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Six pitches. $60,000. One big Forest City Film Festival prize

Six finalists have been chosen for the Forest City Film Festival’s $60,000 Project Pitch.

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Six finalists have been chosen for the Forest City Film Festival’s $60,000 Project Pitch.

The festival opens Saturday and continues until Oct. 23 when the six finalists will pitch their film projects in hopes of winning the largest prize of its kind in Canada to go toward production.

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The finalists are:

  • Hells Bells by producer Oliver Ward and director Dennis Nicholson
  • Six Months by producer Laurence Gendron and director Sean Cisterna
  • Cry Wolf by producer-director Faran Moradi
  • Falsehood by producer Michael James Regan and London director Ethan Hickey
  • Maple Syrup by producer Zachariah Haayema and director Evan Hamza, both of London
  • Diaspora: Run Don’t Panic by producer Jess Palangio and director Iyore Edegbe
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The finalists must have a “significant” portion of their production funding in place. The filmmakers each have four minutes to pitch their film and the judges may ask questions after their pitch. The “most original and compelling film that can be 50 per cent shot in London” will be awarded the prize.

“The intent is to help support regional filmmakers and bring more filmmaking into the London region,” said Dorothy Downs, the festival’s founder and executive director.

Project Pitch is a live event on Oct. 23 at 3:30 p.m. at the RBC Place convention centre, 300 York St. The winner will be announced at the festival’s awards celebration at the Wolf Performance Hall at 5:30 p.m. that day.

The prize is supported with a $30,000 grant from Film London, a $10,000 equipment grant from William F. White International and $5,000 toward scoring from Grey Owl Audio, along with support from OIART, Sage Marketing, Bizable, Platform Law and GAT PR.

The winner will be selected by a panel of judges, including Paige Murray, executive in charge of development, scripted drama content, for CBC; Greg Jeffs, emerging filmmaker/digital content client services co-ordinator at William F. White International; Kelly Payne, senior director of business affairs for Blue Ant Media; and Kris Pearn, director, writer and storyboard artist for films such as The Willoughbys and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

jbelanger@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JoeBatLFPress

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