Tasmanian Film Director wins top Australian Pitch Competition

Tasmanian film director Rebecca Thomson pitched a musical feature film aboutzombie lesbiansto more than 700 screen producers at the SPAA Conference today and won the Holding Redlich Pitching Competition. Her prize is return airfares to an international film market of her choice (including Cannes) and $1 500 cash.

To take out the win at SPAA (a prestigious annual prize for an emerging filmmaker) Rebecca was required to pitch her project three times. In September, Thomson competed against 9 of Tasmania’s finest new film directors to win the opportunity to represent Wide Angle Tasmania at the national finals. Presented by Screen Network and held at SPAA Fringe Conference in Sydney in October, 6 state finalists battled it out in a war of words – pitching their ideas for new films to the industry pro’s.

Along with two other winners, Rebecca was shortlisted to pitch her idea to the 700+ screen producers at the SPAA Conference in Melbourne on November 13.Pitching against her wasNSW representative Monica Davidson – her proposed documentary project Handbag,a hilarious and heartwarming journey that spans four generations and shows the unique friendship between gay men and straight women. The third pitcher was Kirsty Stark of South Australia withWastelanderPanda, the live action tale of the last remaining panda in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Thomson’s 5 minute pitch was a crowd favourite and with the win under her belt, Thomson will spend the remainder of the conference discussing her project with producers and distributors.

Wide Angle Tasmania’s General Manager Abi Binning is delighted that this initiative between Screen Network (Wide Angle Tasmania, MRC, Metro Screen, QPIX, FTI, Open Channel) and SPAA resulted in the opportunity for Thomson’s project to be taken to the market. “The ability to pitch is a vital skill for all filmmakers as they seek to attract support for their project. We engaged David Gurney, acclaimed Producer from Blue Rocket Productions to mentor Rebecca in the lead up to the SPAA Pitch – his knowledge of the industry was critical in helping prepare Rebecca. This win opens up a world of opportunity for Rebecca – she can now take her story internationally to raise funds required to turn this dream into a reality.”

The film carries on the success of her short film Cupcake- produced in Tasmania with no budget in 2010 with local cast and crew, with support from Wide Angle Tasmania.
For more information about Thomson’s short filmCupcake pleasecheck out the website here:http://www.zombielesbianmusical.com/

The Zombie Lesbian Musical feature project has a facebook presence here:
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More About Wide Angle Tasmania
Established in 2005, Wide Angle Tasmania is the state’s screen development organisation. Principally funded by Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania, it is a not-for-profit organisation that nurtures local talent by providing advice, training, access to film production equipment and production initiatives. WAT also offers Tasmanian audiences a diverse programme of screenings.

More About Screen Network’s National Pitch
Every year the Screen Network runs the National Pitching Competition in partnership with the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA). The competition is an outstanding opportunity for Australian emerging filmmakers to present their projects to the international screen industry.
A representative from each State is selected by a Screen Network organisation, mostly but not always through a State-based pitching competition. Each State representative then go on to compete at the National Pitching Competition held as part of SPAA Fringe, with airfares and one night’s accommodation paid for by the relevant Screen Network centre. Three semi finalists from SPAA Fringe are selected to pitch in front of the Australian film industry at the Holding Redlich Pitching Competition at the annual SPAA Conference, which is to be held in Melbourne in 2012.
SPAA provides the three finalists with return airfares to the Holding Redlich Pitch in the SPAA state for the year (Melbourne); three complimentary full registrations to the SPAA conference; and inclusion in the very prestigious SPAA Emerging Producer Scheme.
The outright winner of the SPAA Holding Redlich Pitching Competition is then provided with an airfare and $1500 spending money to attend the major international Market of their choice (such as Cannes, MIPCOM, SXSW, AFM, Sundance etc.) and paid registration for that Market.
Who is Screen Network?
Our members are:Metro Screen (New South Wales), QPIX (Queensland), Media Resource Centre (South Australia), Wide Angle Tasmania, Open Channel (Victoria), Film & Television Institute (Western Australia)
Collectively, the screen resource organisations engage on a regular basis with over 35 000 screen practitioners working in film and television, interactive media and related fields. As a group, two national initiatives are delivered – Raw Nerve short film funding (24 films per annum) in partnership with Screen Australia, and the Holding Redlich National Pitch Competition (held annually in conjunction with the SPAA conference).http://screennetwork.org.au/
Wide Angle Tasmania, www.wideangle.org.au