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Despite strong headwinds and rough seas, the Atlantic provinces continue to create
Self-Identification System

PERSONA-ID

PERSONA-ID is a self-identification system that allows individuals to disclose their demographic information directly and securely to the Canada Media Fund (CMF).

WHY WAS PERSONA-ID CREATED?

PERSONA-ID was created to measure and monitor the demographic representation and participation of all content creators involved in projects submitted to and supported by the CMF.

The type of data collected and the terminology used in PERSONA-ID are the result of extensive consultation with individuals, organizations, and communities across Canada in both English and French. However, we acknowledge that this effort will continue to evolve over time, adapting to and accommodating the changes in the screen industries, national demographics, and society in general.

WHAT WILL THE INFORMATION COLLECTED BE USED FOR?

The information collected through PERSONA-ID enables the CMF to obtain a more detailed picture of who is applying for funding as well as the people working on the funded projects. More specifically, this data may be used for the following purposes:

  • Determine eligibility to and compliance with programs, incentives and requirements
  • Inform decision-making on future changes to CMF programs and policies
  • Detect inequities in access to funding and representation
  • Follow trends and patterns in participation in CMF programs and initiatives
  • Provide anonymous aggregate reports to stakeholders and partners on levels of representation in programs or funding services using PERSONA-ID
  • Inform the public on who has access to CMF funding

To learn more about the demographics and user experience of people participating in PERSONA-ID, as well as other related research and reports, see our Insights page.

To find out who should participate in PERSONA-ID, how it works with CMF applications, and any other questions you might have, please see our FAQ section below.

How do I register?

  1. Sign up using the form below. We recommend using your full name and a personal email address rather than a company address as that may vary from project to project.
  2. After submitting the form, you will receive a confirmation email from Telefilm, our partner running the PERSONA-ID system. This email will include a link to access the self-identification platform — this may appear in your spam/junk inbox.
  3. The self-identification platform will prompt you to review our Terms of Use and complete a Self-Identification Questionnaire. It is recommended that you preview PDF versions of these below in the Reference Documents section before completing the questionnaire and agreeing to the Terms.
  4. Once you have submitted the questionnaire, you will find your PERSONA-ID number at the top of your online profile. We highly encourage you to take note of this number and save it for future use.

Sign-up for a PERSONA-ID account

If you are a NEW registrant:

Preferred communication language
Submit

For Dialogue users who are already using their personal email address to access their Dialogue accounts, you can use the same email and registration information to create a PERSONA-ID account. However, you may also decide to create a unique PERSONA-ID account using a different email by signing up here.

If you already have a PERSONA-ID number:

ACCESS PERSONA-ID SELF-IDENTIFICATION PLATFORM

Please follow the link to directly access the PERSONA-ID self-identification platform.

Reference Documents

For more information on how to register and complete the questionnaire, please review the documents below.

User GuideSelf-Identification Questionnaire (read only)Terms of Use & Privacy

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

For the 2026-2027 fiscal year, several changes have been made to the PERSONA-ID questionnaire and Terms of Use.

All PERSONA-ID Users must log into their accounts and update their questionnaires based on the following changes/additions to the PERSONA-ID questionnaire:

  1. Updates to the PERSONA-ID questionnaire
  • Racial and Ethnocultural Identity
    • A new question asks PERSONA-ID users to identify as one of the following:
      • a Black and/or Racialized person
      • a person of white or European descent
      • a person neither Black and/or racialized or of White or European descent; or
      • “I prefer not to answer.”
    • Users who identify as Black and/or racialized can then self-identify more specifically to the standardized category(ies) that best describe their ethnicity or regional descendancy in a follow up question.
    • This list of ethnicities includes all categories from the previous year (e.g. Black or Afro Canadian; East Asian; Middle Eastern, West Asian, or North African; Latin American, etc.).
  • Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC)
    • The wording of the response options has changed:
      • “Member of the French language community outside of Quebec” has replaced “francophone outside Quebec.”
      • “Member of the English language community in Quebec” has replaced “anglophone in Quebec.”
  1. Updates to the PERSONA-ID Terms of Use
    Several clauses in the PERSONA-ID Terms of Use have been updated:
  • 1. Purposes for use: In addition to the previous list, PERSONA-ID data entered into the system may now be used by the CMF to “Provide aggregate reports to stakeholders and partners on levels of representation in programs or funding services using PERSONA-ID; and inform the public on who has access to CMF funding.“
  • 6. Account deletion: Once a PERSONA-ID user’s account is no longer tied to an active application, their account will then be deleted as requested, rather than automatically.
  • 7. Limited access to information: As before, the CMF will not share PERSONA-ID users’ individual information with any third parties. However, “Analytics and other reports based on anonymized and aggregated PERSONA-ID data may be shared with third-party organizations that are also collecting PERSONA-ID numbers for the purposes of reporting demographic information, including but not limited to partners, funders, broadcasters, and other industry organizations. These reports will never include any personal or individually identifiable information, and the CMF will not disclose, sell, or grant access to [PERSONA-ID users’] individual self-identification data to any third party.“
  • 11. Inactive accounts: After the three-year period of a PERSONA-ID account not being liked to any active Application, or accessed by any party, “account holders will be given the option to activate or deactivate their accounts.“
  • Additionally, the Retention Period clause has been removed.

Please note that this is only a summary, so we encourage you to thoroughly read the PERSONA-ID questionnaire PDF and Terms of Use document for complete details.

You may change your responses to your PERSONA-ID questionnaire at any time.

For more information on modifying your account, see the PERSONA-ID user guide.

After creating a PERSONA-ID account and completing the voluntary PERSONA-ID self-identification questionnaire, you will be given a 6-digit number that will serve to identify you in the PERSONA-ID system. This number allows the CMF to confirm your identity and use the relevant information for the purposes mentioned above.

Sharing your PERSONA-ID number in CMF project applications helps the CMF better understand who is working in the screen industry and how our funding supports different communities. The demographic information collected remains essential to:

  • Meet reporting obligations to the government and inform industry partners, showing how funding is reaching different communities.
  • Keep applicants and users informed when their names are included in an application or corporate profile.
  • Understand and monitor representation across programs, helping us improve our programs over time.
  • Follow career progression over time, from professional development, to project development, to production.
  • Expand what we learn about the industry, including representation and career paths for all key creative and production roles.

Your personal information always remains confidential and is never shared with third parties. However, the aggregate results help build a clearer, more accurate picture of the industry, and support a more inclusive and sustainable screen sector for everyone.

Participation is voluntary, but we strongly encourage anyone applying to the CMF or CMF-related programs, or working on CMF-funded projects, to register and include their PERSONA-ID number.

This includes:

  • Shareholders and corporate directors of Applicant companies.
  • Board members of Applicant companies or organizations.
  • Key creative and production team members, including producers (executive producers, supervising producers, associate producers, creative producers), directors, and writers (or screenwriters)
    • For interactive digital media (IDM) projects, this also includes directors (technical director, creative director, art director, interactive director), senior programmer, designer, and project lead.
  • Additional creative roles, when applicable, including highest paid actor, second highest paid actor, Production Designer / Art Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Music Composer, Costume designer, Hair stylist, Make-up artist, Special Effects (SFX) Director, and Visual effects (VFX) supervisor / director, among others.
  • Sector Development organization applicants and participants, including individuals taking part in events, training, conferences, or any other activities supported by the CMF through our Sector Development Support Programs.
  • Jury members evaluating any CMF selective programs.

Some programs, incentives, and measures may require individuals to provide their PERSONA-ID numbers to prove eligibility. Please consult the CMF’s Program Guidelines for more details.

Since PERSONA-ID is a personal access account that may be used to identify you on multiple projects and by different production companies in the future, we encourage you to use your personal and most reliable email account.

Information that you submit will be anonymized and aggregated before it is used in any statistical or analytical document published by the CMF (e.g., the CMF’s Annual Report). While the CMF will not share your individual information with any third parties, the following limited access may be provided:

  1. CMF Applicant production companies will only be able to see your name and PERSONA-ID number, but not any of the detailed self-identification information you provide. CMF Applicants may receive aggregated reports regarding the eligibility of their Applications without detailed information.
  2. Canadian Broadcasters will receive aggregated reports regarding the demographic diversity of their Projects, without any of the detailed self-identification information you provide.
  3. Designated CMF and CMF Program Administrator staff may access, review, and internally share your information if it is relevant to the analysis of an Application.
  4. Analytics and other reports based on anonymized and aggregated PERSONA-ID data may be shared with third-party organizations that are also collecting PERSONA-ID numbers for the purposes of reporting demographic information, including but not limited to partners, funders, broadcasters, and other industry organizations. These reports will never include any personal or individually identifiable information, and the CMF will not disclose, sell, or grant access to your individual self-identification data to any third party.
  5. In some exceptional cases, the CMF may cross-validate data with other organizations (e.g., the Indigenous Screen Office) to confirm the presence of individuals in both databases.

You can select multiple racial identities as you feel apply. For certain targeted Programs or initiatives, the CMF will consider those who may have selected the applicable identity(ies), including those who are biracial or multiracial.

You can change your personal information at any time by logging into your account and accessing the ‘My Personal Information’ landing page, finding the Self-Identification Information section and selecting the blue Modify link. For more information, see the PERSONA-ID User Guide.

However, if your PERSONA-ID is already attached to an application currently being processed, the information submitted on the program’s deadline will be considered. To change your name or contact information, you will need to contact our partner Telefilm’s Enrolment team at [email protected].

Please note that to change your name, you may need to create a new account and inform the Applicant and the analyst handling any active applications linked to your old name.

You can delete your PERSONA-ID account by sending an email to our administrator team at [email protected] with the subject line Account deletion request. Please include your PERSONA-ID number in your message if available. If your account is not tied to an active Application, it will be deleted within 30 days. If it is tied to an active Application, the account will be made inactive. Inactive accounts will not be accessible, but the PERSONA-ID numbers will remain in our database for statistical purposes. Once an account is no longer tied to an Application, it will be deleted. CMF or Telefilm staff will inform you when the process is completed.

Every time your PERSONA-ID number is used in a key role position in an application, you will receive an email notification. If you believe someone is using your PERSONA-ID number in an application without your consent, please contact [email protected] and request an inquiry. Applicants should only use PERSONA-ID numbers of those who have agreed to participate in their project and who have provided their PERSONA-ID numbers with consent.

Applicants should inform their analyst of any changes to these roles as soon as they occur. Please note that any such changes may impact the Applicant and/or the Project eligibility for certain programs and incentives regarding compliance eligibility requirements or scoring.

At the completion of any supported project, Applicants are required to confirm if any of the above roles or eligibility criteria have changed.

No, this is not required. The CMF will only evaluate the Canadian company composition and the Canadian personnel to determine a project’s eligibility to any of our Programs, incentives, or requirements.

PERSONA-ID has been developed in compliance with Canadian law. Please note that privacy laws vary in other countries. The CMF does not intend to collect personal information from European Union residents. Residents of the EU should not create a PERSONA-ID account.

In general, you can only use PERSONA-ID to self-identify for applications to the Canada Media Fund. However, in 2026-2027, the Independent Production Fund (IPF) will be collecting PERSONA-ID numbers from their applicants for their programs. The CMF will analyse the collected data and provide IPF with aggregate anonymous results per project and per program.

The Canada Media Fund is the sole owner of all data collected via PERSONA-ID. The CMF’s Program Administrator at Telefilm Canada acts as a third-party service provider for the CMF with the capacity to store, manage, and deliver the data to the CMF.

Do you need help? Please contact us:

For any other questions regarding PERSONA-ID or for any data collection and privacy concern or feedback, please email [email protected].

If you need Accessibility Support to create your PERSONA-ID account, please contact [email protected].

For technical questions, please contact [email protected]

To assist you in the process of applying to the CMF, please contact [email protected]