Leading crowdfunding site Kickstarter has raised over $100 million to support indie films since it launched in spring 2009.

April 28, 2009 — January 1, 2013:

Total pledged: $102.7 million
Total collected: $85.7 million
Total backers: 891,979
Funded projects: 8,567

In the past three years, nearly 900,000 people have pledged their support to an independent filmmaker on Kickstarter, pledging more than $100 million to features, documentaries, shorts, webseries, and other film and video projects. Nearly $60 million has been pledged in the past 12 months alone.  Here’s the breakdown by category:

Documentary $42.64 million / 2,394 pledges
Narrative Film $31.74 million / 2,331
Short Film $16.68 million / 3,000
Webseries $6.83 million / 619
Animation $4.87 million / 223

Kickstarter-funded films comprised 10% of the 2012 slates at the SXSW Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival. In total, 57 Kickstarter-funded films have premiered at SXSW and 21 at Tribeca.  A key example is the award-winning documentary, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. Festivals such as Sundance are actively promoting Kickstarter campaigns of films the festival endorses.

In Canada, crowdfunding has filled a vaccuum left by private broadcasters and public funders who have reduced their levels of investment in fiction and documentary films.  However, Canada Revenue has yet to determine the status of any funds raised through Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites.