The Pitch Film Fund exists to support emerging filmmakers. There’s a £60,000 production pot to make two films, plus training and development for entrants and finalists.

THE PRODUCTIONS

The Pitch Film Fund has production funds of £60,000, which will be split between two films, in the categories of COMEDY and DRAMA.

There is flexibility within the categories. You could make a straight-ahead COMEDY (Anchorman), or mix it up with a subgenre. E.g. Sci-fi (Galaxy Quest), Thriller (Game Night), Horror (Shaun Of The Dead), Musical (The Producers).

Similarly, you could pitch a heavyweight DRAMA (Nomadland), or something that sits in a subgenre like Sci-fi (Interstellar), Thriller (Panic Room), or Horror (Hereditary). The intent should be serious, but this doesn’t exclude moments of humour. They are flexible.

DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL

They seek to run a unique process that gives as much development aid as possible to every entrant. Feedback is available for everyone at one of our feedback sessions. There are also development masterclasses at every stage of the selection process, plus residential training for the finalists. For more details on this and other support visit the Awards section.

HOW DO YOU ENTER

You enter by uploading a two-minute video pitching your short film, based on a Bible story, verse or book. Check out the section Why The Bible? if you want to find out … um, why the Bible. The top ten entrants will pitch in person to a panel of industry experts at our finals at the Kurious, Sheffield, in January 2024.

TIMELINE

The Pitch is open for applications from 20 April 2023. Early bird entry is free, but to stagger entries – and support the fund – there are charges for later dates. All fees go into supporting filmmakers through The Pitch.

Entry Deadlines

• Early Bird – Free – 12 noon UK time, Monday 26 June 2023
• Standard – £22 – 12 noon UK time, Monday 28 August 2023
• Late (Final Submission Deadline) – £55 – 12 noon UK time, Monday 25 September 2023

In Consideration

• The pitches that are In Consideration will be live on this site from Monday 16 October.
• These entrants will take part in the Online In Consideration Masterclass exploring how to create beat sheets, on Monday 23 or 30 October.
• You will be required to submit a beat sheet of your idea by midday Tuesday 7 November.

Shortlist

• The 20-pitch Shortlist will be announced on Thursday 9 November.
• These entrants will take part in the Online Shortlisters’ Day, which covers how to create Pitch Decks, on Saturday 18 November.

Finalists

• The top ten who will advance to the Finalists’ Weekend will be announced on Friday 24 November.
• Entrants who do not make it to the final ten can attend these sessions to meet with The Pitch Team for feedback on their entry.

Residential

• The top ten attend this three-day training residential with the Pitch team, to further develop their pitches and meet fellow finalists. It is hosted at the luxury Low Wood Bay Hotel, Windermere, on Saturday 10 December to Tuesday 12 December.
• After the residential they ask everyone to create a pitch deck for their idea. If you are pitching yourself as a writer, you will also need to provide the first three pages of your script. These are sent to the judges to update them on how your idea has changed since your original pitch.

Finalists’ Weekend

The top ten pitch in person to a panel of industry judges, before the top four are selected to return for further discussions. After the judges deliberate the awards are announced. This year the finals are being held in Sheffield on Saturday 20 January to Sunday 21 January 2024.

Winners

The winning pitches will be announced on Monday 22 January and the Pitch team will then work with the filmmakers to produce their shorts.

For more industry information, visit Film Birmingham’s news page. Or add us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Applications for The Hot House: Shorts, a production award for short films about climate change, are now open and close Monday 19th June at 5pm.

Climate Spring in partnership with Film London are pleased to announce the launch of The Hot House: Shorts: a short film competition for scripted live action short films about climate change. The partners will select a project to receive a production award of £10,000, development and executive producer support, as well as sustainable production guidance and certification to make their film.

Special thanks to Danusia Samal for her donation which made this award possible. Despite our societies being at crisis point, just 2.8% of scripted TV and films released 2016-2020 mentioned anything related to climate change, and just 0.56% mentioned it directly.

Who is it for?

Hot House is for filmmaking teams (producer, director and writer), and is open to all creators over 18 not in full time education. At least one of the filmmaking team must self identify as coming from a marginalised background. By this, they mean an individual who has lived experience of racial inequity, a disability, economic or educational disadvantage, LGBTQI+, caring responsibilities. The writer can also be the producer or the director, but the producer may not be the director.

How does it work?

Teams will submit a draft script, samples of previous work and information about the team. Projects will be assessed by the organisers and shortlisted. Teams of shortlisted projects will have an interview with a panel of judges and will be asked to submit additional materials regarding the production. The successful project will receive a non-recoupable production award of £10,000, executive producer and development support, as well as sustainable production consultancy and certification to make the film.

Teams are welcome to raise additional funds or in kind support towards the production.

What they are looking for

They are interested in stories that explore climate change creatively. They are not interested in apocalyptic dystopias. They would like to see projects that are engaging in the challenge of navigating away from a high consumption, fossil fuel and extractive based society to one that is regenerative and renewable. The projects do not have to be explicitly about climate. In fact, they are interested in stories that might not obviously be about climate. They can use metaphors or explore issues subtlety.

There are different types of stories they are interested in:

1. World Building: Great stories that have nothing to do with climate change, they could be a love story, comedy, crime or adventure, but are set in a world without fossil fuels and  extractive economies. The near future world would be one that is regenerative but that is merely the background to the main story which is not about environmental issues.

2. Impacts: Stories that are about navigating the impacts of climate change while trying to solve worsening impacts

3. Collective Heroes: Stories that are about people coming together to create renewable, regenerative solutions to energy, food, water, housing or transport need. This could be the core of the story or incidental to the main story.

4. Reveal the truth: stories about confronting the bad actors holding back progress on climate and challenging corruption, lies and greenwash.

Stories can be any genre, but must be live action, scripted, and less than 20 minutes.

For more industry information, visit Film Birmingham’s news page. Or add us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

MAIA are looking for a West Midlands based artist to explore how their practice co-informs a world towards liberation.

MAIA is an artist-led social justice organisation, working from their home city, Birmingham, UK. Their work asks what it takes to move from imagination to liberation, exploring the role of artists in that movement. They explore this in community, through the creation of spaces, public programmes and resources, where Black imagination and culture are the catalysts. Through the associateship, we are looking to develop a relationship with a West Midlands-based artist, supporting them to explore critically, and at depth, how their creative practice can be a tool for world building.

The Associate Artist will be involved in different parts of MAIA’s programme from July 2023 to March 2024. Through MAIA’s programmes and broader work, they will connect and build relationships with artists, practitioners and organisers across the world who are orienting towards liberation. MAIA will then support the Associate Artist to curate a two-week Radical Imagination Lab, exploring a line of enquiry which has emerged during the associateship, due to be delivered in Feb 2024.

Key Info

• July 2023 – March 2024
• £5000 bursary
• For West Midlands-based artists (including filmmakers)
• Access and travel costs supported by MAIA
• Three reflective pieces to be shared across the 9 months (these can be 3 short films)
• Co-curate two weeks of events (Associate’s Lab) with £5000 budget

Key Dates

• Fellow’s Radical Imagination Lab 23rd October 2023 – 10th December 2023
• Delivery of Associate’s Lab 26th February 2024 – 27th March 2024

Main Aims for the Associate Artist

• To develop a deeply collaboratively relationship with MAIA, exploring culture as the starting point for how we learn, exchange and practice pathways to liberation.

• To co-curate programmes and make work in response to the questions and ideas which emerge during the relationship.

• To be immersed in MAIA’s programme wherever possible, making connections with and co-informing the work.

• To document the journey across the 9 months, offering three reflective pieces which can be shared publicly.

• To participate in the Fellows Lab during Autumn, learning from the curation process and programme.

• To collaborate with MAIA to co-curate a two-week Radical Imagination Lab in 2024, with a budget of £5000, due to be delivered in Feb next year.

Access and Equal Opportunity

MAIA is a committed advocate of equity, justice and equal opportunity – we see this as integral to our mission. In transforming conditions and creating new paradigms for our society, we know this practice must be centred on the experiences of those who have been most oppressed by the current systems. This means we actively encourage applications from people racialised as Black, people of colour, trans and genderqueer people and D/disabled people.

To Apply

Please read the Associate Artist pack in full for all details on the role before applying.

To apply, please either:
1. Fill out this Google Form
2. Email in a Video Application to contact@maiagroup.co which responds to these questions (using ‘Associate Artist’ as the subject heading).

Applications close 1st June (11:59pm).

Interviews 7th + 8th June.

For more industry information, visit Film Birmingham’s news page. Or add us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.