Pitch THIS!, offered by The Ottawa Worldwide Animation Pageant (OIAF) in partnership with Ottawa-based animation studio Mercury Filmworks, gives a singular alternative for brand spanking new voices to refine their craft and join with a big viewers of their friends, studio executives, and potential financiers. Functions are actually being accepted for Canadian creators to submit their unique animated collection ideas.
A part of OIAF’s The Animation Convention (TAC) – Pitch THIS! has helped launch careers and put animated collection within the highlight. Previous individuals embody Mansa Chintoh and Malachi Ellis (Undertaking Blackout), Nico Smania (Port Harbour), and Mike Geiger (Winston Steinberger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong).
The chance is open completely to Canadian initiatives spanning all goal demographics, from preschool to grownup collection. Creators from underserved and marginalized communities are strongly inspired to use, notably BIPOC, folks dwelling with disabilities, ladies, gender non-conforming, and 2SLGBTQIA+ members of the animation neighborhood.
Here is the way it works:
Following the appliance course of, the choice committee chooses 10 semi-finalists and pairs them with established business mentors. Mentors then help creators with fine-tuning their 10-minute-long pitches in preparation for the semi-finals earlier than the judging committee and TAC viewers. Lastly, from the ten initiatives, judges choose two pitches to go head-to-head in opposition to each other within the finals on the TAC mainstage.
This yr’s Pitch THIS! winner will obtain a $5,000 money prize courtesy of Mercury Filmworks, an annual Concord license and on-line coaching from Toon Growth, and two TAC AnimaPasses to OIAF 2024.
Functions open in the present day, Could 1, and candidates can submit their proposals via Pitch THIS! utility kind. Solely two submissions per creator can be accepted. The complete breakdown of necessities is accessible on the OIAF web site.
Pitch THIS! semi-finals and finals will happen throughout TAC (The Animation Convention), working from September 20 to 22, 2023.
“At Mercury Filmworks, we’re pushed by a ardour for storytelling and, extra particularly, tales advised via the medium of animation,” shared Heath Kenny, Chief Content material Officer at Mercury Filmworks. “Our ardour and dedication to telling tales with integrity and daring artistic factors of view have taken us far past even what we thought was doable. It’s this want that brings us again for the third consecutive yr in partnership with the OIAF to be a part of the Pitch THIS! occasion for 2023.”
Sarah Lamoureux, the OIAF’s Growth Supervisor, added, “We’re so excited to be partnering with Mercury Filmworks once more to current this yr’s version of Pitch THIS! at TAC! Annually it’s superb to see how the initiatives have developed all through the mentorship course of, and, particularly returning to in-person editions, the outpouring of assist from the convention viewers is unimaginable. It’s a privilege to have the ability to provide this distinctive alternative to a brand new cohort of Canadian creators, and we are able to’t wait to see the following slate of animated initiatives offered on the competition’s worldwide stage!”
Supply: OIAF
Debbie Diamond Sarto is information editor at Animation World Community.
