Seven Finalists Chosen to Present at the Richest Pitch in Television
(Banff, Alberta, May 23, 2001) The selection committee for the
CTV Canadian Documart at BANFF 2001 has chosen the finalists for
this new pitching session taking place Wednesday, June 13. There
were 140 submissions for the Documart, which will award $100,000
in development funds, making it the richest pitch in television.
Thanks to the generosity of CTV the winner will receive $50,000
with the runner up taking home $30,000 and the third place pitcher
$20,000. The independent selection committee was impressed by the
quality of the submissions and reports an intense competition for
the finalist positions, which were increased from six to seven projects
by the members of the committee.
The projects to be presented in the public pitching forum June
13 are:
An Ode to SPAM: the World's Most Popular Luncheon Meat
Anne Pick
Real to Reel Productions Inc.
Demon In The Freezer
Dugald Maudsley
Atlantic Television/Infield Fly Productions
Inside the Great Magazines
Irene Angelico
DLI Productions
Sunday Night
Scott Harper
Scott Harper Productions
Teen Invasion
Tom Perlmutter
Primitive Entertainment Inc.
The River-An Inquiry into the Origin of Aids
Arnie Gelbart
Galafilm Productions Inc.
The Secret Language of Girls
Matt Zimbel
Copie Zero Television & Media
Pat Ferns, president and CEO of the Banff Television Festival commented,
"the large response to the first CTV Canadian Documart was
most gratifying and we thank CTV and Bell GlobeMedia for their generous
support of the documentary genre through the establishment of this
pitching opportunity at Banff." Bob Culbert, vice president
documentaries at CTV, said, "the CTV Canadian Documart was
established to encourage mainstream popular documentary production
and help producers of those programs get their shows to a wider
audience. We are excited by the response the first year, and believe
all of these projects have the potential to be hits with large audiences."
The seven finalists will pitch to a group of Canadian and international
decision makers selected from the 100 factual programmers and documentary
commissioning editors attending BANFF 2001. The judges will assess
the quality of the pitch (worth 20% of total marks), the viability
of the project (30%), and the quality of the content and the potential
for the program to attract large, mainstream audiences (50%). Voting
will be by secret ballot and the results will be revealed at the
end of the pitching session. The first ever CTV Canadian Documart
prizes will be presented on Pay Day, Friday, June 15 during the
closing ceremonies of the Festival.
With a format adopted with permission from the Australian Documart
pioneered by the Australian International Documentary Conference,
the CTV Canadian Documart is an exciting new addition to the impressive
list of other pitching opportunities at BANFF 2001. Finalists for
the International Market Simulation and the New Players Pitches
(another new addition this year) will be announced shortly.
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