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TORONTO - Telefilm Canada says it wants to offer big money to small projects.

The federal agency says it's introducing a pilot program that would give emerging filmmakers as much as $120,000 to make so-called "micro-budget" movies.

The fund targets low-budget ventures that cost less than $250,000 and are designed for various digital platforms. It would launch this summer.

Executive director Carolle Brabant revealed the plan today at the Prime Time in Ottawa conference, a national networking event for film, television, broadcasting and telecommunications industries.

She also announced a second fund that would support both emerging and established filmmakers and give tax-receipts to individual and corporate donors who want to back Canuck filmmakers.

Documentary maker Peter Raymont says it's something many producers have wanted to see for a long time.

"There's a lot of people in Canada who care about art and culture and filmmaking and would like to be able to support it and receive a tax receipt," said Raymont, one of Telefilm's consultants on the plan.

Still, the director had qualms about the fund, noting he'd prefer it if donors could put their money into a particular film rather than donate to a slate of Telefilm titles.

He suggested that allowing for targeted donations would elicit greater private investment, pointing to the experience he had recently completing a feature-length documentary about painter Tom Thomson.

Raymont says private donors provided almost one third of the $1 million budget for "West Wind."

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Telefilm Canada to offer big money to micro-budget digital projects