What is Elev8or Pitch?

Produce and submit a stand-alone short film, accompanied by a one-minute recorded pitch for the chance to pitch your feature film idea LIVE before a jury of industry professionals. The best film and pitching producer will be awarded Film Fest Knox's first-ever Best Pitch. The top three winners will receive mentorship from industry professionals to develop their projects to be pitch-ready for production companies.

By purchasing an Elev8or Pitch Pass, wou will

  • Assemble a team and produce an original short film, no longer than eight minutes. This stand-alone short film serves as a proof of concept for your feature film.
  • Record a one-minute Elev8or Pitch to be viewed by the screening committee prior to watching your film.
  •  If chosen as a finalist, your team will screen your short film, and then deliver a 1-min pitch immediately followed by a Q+A with judges on Thursday, November 9.

Pitch Pass includes one FILM FEST KNOX Festival Pass and one limited edition FILM FEST KNOX tee.

Kickoff Party on August 10th at Scruffy City Hall from 6pm - 8pm

FILMING WINDOW: August 11 - October 12

PRIZES:
    • $5,000 for 1st place
    • $3,000 for 2nd place
    • $1,000 for 3rd place
Top 3 winners will receive 1:1 mentorship from tenured industry professionals and will have the opportunity to discuss their film with production companies. More details to come!

DELIVERABLES: Your finished film as per the provided specifications and your 1-minute “elevator pitch” preceding your film. Your film should not be shorter than 5 minutes and not longer than 8 minutes. This includes credits. Please put a slate at the beginning of your film. The slate should have a black background with white block text (Helvetica, Arial, etc.) and last 10 seconds. Put 2 seconds of black after the slate and before your film begins. The slate must include the following, nothing else:

NAME OF FILM
TEAM NAME
TOTAL RUNNING TIME

CONTENT: All film submissions to the Elev8or Pitch Competition must adhere to the following criteria: no content promoting hate, discrimination, exploitation, or incitement of violence will be accepted. Please remember that the audience will consist of people of all ages (including minors).

TITLES AND CREDITS: Title sequences and credits must NOT make up more than 30 seconds (combined) of your film.

Digital Film File Specifications:
  • 8-min proof-of-concept film, uploaded to Vimeo, unlisted, downloadable
  • 60-second elevator pitch, uploaded to Vimeo, unlisted, downloadable
  • 24 frames per second
  • 1920x1080
  • Quicktime Apple ProRes HQ codec or H.264 (or comparable)
  • Audio should be 48khz stereo

TECHNICAL: Please ensure your film has no technical “glitches” such as audio out of sync, etc. FFK management reserves the right to disqualify your submission if technical issues are serious enough to warrant such a decision.

Upload: Completed Team Submission Form

Upload: Signed Release Form (paper) Deliver with film.

Paste a link: Password Protected Online Version of your film (Vimeo)

DELIVERY: We will provide an online form where you can submit all necessary information and attachments.

DEADLINE: October 12

If ALL deliverables (Film, Team Submission Form, Signed Release Form) are not delivered by the deadline, your film will be disqualified from the competition. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Finalists: Live Pitch Competition

FINALISTS: Finalists will be notified on Thursday, October 26, and will have approximately two weeks to develop their live pitch.

LIVE PITCH SPECIFICATIONS: Competitors will receive emails from the Elev8or team with information during the filmmaking period. The finalists will have access to a pitch mentor who can provide feedback and answer questions as they prepare for competition.

LIVE PITCH COMPETITION: Finalists will screen their short film, and then deliver a 1-min pitch immediately followed by a Q+A with judges. Competing filmmakers will be judged based on a provided rubric, with factors like:

·  The quality of the short film
·  Pitch content and viability
·  Filmmaker experience and capabilities
·  Overall potential to succeed in the short-to-feature pipeline

AWARDS: The awards for Best Pitch, Runner-Up, and Honorable Mention will be given at the awards ceremony on Sunday.

Terms & Conditions

  • Must be 18 years or older to participate
  • Must be the producer of the pitched project (or writer, director)
  • Cannot be an employee of (Visit Knoxville, any fiscal sponsor, etc)
  • Finalists much pitch live if chosen

SCREENING PRIOR TO FFK: Public and/or PRIVATE screenings prior to FFK will disqualify your Elev8or Pitch film from the competition.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media posts are limited to production stills and your film poster. Trailers posted before FFK will disqualify your Elev8or Pitch film from the competition.

TERMS OF SUBMISSION: By submitting an Entry into this Project, Entrant hereby warrants and represents that Entrant owns and/or controls all rights to the Entry he/she is entering in this Project, including, without limitation, the content of all video or digital recording, including but not limited to the performances contained in each Entry, with the exception of any assets provided by the Film Fest Knox for use by Entrant in connection with this Project. Entrant further warrants and represents that the Entrant has obtained permission from each person or other entity appearing in the Entry to grant the rights to the Film Fest Knox Management set forth in these Official Rules, and, upon request, will submit copies of such permissions to the Project Parties. By submitting an Entry, Entrant hereby acknowledges receipt of the Official Rules and accepts all of the Terms of Submission and other provisions contained therein, and further agrees to indemnify and hold Film Fest Knox management and their respective officers, agents, volunteers, sponsors and representatives and affiliated organizations harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) and liabilities (including settlements), brought or asserted by any third party against Film Fest Knox Management due to or arising out of the Entrant’s Entry content and materials in this Project, or the Entrant’s conduct during and in connection with this Project, including but not limited to claims for infringement of trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights, right of publicity, right of privacy or defamation. Entrant further hereby agrees to release, indemnify and hold harmless Film Fest Knox Management from any and all claims of infringement or prohibited use arising from advertising, presentation, web content or any other public exposure of content and material subsequently produced, presented, and/or prepared by or on behalf of the Film Fest Knox based upon Entrant’s work or the content and material contained in any Entry.

Each Entrant grants Film Fest Knox and its officers, agents, and affiliated organizations a non-exclusive right and license without fee or payment, to post online and/or screen the Entrant’s film in a public setting for a period of one calendar year after the close of the 2023 Film Fest Knox film festival. All proceeds of any paid admission or other revenue derived from any such use or screening shall be retained 100% by the Film Fest Knox film festival in support of its mission.

Film Fest Knox management reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any entry for any reason prior to the 2023 Film Fest Knox film festival and/or rescind, withdraw and/or revoke any awards, prizes or designations a film may have received as a result of entering the Elev8or Pitch competition.

LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY AND RELEASE: By participating in the Elev8or Pitch competition, Entrant hereby agrees to release, indemnify and hold Film Fest Knox Management and its officers, agents, and affiliated organizations harmless from any and all claims, whether made by Entrant for disqualification, or whether made by any third party, for damages or liabilities arising from or relating to Entrant’s participation in the Project.

For more information on sponsorship - please contact Kim Bumpas at kbumpas@knoxville.org


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