The Amplified Voices Development Fund provides funding to develop high quality creative content to a level that can attract partners, financing and distribution so that it can move into production. Companies may submit an application to the fund to receive one of a limited number of grants of up to $20,000 to assist them with their project development activities. More info on the fund can be found HERE.
The 2026 Development Fund will support 16 producers/screenwriters across 13 projects, ranging from features to animated series. 2026 funding recipients include:
Project: Swallowed (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Noah Brown
Synopsis: Swallowed is a found footage horror feature centring urban exploration and trans identities.
Project: Heart Peaks (Feature)
Producer: Kate Solar
Screenwriter: A. Laurel Lawrence
Synopsis: A film archivist and a geologist are bound together by their shared obsession with the eruption of an extinct volcano.
Project: Priya’s Dinner (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Akshay Shirke
Synopsis: A struggling Indian caterer in Halifax takes one last shot at saving her business by hosting a dinner for her cousin’s wealthy in-laws but a medical emergency turns the evening into a desperate battle over blame and belonging.
Project: Remedy (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Alexandra MacLean
Synopsis: Five years after her father’s sudden death, emotionally avoidant Georgia grapples with maintaining her plight to be alone forever, or accepting love and all the excruciating pain that comes with it.
Project: Coyote Path (Animated Series)
Producer/Screenwriter: Cameron Lizotte
Synopsis: Finding herself suddenly imbued with the ability to shapeshift, 8 year-old Lucy runs straight into the woods to explore mother nature and the other ‘wildlife’. As her older brother Winston follows Lucy deeper into the woods, they soon discover an entirely new animal community underground in a magical realm created by Mother Earth.
Project: A Governor’s Journey (Documentary Feature)
Producer: Benjamin Bruce Edwards
Screenwriter: Dean Andre Anderson
Synopsis: This feature-length documentary explores the life, leadership, and legacy of The Honourable Dr Mayann Francis, the first African Nova Scotian to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.
Project: Between Lands and Lagos to Halifax (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Israel Ekanem
Synopsis: A struggling Halifax filmmaker and musician returns to Lagos for his grandfather’s funeral, where the rhythms and rituals of his Ibibio heritage reawaken his art and give him the story that could save his company and his soul.
Project: One Night Only (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Sandi Rankaduwa
Synopsis: This comedy follows a single woman trying to get pregnant through a series of one night stands.
Project: Into The Fray (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Samira Eblaghi
Synopsis: Sadiya’s only and favourite company includes her brother, Eli, and the characters from her favourite video games. When Eli is seized and taken away by dark figures in a mysterious vehicle, Sad feels the call to go after him, like the fearless heroes she plays on her screens.
Project: Elapultiek Nipuktuk (Feature)
Producer/screenwriter: shalan joudry
Synopsis: A feature film adaptation of shalan’s acclaimed play Elapultiek. Grappling with her personal grief, a 20-year old Mi’kmaw woman searches for an ancestral trail, while saving an old growth forest and an endangered species along the way.
Project: Beyond the Edge of Sky, Yet Right Before My Eye (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Cindy Ngo
Synopsis: When a young Vietnamese scholar achieves her ‘First World Dream’ abroad, she confronts the devastating isolation of the digital diaspora, transforming remote grief—catalyzed by a tragic video call—into the motivation needed to realize her directorial ambition.
Project: Still Life (Feature)
Producer: Ben Creelman
Screenwriter: Joey Chapman
Synopsis: Haunted by the death of their partner, Cooper leaves Ireland for Nova Scotia, consumed by an illicit pursuit of capturing authentic grief on camera.
Project: The Job (Feature)
Producer/Screenwriter: Joel Salaysay
Synopsis: Two contract killers await their next assignment in a diner in the small town of Sydney, Nova Scotia.
** The Dawn Fund, which supports programs for trans, Two-Spirit, and non-binary individuals, contributed $4,000 toward funding for two selected 2026 Amplified Voices Development Fund recipients.