Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS!
Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! returned to the Toronto International Film Festival for its tenth consecutive year!
In a live pitch environment, six participant teams had six minutes to pitch their feature-film idea to an audience of over 250 industry professionals. The winner was selected by a jury of international industry experts. The prize was $10,000 from Telefilm Canada to assist with costs related to project development.
Congratulations to the 2009 Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! winner Daniel Perlmutter for his pitch Fit to Print.
Click to watch this year's Pitch This!
Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! is hosted by Ennis Esmer
Ennis EsmerWhen he's not hosting pitch-based competitions, Ennis Esmer can be seen on
The Listener, Thursday nights on CTV. He was recently nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for his role in
Young People F***ing. Also, his band,
Calcu-Lator & The Oral Presentation, is awesome. Google them.
The 2009 Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! finalists are:
The Banquet
A magical tale of a Korean chef who clashes with her traditional mom and secretly dates her Italian lover as she tries to cook a final feast for her dying father.
Gloria Ui Young Kim
Born in Korea, Gloria Ui Young Kim comes from a long line of writers and media makers. Her short film Rock Garden: A Love Story, was awarded at Slamdance 2008, Worldfest 2008, the CBC Canadian Reflections Award and the 2009 ELAN Award. Gloria is now completing a short film The Auction and feature films The Banquet and He.
Cry, Havoc
A gritty adaptation of
Julius Caesar set in the world of street gangs.
Sami Khan
Sami Khan was born in Sarnia, Ontario to a Muslim father and a Methodist mother. He studied at Ithaca College in upstate New York and Birzeit University in the Palestinian West Bank. His short films The Workout (2008) and 75 El Camino (2009) both premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Christian Magalhaes
The son of a Brazilian-immigrant father and an American mother, Christian Magalhes grew up on Long Island, New York and now lives in Brooklyn. An amateur hip-hop historian, he is currently completing his graduate film degree at Columbia University in New York City. In 2009, he received Columbia University’s screenwriting award for his urban comedy, Devore Baby.
Fit to Print
A journalist gets in trouble when a fabricated story turns out to be true.
Daniel Perlmutter
Daniel Perlmutter is a Montreal-based writer and filmmaker. His credits include writing for Odd Job Jack, Weird Years, Mystery Hunters and Seriously Weird. He co-wrote and co-produced the feature film Peepers and he is the co-founder of Automatic Vaudeville Studios through which he has made several award-winning shorts.
The Livingstons
An international drug runner returns home to ask his ailing father for money while repairing his dysfunctional family and saving his own life.
Andrew Malabre
In 2004, Andrew Malabre made his way to Toronto to train at Second City for improvisation and sketch writing. Soon after landing several television and film roles on Canadian and American networks, he returned to writing three years ago. The Livingstons is his second feature length script.
Paul Matthews
Born in Toronto, Paul Matthews studied English Literature at Oxford University before returning home to work as a journalist and filmmaker. The co-founder of Consul Media Group, Paul has worked as an Executive Assistant at January Films and written and directed three short films, including the recent Point of Light.
Stuart McIntyre
In 2005, Stuart McIntyre co-directed the award-winning short film, All Roads Lead To Here and co-founded Bijou editorial. He has worked for such clients as Capital One, K-os and Discovery.In 2007, he edited the Genie award-winning film Amal and co-directed, a triptych of shorts. Recently, Stuart co-founded Consul Media Group.
Manitouwabi
After a man's family is killed, he returns to a childhood retreat and becomes involved in a paranormal mystery.
Jeff Kopas
Born in Toronto, Canada, Jeff Kopas is an award-winning filmmaker. He wrote, directed and co-produced the feature An Insignificant Harvey and six short films, including the Bravo film Dogasaur. He just returned from filming a Documentary in Nicaragua and is developing a variety of feature projects including Manitouwabi, Bordeaux, and an MOW on painter Thom Thomson.
Super Zeroes
Two former teen stars try to flee a horde of dirty cops and the city's underworld after a costumed publicity stunt goes horribly wrong.
Shane Belcourt and Duane Murray
Since meeting in a grade 9 English class, Shane Belcourt and Duane Murray have been making films together, including two nationally broadcast short films (Pookums, The Squeeze Box), and the feature film Tkaronto, gaining critical acclaim with a national theatrical release, national broadcast distribution and a recently released DVD through Kinosmith.
Pitch Coaches
Over the course of the 4 weeks leading up to the festival, each finalist is assigned a coach – an expert from the industry – to help them hone their pitches for the live event. This year’s coaches are:
Anne Carey, Producer/Partner, This is That
Anne Carey, together with partner Ted Hope, founded New York production company, This is that. Specializing in unique content and innovative storytelling, This is that has produced fifteen films in its five-year existence. Carey, who was honoured as one of Variety’s Top Ten Producers to Watch For in 2004, previously produced films and was head of development for Good Machine for nearly a decade.
Marguerite Pigott, Creative Development, Super Channel
Marguerite Pigott is Super Channel's Creative Development Group Lead, overseeing a team of ten development executives, administering Super Channel's Creative Development fund. Previously, she Programmed Canadian feature films for the Toronto International Film Festival. Prior to TIFF, Marguerite was Vice President of Development and Production at Odeon Films, an Alliance Atlantis Company.
Howie Wiseman, Writer/ Associate Screenwriting Professor, York University
Howard Wiseman is a WGC Award-winning writer for his radio miniseries adaptation of Mordecai Richler's Barney's Version, and a co-adapter of Richler's novel, "St. Urbain's Horseman" (CBC TV miniseries). His feature screenplay, My Family Treasure, was produced in Moscow. He has written and/or directed over thirty episodic TV episodes, three plays, including TheYear of The Flood, and is writing a new feature murder mystery set in Tel Aviv. Wiseman is also an assistant professor in screenwriting at York University.
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