A screenshot from ‘Dads’, one of many addictive Canadian series worth watching

The Independent Production Fund, a CRTC-recognized organization based out of Toronto and Montreal, recently shelled out $1.6 million to directly support Canada’s most promising web series. 14 series were picked in all (9 English and 5 French). The program was established back in 2010, and is designed to push “high quality, story driven drama[s] for web audiences… [from] Canadian productions to global audiences.” Toronto Standard highlighted some of the series in the running for funding back in March.

The program received 157 applicants, which were narrowed down to a short-list of 35 web series before the final 14 recipients of the grant were named. The chosen series were strategically selected (as opposed to unstrategically selected) to appeal to a wide demographic based both on age and genre. While most of the selected series are comedies, there are also a number of dramas, thrillers, and sci-fi series to boot.

Watch full episodes from the 14 selected web series here, and catch some of our favourite snippets below:

The Amazing Gayl Pile

Looks Like: SNL-style infomercials cut with The Office‘s mocumentary-style interviews.

Dads (most definitely NSFW)

Looks Like: What would happen if Shameless covered an episode of Modern Family.

Versus Valerie

Looks Like: The adorkable appeal of New Girl‘s Jess paired with the reality-bending-pop-culture-blending mind of Community‘s Abed. 

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Jeremy Schipper is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @jeromeoschipps.

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