The Asian Pitch Selects Projects to Commission

SINGAPORE: Following the conclusion of the fourth run of The Asian Pitch, four projects have been selected to receive full funding for their documentary production.

The regional pitching event is put on by NHK and MediaCorp to support independent directors who live and work in Asia to tell original stories about the region. The finished programs will be available internationally. About 100 proposals were submitted, and 12 of these entries were short-listed and directors were brought to Singapore to pitch their stories to a panel of executive producers from NHK and MediaCorp.

The Asian Pitch 2010 selected directors and projects are Angels of Troubled Paradise, Raja Shabir Khan (India); Street Teachers, Pitchapuk Malone (Thailand); The Rest of My Life is for Sale, Liu Shuo (China); and Living for the Dead, Vikram Mishra (India). The four projects will start production this fall and will be available internationally next summer.

NHK’s Kenichi Imamura, the senior producer of international acquisitions and co-productions, one of the jury members who will also be executive producing one of the winning programs, said, “I was thrilled to meet such dedicated filmmakers and hear so many interesting stories that each portrays the various aspects of Asia. TAP is truly an opportunity of discoveries in terms of people and ideas.”

MediaCorp’s Caldecott Productions’ international senior VP, Ong Hee Yah, added, “When we took on this adventure with our long-time partner, NHK, to seek original stories and talents from Asia, we knew that there were many waiting to be found and crafted creatively. This year’s crop of directors confirms this once again and we are more than delighted with what we discovered this year.”