[PRESS RELEASE] OTV Awards Over $30,000 to Inaugural Winners of the Pitch, Please!
Open Television (OTV) Awards Over $30,000 to Inaugural Winners of the Pitch, Please! Program and Sets Sights on Activating Greenlight Fund for the Next Generation of Intersectional Storytellers
CHICAGO, IL (MONDAY, DECEMBER 4TH, 2023) – On Friday, December 1, 2023, Open Television (OTV), the Emmy-nominated non-profit streaming platform and media incubator launched Pitch, Please! Drawing inspiration from traditional film/tv pitch competitions the intersectional platform brought a refreshing take to the model by integrating intentional mentorship, generative professional development and live audience participation with an effort to serve as a creative launch-pad for the next generation of diverse storytellers.
Streaming LIVE from the OTV app — a suite of web/TV applications available on Apple, Android, Roku and FireTV — three filmmakers had the opportunity to pitch their projects to an esteemed panel of creative advisors including Boots Riley (Sorry To Bother You), Christine Davila (Two Sentence Horror Stories), Chad Charlie (Reservation Dogs) and Zackary Drucker (The Stroll). In addition to receiving encouraging feedback from these advisors about ways to strengthen their pitch and sharpen their storytelling skills, each advisor submitted a vote for who would take home up to $30,000 in resources to help push their projects further through the independent development pipeline.
“OTV has always been ahead of its time and has become an essential pipeline for bold artists who exist on the margins” says Makiah Green, Emmy Award-winning Producer of Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrrls and 2023 OTV Creative Advisor. “For years, the OTV team has inspired me to dream bigger and never doubt our ability to build our own table.” As a complete surprise to the artist, audience and creative advisors, the OTV Leadership Team announced that all Pitch, Please! Participants will be leaving with a cash award of either $15,000, $10,000 or $5,000 to help bring them closer to realizing their film/tv concepts. They also announced The Time is Now Award, an additional $2,500 award category voted on and selected by the platform's LIVE audience that tuned in from around the world.
Below is a snapshot of Pitch, Please! participants projects and their corresponding awards and prizes:
Project Title: Apples and Apples (Anthology Series)
Logline: A depressed 70 year old butch lesbian, mourning the loss of a 30 year long relationship, attends an open mic where she meets a mysterious stranger that changes her life in more ways than one.
Awards: $5,000.00 Award Category
Quote: “It feels pretty awesome to be recognized. This is my first time being able to say that in this industry as a writer. I'm super grateful to be here at Pitch Please; it has given me a little more faith in myself and my project, Apples and Apples.
Project Title: Laurels (Pilot)
Logline: A washed up former child star uses his con artist younger cousin and a ragtag group of Chicago community college performers to help reignite his career.
Awards: $10,000 Award Category and The Time is Now Award ($2,500)
Quote: “I’m grateful, motivated and affirmed. I'm still so early in the process of developing this project so to secure additional funds is more than I could have ever expected. Connecting with others who can help breathe life into Laurels is the greatest gift.”
Project Title: STOP (Short Film)
Logline: A suicidal young man finds himself stuck between life and death after a failed suicide attempt and tries to find his way to death before life takes him back.
Awards: $15,000 Award Category
Quote: “The most exciting part for me is stepping out of my comfort zone. I've never pitched something like this and to do something with a LIVE audience voting really scared me because I didn't know how it was going to go. But seeing how everything came together has me feeling over the moon but also grounded and ready to bring STOP to life.”
Pitch, Please! celebrates the fifth anniversary of the annual #OTVFellows program which marks a significant step toward transforming the way the entertainment industry supports independent artists and communities marginalized by their race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, or nationality. The inaugural Pitch, Please! Event was in collaboration with the Sundance Institute’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program. During Pitch, Please! OTV announced that the 2024 Applications for their annual fellowship program are open through January 31, 2024.
#OTVFellows 2024 Commercial
“This program is the collective effort of a community that is committed to creating an alternative ecosystem rooted in supporting opportunity challenged creatives, storytellers and filmmakers” says OTV Co-Founder and Executive Director, Elijah McKinnon. “Our hope for Pitch, Please! is to continue the work we have done over the past 8 years to cultivate a thriving independent media ecosystem that will ultimately allow us to greenlight intersectional stories that champion empathy over division. We’re just getting started and can’t wait to share what we have in store for the next generation of media-makers! Learn more about the Pitch, Please! at https://bit.ly/pitchplease2023 and #OTVFellows at www.weareo.tv/fellows.