Prairie Cat Productions Makes Connections and Finds Distribution Deal

Lucas Frison (Prairie Cat Productions) was a successful grant recipient of our Showcase or Sell Travel Grant to attend the Banff World Media Festival.

The Banff World Media Festival is expensive to attend, but a lot of magic happens there. Lucas Frison of Prairie Cat Productions knew he had to attend.

Frison started his Canadian Screen Award-nominated production company, Prairie Cat Productions, shortly after graduating from the University of Regina in 2014. With a number of successful projects under his belt, he wanted to attend the Banff World Media Festival in 2023 to pitch the script for his feature-length coming-of-age film, One Perfect Date.

With the help of a Creative Saskatchewan Showcase or Sell Travel Grant, he was able to do just that.

“The festival was a fantastic experience and exposed me to a wide variety of industry professionals and decision-makers I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to meet,” Frison says. “The pitches for One Perfect Date went great. I left the week with a lot of new contacts and opportunities.”

Frison left Banff with contacts that helped him land a distributor – Filmoption International – for his feature film. And with that distributor lined up, One Perfect Date was selected for funding through Telefilm’s Production Program.

“This was something we’d been working towards and dreaming about for over a year,” Frison says. “To get that email, we were ecstatic.”

Frison expects to be filming his million-dollar film right here in Saskatchewan in the near future. When looking back at the process and how it all came together, Frison notes that it all started with funding from Creative Saskatchewan. “We wouldn’t have had this opportunity if it weren’t for the support from Creative Saskatchewan,” he says. “It really puts Sask filmmakers and artists on equal grounds with those from the rest of the country.”