Inclusion Initiative: From Start to Screen

Pilots applying for the Independent Pilot, Digital Short Series, Late Night, and Collegiate Spotlight competitions have the opportunity to apply for a waiver submission.

SeriesFest, in partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada, is launching a sequence of opportunities to make our festival more accessible for all content creators and to celebrate a commitment to diversity and equity. Starting with submissions, SeriesFest is instating a number of evaluation tools to help us identify those projects committed to engaging underserved communities. Selected projects will be eligible for a broad swath of tools including a submission waiver, consideration for the Level Forward Impact Award including a $5,000 cash prize, and travel stipends. If you think your project is eligible, please complete a detailed response to the form below along with your submission.

Please note, all submissions will be evaluated individually as we understand accessibility to a diverse pool of candidates may vary depending on your location. We are most interested to hear how you define your equitable hiring processes, and how that definition was put into practice.

We want to hear about you and your process! So please keep in mind that your submission will be evaluated based on your thoughtful and thorough answers to the following questions:

1. How do you define Inclusion and Equity for your project?
2. When you started your process, what was your inclusion goal?
3. Identify your equitable hiring practices 
4. Detail the targets put into place to meet your inclusion goal
5. How do or will you measure the success of your efforts?

Forms MUST be submitted by February 3, 2023 to be considered for Season 9. The evaluation period takes several days so please be mindful of this deadline.