Cheer on your team! The 12th annual Pitch Competition goes live as finalists duel for incredible prize packages to finish their short films. A launching pad for emerging Asian Canadian talent, this popular showcase is not to be missed!
The Pitch projects were announced at The Reel Asian Festival Launch in October. Later that month the groups met with our generous Industry Partners to learn about the realities of short film production. They work-shopped their pitches with two seasoned producers, JENNIFER LIAO and SIDNEY CHIU and are now ready to pitch! Join us on Monday November 13th for the LIVE Finale hosted by KEITH COLE and stage managed by HENRY WONG.
Emerging Finalists
HORROR IN QUEBEC CITY
A recreation of a trip that controversial and racist horror legend, H.P. Lovecraft took to Quebec City. Featuring an examination of his racist legacy in Quebec today by some of his biggest fans, a Muslim-Canadian filmmaker and Lovecraft’s Indian biographer.
QAIS PASHA is a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker. He grew up in Pakistan and immigrated to Ontario as a teenager. He is a graduate of Carleton and Ryerson Universities. He was one of twelve filmmakers selected for CBC diverse creators workshop in 2016 and received the Corus diverse voices scholarship at hotdocs 2017. He has directed three docs for CBC arts and two short documentaries that have screened internationally.
PAUL STAVROPOULOS is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose previous documentary work includes the BravoFactual short “Sexual Being” which juxtaposes the journeys of a porn star and actress with cerebral palsy, and “El Nazareno”, set in the vibrant beach town of Portobelo during the Festival del Cristo Negro – a chaotic 10,000+ person festival celebrating a 10-foot tall statue depicting a black Christ.
ROSA’S FLOWERS
Two girls form an unlikely friendship during the Asian Financial Crisis in Indonesia, but racial and religious tensions threaten to tear them apart.
AMANDA ANN-MIN WONG is a Singaporean-Canadian filmmaker, whose work aims to explore psychological conflict through use of subtle dialogue and sound. Amanda has worked on numerous television and film productions, and currently works at Breakthrough Entertainment in Toronto. Swim Low (2016) was her directorial debut in fiction short film, which was nominated for a Best Canadian Short Award at VAFF.
REBECA ORTIZ is an emerging Toronto-filmmaker dedicated to producing stories that share the experiences of women and marginalized groups. She was the recipient of the 2017 Deluxe Post-Production Mentorship, and was awarded the Honourable Mention at the 2017 WIFT-T BravoFACT Pitch Competition for her film Abuela. She is currently producing two narrative shorts including PICK (directed by Alicia Harris) and Rosa’s Flowers (Directed by Amanda Ann-Min Wong).
THE LANE
Set in the Jane and Finch public housing community in Toronto during the early 90s, the relationship between two first-generation Vietnamese-Canadian brothers is forever changed when a cataclysmic snow storm rips through the community known as the Lane.
JOHNNY VONG is Thai-born Canadian Chinese-Vietnamese filmmaker based in Toronto and Los Angeles. He is a MFA Candidate in the Film and Television Production program at USC – School of Cinematic Arts, and holds a BFA in Integrated Media from OCAD University in Toronto.
TATJANA GREEN is a Canadian Producer & Filmmaker based in NYC and Toronto. Her ability to bring design philosophy and aesthetic to each set comes from her training at the Bauhaus University in Germany and completion of the Honours of Fine Arts Certification at York University & Sheridan College.
TELL IT TO MY MOTHER
A young, aspiring photographer is forced to reflect on her identity when she takes on new approach for a culminating assignment. Creative freedoms and familial pressures intersect when her parents are shaken by the photographs of their daughter.
ALICE LIU is a multi-media visual artist and filmmaker focusing on narratives of diaspora and female identity. She was previously studying film production at School of Visual Arts New York and is a regular photo contributor for Rookie magazine.
BIANCA LINHARES-HUANG is currently in her third year studying Media Information & Technoculture with a minor in Film Studies at the University of Western Ontario. With a history of working on student film festivals such as TIFF Next Wave, Take 21, and the Western Smartphone Film Festival, she is passionate about art direction and marketing with a focus in celebrating diverse female stories.
Established Finalists
CELESTE AND MOULEE ‘TIL THE END OF THE WORLD
Celeste and Moulee ‘Till The End Of The World a 9-12 minute comedic film about a woman and her rabbit who, despite all odds, end up surviving an apocalyptic event.
CELESTE KOON is a natural storyteller with a wild imagination. Her films have been enjoyed at festivals all around the world including the Reel Asian Film festival. She loves filmmaking and is hardworking and driven because the world could end tomorrow (which in this film… it does).
HARU’S NEW YEAR
A newly immigrated Japanese girl wants to make friends in her new school, but struggles with speaking English. The moment she gives up on communication, she is given a new opportunity.
ALICE IL SHIN is a Korean filmmaker whose independent work has screened at numerous international film festivals, including Jeonju International Film Festival (South Korea), and has been showcased on major networks like Fuji TV (Japan).
Pitch Jury
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MICHAEL FUKISHIMA is an award-winning filmmaker and producer at the National Film Board of Canada’s world-renowned Animation Studio. He has been making films since 1984, which is a lot of water under the bridge. Fukushima joined the NFB Animation Studio in 1990 where he’s been a filmmaker, producer, and now executive producer. He now mostly produces the producers and offers up sagacity and wise-cracking bon mots.
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SHASHA NAKHAI is a filmmaker based out of Toronto with Compy Films. Her award-winning short films have screened at festivals and aired on TV worldwide, been released on iTunes, gone viral and been awarded Vimeo Staff Pick and Short of the Week. Her latest film, FRAME 394, was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. It was named one of TIFF’s Top 10 Films of 2016, and was nominated for 2 Canadian Screen Awards. Shasha was born in the Philippines, grew up in Nigeria and came to Canada as an international student in 2003.
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HEIDI TAO YANG currently manages the Hot Docs Film Funds where she oversees Hot Docs’ portfolio of documentary film funds for Canadian and international documentary films. In this role she works with filmmakers from around the world on their projects and oversee Hot Docs’ investment in their work and professional development. Heidi has a background in producing and developing fiction and nonfiction for film and TV. Heidi is an alumnus of the Producer’s Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. If there is spare time, she devotes it to reading books.
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This event is FREE and open to the public.