YMA & TAAFI Establish John Rooney Creator Fund

The Youth Media Alliance (YMA) and Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) have set up the John Rooney Creator Fund in memory of the executive director of the festival, who was an ardent supporter of LGBTQ2S+ talent.

The fund has two streams: content development and scriptwriting. Each stream has a budget of CAD$10,000, with the content development stream awarded to one creator and the scriptwriting stream awarded to four writers.

The content development stream of the fund sees up to CAD$5,000 awarded to one creator to be spent on contracting professional resources for the creation of their concept. The winner will also receive mentorship from industry professionals. The remaining CAD$5,000 will be reserved for travel and registration costs that will allow the creator to network at conferences.

The scriptwriting stream will place four writers in a writing room for a show in production. The fund will cover ten working days, with a total allocation of CAD$2,500 per writer.

Creators and writers can apply on the YMA’s website from December 1 to January 14.