emerging Documentary Filmmakers Scholarship Programme. These new scholarship opportunities are made possible by a three-year commitment from Astral Media to provide a total of $150,000 towards the funding of the programme, which will allow 25 up-and-coming filmmakers from Quebec and British Columbia to participate in an array of professional and creative development opportunities at this year's Hot Docs Festival and Conference, April 17 to 27, 2008.

The programme is comprised of three components: The Doc U Scholarship Programme, the Kickstart Series Bursary Programme and the Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF) Scholarship Programme.

Astral Media's Doc U Scholarship Programme provides five emerging filmmakers from Quebec and British Columbia with enrollment in the week-long Doc U programme. Now in its third year, Doc U provides doc-makers who are completing, or who have recently completed film school with invaluable behind-the-scenes festival experience through mentorship and curated sessions with industry professionals. Astral Media's Doc U Scholarship Programme will enable students from outside of Ontario to participate, providing a $1,000 travel stipend as well as full industry accreditation to Hot Docs festival, conference and market events.

The Kickstart Series Bursaries will provide 15 to 20 emerging filmmakers from Quebec and British Columbia with enrollment to the Kickstart programme, a day-long series of panels held during the Hot Docs conference that are geared to emerging and mid-career directors. Kickstart Bursaries will also provide recipients with full industry accreditation to Hot Docs festival, conference and market events.

The Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF) Scholarship will provide full TDF Observer accreditation to two emerging filmmakers, one from BC and one from Quebec. Hot Docs' renowned market event, the TDF is a unique presentation forum that assists independent documentary producers from around the world and their market partners to raise co-financing from the international marketplace. For buyers, the format offers a slate of pre-selected projects in development and production by some of the world's most provocative filmmakers.

Hot Docs and Astral Media will organize a jury of film and television professionals to individually evaluate each submission package and to select the 25 recipients. For more details, including application requirements, visit http://www.hotdocs.ca/