Script Consultation & Polishing

Here is how the work lines up. Script consultation in Canada bridges a two-tier development ecosystem — anglophone work that funnels through Telefilm Canada. The Canadian Media Fund, francophone work that runs through SODEC and the Quebec sector — and our consultant bench is structured around that reality. We work with script doctors who came up through the Canadian Film Centre, the National Screen Institute Banff, and the Centre national des Arts in Montreal, with literary instincts shaped by Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, Anne Hébert, and Michael Ondaatje.

Here is the breakdown. For genre and feature work we pair writers with consultants who carry credits on Cronenberg-school body horror, Villeneuve-school cerebral science fiction, Polley-school intimate drama (Women Talking, 2022 Oscar adapted screenplay), and Dolan-school auteur character work. Documentary writers tap consultants tied to the National Film Board lineage. The Hot Docs Forum cohort, with strong development credentials on the social-issue and indigenous-cinema axes that Canadian docs are worldwide known for.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Beyond pure craft notes our consultants align each draft with the funding build style that gets Canadian projects greenlit. We brief writers on Telefilm Theatrical Documentary Program eligibility, the CMF Convergent Stream criteria, SODEC selective and automatic programs, OMDC Film Fund tiers, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity writing residency calendar.

Here is how the picture comes together. For producers prepping a TIFF Industry market, Hot Docs Pitch Forum, Whistler Screenwriters Lab, or Berlinale Co-Production Market submission, we run two-day intensive polish passes that tighten logline, treatment, and the first ten pages to the format buyers actually open. Quebec projects receive bilingual EN/FR script doctoring, with consultants fluent enough to handle Mordecai Richler-style Anglo-Montreal voice and Dolan-style joual without flattening either. Standard turnaround on a feature analysis is seventy-two hours, with rush options for sales-agent and TV networks deadlines.