Following on from the success of the last two years, Scottish Documentary Institute is proud to again host the annual documentary pitching workshop: The Edinburgh Pitch. For the first time this year prizes will be awarded up to £6,000 for project development. Organized as part of the Bridging the Gap initiative, the pitch is backed by Scottish Screen, Skillset, BBC Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Edinburgh College of Art and runs concurrent to Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The Edinburgh Pitch is the only international pitching forum in Scotland, where documentary filmmakers can pitch their ideas to a select panel of commissioning editors from around the world, including BBC and Channel 4, and receive invaluable feedback for their projects, make industry contacts, and compete for the award for most promising project. The forum is open to industry observers.
This kind of event is a typical way for filmmakers to raise money all over the world, with one of the biggest forums happening in Amsterdam (IDFA) every year. Pitching in public is a risky strategy, but can be a great way to attract a lot of attention in a short period of time for a project in the development stage seeking financing.
Prizes include:
£6,000 for Most Promising Project
£2,000 for Best Scottish Project (project based in Scotland)
This is a fantastic opportunity for all filmmakers looking to produce a feature length documentary to attend a pitching and development workshop and to pitch formally in front of a carefully selected panel of International and UK commissioning editors, sales agents and producers.
The 3 day workshop covers a pitching practice day, the pitch itself, followed by one to one meetings with each member of the panel. Open to all filmmakers UK and abroad and is aimed at independent filmmakers and companies who are developing and raising finance for creative documentaries (52min – 90min) and who are thinking about international co-productions. (Please note that only UK filmmakers are eligible for the cash prizes.)
Already confirmed for 2009: Wim Van Rompaey (Lichtpunt, Belgium); Doris Hepp (ZDF), Outi Saarikoski (YLE, Finland); ARTE, Germany; Ian Davies (Initialize Films, UK); Scottish Screen; Tabitha Jackson (More4, UK); Beadie Finzi, (Britdoc, UK).
Observers are very welcome to the day of the pitch (18 June). New filmmakers looking to see how the industry works, and chancing a meeting with the commissioning editors should apply as Observers. Fees apply for selected participants and observers.
The event will take place on the 17-19 June 2009
Deadline for project application: 11 May
Project selections announced: 27 May
Observer application deadline: 1 June (spaces are limited!)
For further information please contact Rebecca Day on