The deadline to apply for the Good Pitch at IFP is this Monday, June 1. We’d like to encourage filmmakers to review the priorities for this upcoming forum, which will focus on projects that address the UN Millennium Development Goals, and consider submitting if your project is a good fit.

According to the Good Pitch press release, this unique forum”brings together inspiring social-purpose film projects and expert participants from charities, foundations, brands, government and media.” Filmmakers pitch their projects and outreach plans with the goal of forming strategic alliances across multiple avenues. The alliances sparked at the Good Pitch will ideally help the filmmakers enhance their funding and audience building efforts and achieve greater impact. Participants watching the pitch may offer funding, constituent email lists, cross-promotional initiatives and more.

Adella Ladjevardi, Cinereach Grants Manager, attended the North American debut of the Good Pitch earlier this month at HotDocs. All five invited projects dealt with human rights related themes, which was the focus of the audience as well.

Good Pitch Session in Action

Adella was impressed with the unique format of the Good Pitch. Filmmakers were given pitching workshops  from Judith Helfand and Robert West before the forum to increase the effectiveness of their presentations. The audience for each project’s pitch was also specifically tailored to increase the likelihood that useful “matches” would be made. A filmmaker would have to invest a lot of time, leg work and money to create such opportunities for herself, Adella said. During the forum, each filmmaker sat at the head of a long table with a dozen people from various NGOs, Funders and Broadcasters.

The filmmakers made a short verbal and video pitch, and the others at the table offered feedback. A room full of observes watched from all sides. A potentially intimidating experience for the filmmakers, Adella observed, but one that offered invaluable exposure.

It will be exciting to see what kinds of partnerships form because of relationships made at the forum, and to watch these projects emerge in the coming months and years.

“The Promise of Freedom,” by Sean Flynn and Beth Murphy, was a project that received instant gratification. After watching Sean and Beth pitch, Adella commented, “Chicken & Egg Pictures was ready to match a production grant previously awarded to the project – right at the table!”