Cash and Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) credit totalling $10,000 was on the line as the Yellowknife International Film Festival hosted its 2021 Pitch This! event on Nov. 26.
The winner of the $10,000 prize was Sadetło Scott, who pitched the idea of an animated short film titled Land of the Daylight.
“Thank you, mashi cho,” said Scott. “I was not expecting to win. Now I have another thing to make, which is actually really awesome because I’m really excited about this project.”
The six participants had five minutes to pitch their idea and eight minutes to go through a question-and-answer session with the three judges: Mike Gravitis, Jay Bulckaert and Jeremy MacDonald.
Ideas presented at the event, held at Elks Lodge #314, included burlesque documentaries and short films about bipolarity.
According to festival director Jeremy Emerson, the event “went really well,” despite some nerves.
“We were concerned that we wouldn’t have that many pitches,” he said. “But, when it came down to it, we had quite a few — so much so (that) we kind of ran out of time. I’m glad that so many people got out, got to practice pitching.”
Emerson noted that the other projects pitched still had potential regardless.
“Some of the projects that weren’t selected are still going to go ahead anyways,” he said. “So that’s encouraging to hear. Now they kind of know who to contact at Northwestel if they want to further develop a project, if they want to start a conversation about that. It just goes to show that there’s a lot of talent in this town, and people are being creative, keeping busy even though the pandemic is happening.”
On top of the Pitch This! event, there was also a table read that took place afterwards, where three scripts were submitted to be read by Northern performers.
“(It went) even better than I expected,” said Emerson. “People got chills.”
