Pitch THIS! Confirms In-Person 2022 Event

The Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Pitch THIS! event, held in partnership with Mercury Filmworks, is set to return in person this September.

Pitch THIS! provides an opportunity for Canadian creators to kickstart their animated series concepts. This fall marks the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that the event will be in person as a part of the OIAF’s The Animation Conference (TAC). The Pitch THIS! submission process will be open through June 30.

The event narrows down submission entries to ten semi-finalists who are paired with established industry mentors. Mentors will assist creators with fine-tuning their 10-minute-long pitches in preparation for the semi-finals before the judging committee. The judges will then select two pitches to go head-to-head against one another in the finals before a live audience of TAC attendees, studio executives and potential project financiers.

The Pitch THIS! winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of Mercury Filmworks, an annual Harmony license and online training from Toon Boom, legal services valued at $1,000 from Edwards Creative Law and two TAC Animapasses to OIAF 2023. Edwards Creative Law will also provide a free 1-hour consultation for this year’s runner-up.

The Pitch THIS! semi-finals and finals will take place, respectively, on September 21 and September 22 during TAC. TAC runs from September 21 to September 23 during the OIAF at local venues throughout the Ottawa downtown core.

Nico Smania, the winner of Pitch THIS! 2021, said: “Pitch THIS! honestly helped with the development of Port Harbour a LOT. Working with my mentor (Casey Gonzalez) and writing the script for my pitch really forced me to look at both the macro and micro of the project. I had to take all these big, vague, work-in-progress ideas and package them into something specific and digestible, which ultimately served the project itself—as well as my familiarity and understanding of it—in ways I didn’t anticipate. It’s currently in development, and I’m super excited to be able to refine it even more!”

Heath Kenny, chief content officer at Mercury Filmworks, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to continue our partnership with the OIAF and be part of the Pitch THIS! event. Over the last few years, we have seen the quality of projects and the passion for storytelling go from strength to strength. We are excited to again pair up an amazing group of industry mentors with Canada’s future storytellers. Our belief is that together as a community, we can reach higher and go further to create opportunities for Canadian storytellers to be seen on the global stage.”

Stephanie Berrington, the OIAF’s director of industry programming, said: “We are thrilled to be joining forces again with Mercury Filmworks as we return to an in-person edition of Pitch THIS! During TAC 2021, the importance of mentorship frequently came up during our panel discussions and presentations; it’s the mentorship component of Pitch THIS!, connecting emerging creators with peers and industry executives for invaluable learning and sharing opportunities, that we are particularly proud of and excited to facilitate again through this year’s process. Our team can’t wait to meet this year’s cohort of creators!”