Winners Selected for NYTVF Development Deals

NEW YORK: The eighth annual New York Television Festival (NYTVF) has officially wrapped, with recipients having been selected for 19 development deals with such networks as IFC, A&E and Syfy as well as with studios and digital platforms. 

From the NYTVF Pitch competition, the project I Want a New Life, created by Stephen Soroka and Will Bozarth, scored a development deal with Sundance Channel. The competition also saw deals for Red Arrow with Barely Legal, created by Kynan Griffin and Jason Faller; Bio with Para-Not-So-Normal, created by Nick Armstrong and Trevor Tevel; Channel 4 with Celebrities Solving Crimes, created by Melge Media; Hasbro Studios with Buckle and Swatch, created by Sarah Courtauld; Logo with Burly Q’s, created by Carrie Preston and Daisy 3 Pictures; and truTV with Lords of the Land: NYC, created by Frank Mosca.

FOX held a contest for aspiring TV writers to submit a script for an original half-hour comedy. The winner was Here to Stay, from Andrew Shafer. 

A&E and Lifetime participated in the festival to find original unscripted TV concepts. The winner of the A&E Unscripted Development pipeline was Private Eyes, originally titled Deadbeats, from Frank Mosca, John Morena, Stephen Franciosa Jr. and Vinny Parco. The finalists for the Lifetime Development Pipeline are American Bombshells, from Steven Ryan; Cake Lush to the Stars, from Cee French Harth, Paul Harth and Jeff Schubert; Comediennes, from Tim Paul; Junk Mom, from Pat Taggart; and Ladies on the Loose, from Jenn Dlgos and Andrea Henry. 

IFC’s Out of the Box Award went to Hamsters, from Damian Lanigan. MTV signed a comedy development deal for Galaxy Comics, from Kevin McMullin and Jacey Heldrich. The Syfy Imagine Greater Award was given to Time Trials, from Lee Jordan and Clay Lapari. VH1 gave its Theory of Creativity honor to Actors Anonymous, from Rene Ashton. The Amazon Studios Audience Award went to Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon, from Manny Galan. 

The Samsung Second Screen Storytellers Challenge was held for the first time. From the five finalists, D-TEC, from Joseph Saroufim, Peter Saroufim and Stephen Interrante, was the winner.

“We launched our first 2012 development initiative during the 2011 Festival and in the year since, we’ve seen growth across the board—from the number of industry participants attending the Festival and partners committing to development options, to a jump in both submission opportunities offered and artists creating projects for our competitions,” said NYTVF founder and executive director Terence Gray. “It’s been a banner year for the organization and we are indebted to our terrific partners and extremely talented creative community for their commitment to the independent television movement.”