Content Catalyst Fund rebrands, expands focus on women creators

Canada’s Content Catalyst Fund has rebranded as Catalyst as it expands its focus on women content creators.

Mithila Majithia

The Toronto-based company was launched by former CBC exec and Bristow Global Media CEO Julie Bristow in 2020 with the aim to finance and develop stories made through a female lens.

It has appointed a new development co-ordinator, Mithila Majithia, who will support Catalyst’s team as it embarks on an intensive growth strategy.

These growth plans include the launch of a series of ‘Community Connector Events’ designed to build a global network of women creatives.

Hailing from India and Hong Kong, Majithia joins Catalyst from Toronto-based prodco Alibi Entertainment, where she served as business affairs co-ordinator on a range of popular shows, including Carnival Eats, Sarah off the Grid, Titanic: The New Evidence, Northern Gold and Accidental Wilderness: The Leslie Street Spit.

Catalyst said its new name and image is designed to simplify its brand proposition and position itself as a community for women creators. The company is focused on attracting women creators in unscripted content, but will represent IP in all genres and forms of entertainment, including scripted, premium features and podcasts.

Catalyst will host the first of its planned series of Community Connector Events during the Toronto International Film Festival. The event will be attended by women creators with whom Catalyst is either already working or planning to work, with a view to investing in or developing their ideas.

Catalyst has also entered into a partnership with the Canadian Film Centre to create a unique programme to develop women creators in the unscripted space.

Bristow said: “Catalyst is not only our new name but it also describes how we intend to function in terms of creating a vibrant community of talent. Catalyst will offer women creators a space and a marketplace that works with and for them. But it will also offer the world a pipeline of brilliant IP. There’s a huge global appetite for stories told through a female lens. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: content is queen in today’s market.”

Last year, Catalyst announced a strategic partnership with Blue Ant Media to identify strong unscripted ideas for development and production across several genres, including lifestyle, crime and high-impact documentary series.

Blue Ant production arm Blue Ant Studios will produce projects in collaboration with Catalyst, with Bristow, Vibika Bianchi and Heather Findlay as executive producers. The first of these, announced this year, is docuseries Mission: Unexplained for paranormal-focused channel T+E. It will premiere in early 2023.