EUROPEAN SHORT PITCH 2017
Call for Works-in-Progress – 2nd edition
Application deadline – 17th of Feburary 2017
About European Short Pitch
European Short Pitch is an initiative aimed at promoting the European coproduction of short films. It combines a scriptwriting workshop in residency and a coproduction forum bringing together scriptwriters, directors and industry professionals from all over Europe.
As European Short Pitch always aims to be at the forefront of the ever-changing needs of the short film industry, for the second year in a row, we’re organizing a pitching event dedicated to post-production as part of the co-production forum to supply the selected filmmakers with a platform to find a co-producer, to complete the film and to promote it on a European level.
Selected on the basis of the quality and the potential of their short film projects, 4 European talents will pitch and showcase their projects in front of a panel of 55 producers, financers, buyers, and distributors.
European Short Pitch aims to bring young European talents into the spotlight, give them a high-end promotion opportunity, and develop short film coproduction in Europe. This initiative is about enhanced economic viability and European visibility for short film projects.
Coproduction Forum and Works-in-Progress
The coproduction forum will take place from the 23rd till the 26th of March 2017 in Poznan, Poland as part of the Poznan Industry Days int he context of the Short Waves Festival in partnership with Ad Arte. Participants will have one day to prepare and rehearse their pitches with the tutors present. The pitching, in the presence of the invited professionals, will take place on the 24th of March in the afternoon where each project will have a chance to screen the work-in-progress and to pitch the film and its specific needs. Each project will have 7 minutes (excl. screening of work-in-progress) – questions included.
One-to-one meetings (25 minutes long) with professionals will take place the morning after. On the evening of the 25th an award ceremony will take place with one in kind post-production award and one distribution award offered by Radiator Sales.
Who can apply?
European Short Pitch is open to creative teams developing international short film projects. It is therefore open to directors and producers.
Directors developing a project on their own are very welcome to participate in the programme. Yet it is strongly advised to already have nationally a production company interested or attached to the project.
The director/producer has to be between 18 and 35 years of age on the closing date of the call (17th of February 2017).
His/her nationality or country of residence should be one of the member countries of the Creative Europe Programme (European Union + Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Iceland, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway and Turkey). European Short Pitch will also select up to 3 projects from non-member countries of the Creative Europe Programme where NISI MASA has a member organisation: Kosovo, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.
The working language of European Short Pitch is English; thus, a good knowledge of English is essential in order to participate.
Participation fees
The participation fee for each project is 250 Euros. The fee covers the travel costs, the accommodation and subsistence for the coproduction forum. One person per project is covered by European Short Pitch. However, upon prior agreement, an extra person per project shall be admitted – he/she will have to cover his/her own travel, accommodation and subsistence costs.
How to apply?
Before the application deadline (17th of February 2017, midnight C.E.T.), applicants have to send the following to masa@nisimasa.com.
- The completed application form. Click here to access it: ESP 2017 – Application Form Wokrs-in-Progress;
- The Work-in-Progress (live action, animation or documentary are accepted) inferior to 20 minutes with English subtitles delivered as an .mpeg4 or .H264 via WeTransfer. It’s important to note that the shooting needs o be finished in order to quality and the film cannot be finalized by the time the coproduction forum takes place.
- CVs of the people involved creatively in the project (director & producer);
- A presentation of the production company attached (if applicable).
Selection process
The jury, consisting of ESP Alumni and the organizing team, will gather in Paris, France on the 28th of February where they’ll decide upon the projects selected for the Works-in-Progress section of European Short Pitch 2017.
Applicants will be informed of their selection / non-selection on the 3rd of March 2017 by email.
The invited professionals
55 film professionals will be invited for the coproduction forum, chosen for their experience in European short film coproduction and according to the profiles of the selected projects. In some specific cases, participants will be offered to propose names of professionals to invite. They will be mostly film producers (40 of them), the remaining 15 being either distributors/sales agents, financers (representatives of film funds), or buyers (TV commissioning editors). The list of professionals invited for the previous editions are available on www.nisimasa.com (cf. ‘Book of Producers’).
The organizing team & NISI MASA
European Short Pitch is organised by NISI MASA – European Network of Young Cinema. Present in 31 countries, NISI MASA has been organising dozens of international film projects since 2001.
The 2017 edition of European Short Pitch will be managed by Wim Vanacker, Head of the Script Department, Jérôme Nunes, Manager of the Coproduction forum, Marija Fridinovaite, Project Coordinator and Masa Senicic, Production Assistant.
European Short Pitch 2017 – by NISI MASA
NISI MASA