In 2021, FEST — Pitching Forum will take place online. This will allow for a a bigger panel of experts and a worldwide audience, granting access to industry gatekeepers that would otherwise not be available to travel to Espinho for the physical event.

Each participant has 5 minutes to pitch their project to our jury and a panel of world-renowned experts, including producers, distributors, and financiers that will be revealed closer to the event. Each pitch is followed by a 5 minute Q&A, between the participants and the jury and panel.

The awards will be decided by the jury after all the project pitches are over — and the winners will be announced during the event.

Participants will also have the opportunity to partake in exclusive individual scheduled meetings with the FEST – Pitching Forum Jury for private feedback and counselling about their project. 

DATES

The Pitching Forum will be split into two main parts:

• The training sessions, held exclusively online (the dates will be announced soon);
• The final pitch sessions will be held online on the 8th and 9th of October.

AWARDS

The announced prizes are as follows:

• HALO award for the WORK IN PROGRESS winner, who will be granted either a sound mixing or color correction (winner's choice) prize at HALO's top-of-the-line facilities;
• MAILUKI FILMS award for a specific MAKE IT SHORT winner, who will win an exclusive distribution deal with the film distribution company;
• FEST FILM LAB award for each section's winner, who will be able to choose a FEST Film lab workshop at their choice to attend.

More prizes will be revealed soon.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Rules and regulations for FEST — Pitching Forum can be accessed here.

PAST EXPERTS

Some experts that have joined our jury panel in the past include:

Finola Dwyer – Oscar-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning film and TV producer, and head of Wildgaze films. She was a producer on Brooklyn, An Education, and Severance;

Michael Katz – Producer who works regularly with Michael Haneke, for whom he produced The White Ribbon and Amour;

Tivi Magnusson - Producer (The New Tenants, Adam's Apples and The Green Butchers);

Paul Miller - Producer Snow Angels and Prozac Nation Tim Corrie – Founder of United Agents and former deputy chairman of BATFA;

Gareth Wiley – Producer of Woody Allen’s Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona;

Sean Gascoine - Talent agent at United Agents;

Isabel Lima - Distributor at NOS Audiovisuais;

Cynthia Hargrave – Producer of Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson’s first feature film;

Kami Naghdi - Lawyer, head of film and TV at Clintons;

Angela Bosch – Advisor in the fields of promotion, distribution and international co-production to the Spanish audiovisual industry;

Rachel Robey - Producer at Wellington Films;

Paulo Trancoso – President of the Portuguese Film Academy; Co-producer of Queen Margot and Night Train to Lisbon, from production company Costa do Castelo Filmes;

Pandora Cunha Teles - Producer (Al Berto and A Mãe é que sabe).

FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS

"The Kingdom of Shadows certainly owes a lot to FEST. Pitching our film at the festival was key for us in understanding the direction we wanted the production to take." 

— Daniel Awcett, The Kingdom of Shadows.

"Tim (Corrie) is amazing! We are still meeting, and he has been a great support. To have such an important figure of the British Film Industry taking an interest in my work has given me a huge amount of self-confidence to push forward." 

— Nikolai Galitzine, Wickham.

"The number one thing I learnt at FEST - Pitching Forum was confidence. There is no one in the world that can tell your story better than you can. In Espinho, I learnt that it is not so much about the performance, but about being honest and humble."

— Marija Fridinovaitè, Lessons of Love.