The on-screen action will be non-stop at next month’s Atlantic Film Festival – and the behind-the-scenes business deals won’t be far behind.

Two conferences held during the AFF help local artists launch new projects, and inject real dollars into the local economy.

The three-day Strategic Partners event brings together producers, sales agents and  distributors from around the world seeking Canadian collaborators on both film and TV productions.

Strategic Partners director Jan Miller said Tuesday following this year’s festival launch that the event attracts industry heavyweights – who often return.

“Haven getting shot here, that’s a U.S. production being shot in Nova Scotia.,” she said. “The film For All The Wrong Reasons was a New Brunswick – Manitoba co-production shot in Nova Scotia, and they met in Halifax. The wonderful series Bomb Girls, they met their broadcaster here at Strategic Partners.”

Miller says there’s plenty of spending at local hotels and restaurants during the three-day event – and the dollars keep rolling in, months and years later.

“The number of people who have seen Haven and said, ‘Are you from there?’ It’s the best tourism outreach program out there,” she said. “There’s probably not a more effective way to draw people to come to Nova Scotia or Atlantic Canada than through movies, and seeing it as the backdrop.”

Similarly the Music & Image conference helps local musicians connect with international music buyers in film, TV, advertising and gaming, creating opportunities the artists might never otherwise find.

“It would be hard to draw international buyers into the region without this opportunity,” said Music & Image coordinator Alyson Sanders. “By attending events, (musicians) get to participate in one-on-one meetings with buyers, creating networks and connections that they can develop over the long term.”

Sanders says the Music & Image events has resulted in more than 150 placements since its launch in 2004.

Complete conference schedules are online at atlanticfilm.com/industry/music-image  and atlanticfilm.com/industry/strategic-partners