International tv celebration and non-profit company SeriesFest exposed the winners of its Season 10 Independent Pilot Competition at an awards discussion on Sunday in Denver, topping off the 2024 occasion. Jurors evaluated 45 pilots from imaginative voices around the world at this year’s turning point event and picked winners in classifications consisting of “Independent Pilot,” which gets $25K in-kind post production assistance from Company 3, “Digital Short Series,” “Late Night” and “Pitch-A-Thon.”
The winners of this year’s SeriesFest Independent Pilot Competition consist of:
Independent Pilot– Drama: Meal Ladies
Independent Pilot– Comedy: Broken Toilets
Independent Pilot– Unscripted: Advancement
Digital Shorts: BOTHERSOME
Late Night: Wonder Wood
Pitch-A-Thon: The Haunting of Trisha Lozada
“Our Independent Pilot Competition embodies the extremely essence of SeriesFest and lines up with our core objective– to promote independent artists,” Randi Kleiner, CEO and Co-Founder of SeriesFest, stated in a declaration. “With 10 seasons under our belt, we’ve had the ability to develop a platform for showcasing up-and-coming developers, offering them with an outlet to enhance their voices and share their jobs with market executives, developed on-screen skill and below-the-line creatives. This year’s winners represent the future of tv and we might not be more ecstatic to commemorate their success.”
At the awards event, SeriesFest likewise revealed the last choices for 3 celebration efforts consisting of the Level Forward Impact Award and the Caz Matthews Fund. Now in its 4th year, the Level Forward Impact Award started as an invite for developers to think about how business episodic storytelling can both alter standards and benefit service.
By valuing credibility, equity, and care, “Breakthrough” is the recipient of this year’s award and will get a $5,000 prize money and advancement handle Level Forward. Per SeriesFest, “this brave brand-new series exposes the discomfort and recovery within a few of the most amazing professional athletes worldwide.”
Caz Matthews, a Colorado-based advocate of SeriesFest and of the independent developers of tv material, granted 4 main choices from the Independent Pilot competitors consisting of “This Boy’s Vida (Made in America),” “Hard to Swallow,” “THE DOUG HEIR STORY” and “Breakthrough” with a one-time monetary contribution from the Caz Matthews Fund. Per the celebration, “these receivers represent the independent filmmakers who have essential stories to inform and have the desire to both produce work in addition to discover circulation chances that even more promote tolerance, approval and understanding of all cultures and individuals in the basic population.”
New this year, SeriesFest provides the Outstanding Series Format Deck Award provided by Canva and the Inclusive Creator Fund. The Outstanding Series Format Deck Award was granted to Late Night Competition Pilot, “Bits,” which will got a $5,000 prize money for their finest submission deck produced in Canva.
The Inclusive Creator Fund, supported by the Anna & & John J. Sie Foundation and Global Down Syndrome Foundation is meant to support tv jobs sent to SeriesFest: Season 10 that consist of skill with intellectual specials needs in front of and behind the video camera. This year’s grant funds were granted to “Brewability,” an unscripted series that follows the personnel of Brewability and its pioneering owner Tiffany, as they browse life’s obstacles both at work and in your home, and together reveal the world what’s possible when we begin welcoming each other to the table.
See the total list of winners, runners up and jury declarations listed below.
WINNERS– INDEPENDENT PILOT– DRAMA
Jury: Ronald D. Moore (Executive Producer, Writer, Showrunner, Tall Ship Productions, “For All Mankind”), Chiké Okonkwo (Co-Founder, Mansa), Jocelyn Sabo (SVP, Television Development, Lionsgate), Jacqueline Sacerio (Producer)
Finest Drama Pilot: Meal Ladies
Director: Shazia Javed
Executive Producer: Shazia Javed
Author: Shazia Javed
Manufacturer: Shazia Javed
Cast: Natasha Krishnan, Elisa Moolecherry, Kavita Musty
Sumaira, Azra, and Ruby reside in “The Wives Condos” in the suburban areas of Toronto with their kids, while their other halves operate in other nations. They at first fulfill at dinner lunches, a weekly guilt-free escape from the isolation of immigrant life. Initially glimpse, they appear to be living best lives, however when their thoroughly crafted exteriors collapse, they should discover to be susceptible and look for each other’s assistance.
Jury Statement: For its remarkable check out a distinct world of sisterhood and female relationship and the cultural pressures that are enforced upon us, Best Drama goes to a program whose characters touched us and made us wish to see the next chapters of their lives– Potluck Ladies.
Finest Director: Saša Hajduković, Skin
Jury Statement:For its positive and vibrant instructions and sure handed balance of stress and secret while engaging us in the psychological story of a male simply leaving jail, the award for finest instructions goes to Sasha Hajduković from Skin.
Finest Writer: Joseph Castillo-Midyett, The Boy’s Vida (Made in America)
Jury Statement: For the in-depth and understanding picture of a kid in a world hardly ever illustrated on tv, the script that touched our hearts and made us wish to see the next chapter in this kid’s life, the composing reward goes to Joseph Castillo-Midyett.
Finest Performance, Ensemble: Neo-Dome
Jury Statement: Rather of acknowledging a specific efficiency this year, we felt one ensemble efficiency stuck out above the rest. Set primarily in a cars and truck, these stars were by turns, amusing, frightening, unexpected and constantly engaging. We are granting a Best Performance by an Ensemble to “Neo Dome.”
Finest Performance, Honorable Mention: Travis W Buyer, Heebuck
Jury Statement: For his genuine, sincere and amusing representation of a village deputy constable facing an altering world, we wish to make an unique reference to Travis W. Bruyer for his function as Heebuck.
WINNERS– INDEPENDENT PILOT– COMEDY
Jury: Michael Falbo (Partner, Pacific Electric Picture Co.), Malcolm Venable (Senior Writer, Shondaland.com), Amanda Krentzman (Principal & & Founder, Show Pony Entertainment)
Finest Comedy Pilot: Broken Toilets
Director: Jesse Toledano
Executive Producers: Thomas Mahoney, David Benyisha, Zakary Levin, and Jesse Toledano
Author: Jesse Toledano
Manufacturer: Justin Ambrosino
Cast: Luzer Twersky, Dede Lovelace
BROKEN TOILETS informs the story of Yossi Klein, a young Hassidic male, entrusted to look after his
father-in-law’s structures in a low-income, mainly black external district of NYC. Yossi has a trick– he enjoys hip hop. Throughout the daily ordinary, typically ridiculous jobs that occur with home management, he satisfies 2 occupants– young hopeful hip hop artists, DiAndra “Dee” Jones and Kevin Randolph. Together they form the most not likely of musical trios and triggered to make a demonstration record, all the while Yossi browses what it implies to be a Hassidic Jew in the contemporary world.
Jury Statement: This is a pilot that will produce a bigger, unifying discussion. With a high production worth, distinct characters, and constant pacing throughout, the jury thinks this to be the pilot most enticing and all set for circulation.
Finest Director: Nick Bartlett, The Boy Who Was Afraid of Everything
Jury Statement: The directing stands apart for its usage of sharp comical beats to produce lots of laugh aloud minutes.
Finest Director, Honorable Mention: David Sonnenborn, Larry in the Sky with Diamonds
Jury Statement: The jury wants to acknowledge David Sonnenborn for his creative world structure, taking much imagination and creative ability.
Finest Writer: Jasia Ka and Amamah Sardar, Ladies Aren’t Funny
Jury Statement: This is an example of an extremely effective pilot established to be made into a television series. The story is strong with numerous points of dispute and stress that weave together to develop a yearning for more episodes.
Finest Performance: Haris Mirza, The Boy Who Was Afraid of Everything
Jury Statement: In the hands of another star, this part would not make good sense. Haris Mirza offered a really wacky and particular efficiency. Satisfying and amusing, with lots of humankind.
Finest Performance, Honorable Mention: Sam Song Li, Marvin Is Sorry
Jury Statement: Sam Song Li took a character that is right away unlikeable as an influencer and truly made you understand and root for him. You see a genuine and applaudable variety, with the character beginning in funny and ending in misery.
WINNER– INDEPENDENT PILOT– UNSCRIPTED
Jury: Michael Rucker (Showrunner/ Director, Blue Raincoat), Andrea Ambam (Programming Manager & & Host, Level Forward), Diana Williams (Co-founder/ CEO, Kinetic Energy Entertainment)
Finest Unscripted Pilot: Advancement
Director: JaMar Jones
Executive Producer: Jared A. Johnston
Writers: Jared A. Johnston, JaMar Jones, LaTonya Joyce
Producers: LaTonya Joyce, Jenahye Johnson, Alexis Chinery
Cast: D’joun Smith
Development is a documentary series that checks out how professional athletes deal with id and
anxiety after a life-altering occasion that leads to their elimination from the sport on an expert level. Making use of football as the hook for the very first season, this series provides the significance of looking for neighborhood and expert help to assist bring closure to their previous identities in the NFL through group treatment.
Jury Statement: This series clarifies a topic that has actually gone unmentioned for far too long. By providing a cultural taboo with uniqueness which ends up being universal and stunning shots leaving us excited for what follows– from both a purchaser and audience perspective– this is a pilot yelling to be a series.
Finest Direction: Tough To Swallow
Jury Statement: The option for finest instructions encapsulates a fresh and needed voice in the unscripted landscape. While providing a topic that was actually difficult to swallow, the sharp and amusing instructions handled us an expressive and psychological rollercoaster—- making it clear this is a story that requires to be informed by a group that is adventurous enough to accept the intricacy.
WINNERS– DIGITAL SHORTS
Jury: Kasey Newton (Director, Content Acquisitions & & Partnerships, Tubi), Saloni Gajjar (Staff Writer, TELEVISION, The A.V. Club), Brian Tee (Actor, “Expats”)
Best of Digital Short Series: TROUBLESOME
Director: Sushma Khadepaun
Executive Producers: Kecia Élan Cole, Kuye Youngblood, Devyn Inez Fusaro, Aditi Natasha Kini,
Pranav Behari, Grace Sin
Writers: Pranav Behari & & Aditi Natasha Kini
Manufacturer: Grace Sin (Paradoxic)
Cast: Deepti Menon, Austin Ku, Usama Siddiquee, Devyn Inez Fusaro, Leah Pressman, Pranav
Behari, Philip Galinsky, Rajesh Bose, Michael McBride
An unidentified author ends up being an over night media feeling when her public tirade versus a financing douche goes viral. Now the voice of #WokeBrooklyn, the characteristics shift with her obnoxious employer, a psychopathic work competitor, and her carefree BFF as the clock ticks on her 15 minutes of popularity.
Jury Statement: Troublesome grips you quickly since of its positive voice. It’s an amusing, fresh handle a work environment situational funny, with well-written characters and a poignant matter. It’s a story that equates completely into a television series since it leaves you desiring more at the end of each episode.
Finest Director: Katie Locke O’Brien, Cock Bunny
Jury Statement: The innovative methods to enter a mom’s mind were promoting and imaginative.
The instructions made Dick Bunny’s styles of solitude, wonderful realism, and fear feel available and humorous.
Finest Writer: Dmitry Milkin, Hero with a Pun
Jury Statement: The writing is rooted in truth while handling complicated circumstances. With a lot at stake for the characters, it’s still simple to stay purchased each circumstance. The script catches particular subtleties well, varying from cringe web terminology to a psychological father-daughter reunion.
Finest Individual Performance: Kim Griffin, Penis Bunny
Jury Statement: Kim’s performing is grounded and authentic. She pulls you into her character’s world and makes it simple to root for her. It’s a subtle yet expressive efficiency, effectively generating both compassion and laughs.
Finest Ensemble Performance: Shit on your Lip
Jury Statement: All the stars had a layered chemistry that felt real to the story. They manage their characters’ progressing vibrant with the correct amount of absurdity and compliment each other well.
All Around Excellence: Ramadan America
Jury Statement: The digital brief is recorded and composed splendidly, providing a generally relatable style and a message that resonates throughout generations. The stars’ reliability goes beyond the screen. It’s wholesome and champs variety with credibility.
WINNER– LATE NIGHT
Jury: Missy Laney (Director of Development, Adult Swim), Jen Yamato (Journalist and Critic), Landon Zakheim (Festival Co-Director, The Overlook Film Festival)
Finest Late Night Pilot: Wonder Wood
Director: Johnny Rey Diaz
Executive Producers: Johnny Rey Diaz
Author: Johnny Rey Diaz
Producers: Johnny Rey Diaz, Ash T
Cast: Alejandro Patiño, Matt McCoy
Wonder Wood is the very first brief movie of a digital series called “Two Brown Crayons.” The principle of the series is 5 brief, dark funnies or sketches. Each movie occurs in one place, including a various style or subject while embeded in a various years. Wonder Wood happens in 1992 and concentrates on televangelists who utilize religious beliefs as a method of making use of individuals when they are at their floor. The staying episodes will concentrate on styles of psychological health, familial constructs, migration and politics all grounded in truth however informed through a comical or satirical lens.
Jury Statement: For its incisive social review of reality scaries sustained by a suspenseful, darkly comic vision and a haunting efficiency by Alejandro Patiño, the very best of Late Nite Jury Prize goes to Johnny Rey Diaz’s “Miracle Wood”.
Somebody to Watch Award: Lucy Porter, Bits
Jury Statement: The 2024 Late Nite Jury was impressed with this year’s bold curation, and wish to offer an unique reference to “Bits” developer Lucy Porter as somebody to expect her boldness of voice and saucy mix of funny and pathos.
WINNER– PITCH-A-THON
Panel of Experts: Sarah Minnie (Head of Artist Development + Production, OTV– Open Television), Kyle Castellanet (VP, Development and Production, Echo Lake Entertainment), Christine Davila (Television Development Executive and Producer, Chicana from Chicago)
Pitch-A-Thon Winner: The Haunting of Trisha Lozada
Developer: Robyn Matuto
Manufacturer: Malachi Ellis
THE HAUNTING OF TRISHA LOZADA is a half-hour supernatural funny series that follows 16-year-old Trisha Lozada as she gets in the winter season term of junior year. Distressed, mad, and apathetic simultaneously, Trisha is hellbent on a sense of normalcy and raising her social status going back to school … it’s regrettable the ghost of her self-important Filipino-immigrant mom, Marian Lozada, is haunting her every action. Now, Trisha needs to handle Marian’s undesirable viewpoints on whatever, from her dropping grades to her social status and an unanticipated crush on the brand-new lady, Casey. They might butt heads at every turn, however together, Trisha and Marian should assist each other proceed– both spiritually and mentally.
Jury Statement: Thank you to all of the 2024 pitchers! Each pitch displayed enthusiasm, bravery and intent for their stories, that made this choice very challenging. This year the jury picked, “The Haunting of Trisha Lozada” as the 2024 Pitch-A-Thon’s winner. The jury linked to the stories nance analyzing household lineages and characteristics, genuine abundant cultural landscape, and they valued the natural spirited small talk within the group’s positive and well notified pitch.
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS– INDEPENDENT PILOT (COMEDY, LATE NIGHT, DRAMA, DIGITAL SHORTS, INTERNATIONAL)
Independent Pilot Competition Drama: Neo-Dome
Independent Pilot Competition Comedy: The Boy Who Was Afraid of Everything
Independent Pilot Competition Unscripted: THE DOUG HEIR STORY
Digital Short Series: Barden and Sarah Start a Pandemic
Late Night: Wonder Wood
Finest International: C * A * U * G * H * T (Australia)