CASE UNSOLVED: Pitch, Please

Gob. Smacked.

My horror project Case Unsolved was invited to participate in IFP Chicago & Chicago International Film Festival’s Pitch at Industry Days, a competition in which five narrative projects pitch to a live audience, and a panel of esteemed jurors decides which of them wins a prize package of production and post-production services worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Becca Stahl has been helping me develop this project. We both spent weeks crafting, scripting, memorizing, and preparing for this pitch. We worked with mentors who generously donated their time and insight to help us really nail all the interlocking facets of a successful pitch.

The event was this afternoon...

...and after we humbly pitched the project, alongside four brilliant pitches by brilliant filmmakers...

CASE UNSOLVED WON.

I was so crazy grateful to even have been selected to participate in this event, so winning it has left me speechless. I wish I had a GPS tracker attached to my mind, because I have lost it.

THANK YOU to IFP, CIFF, the mentors, the jurors, and especially my fellow pitchers, who have left me inspired and driven! Everyone’s projects sound amazing, and I cannot wait to see them come to fruition.

And this prize package will be such an invaluable shot in the arm as we start shooting a proof-of-concept for CASE UNSOLVED this fall.

If you need me, I’ll be in bed snuggling with a bag of Gardetto’s cuz daddy’s had A WEEK.

(P.S. Special thanks to my pal Julia DiFerdinando, who gave me this bit of priceless performing/presenting advice: “Learn your lines.... then LIVE your lines.”)

(P.P.S. Nothing says celebration like Jeni’s Ice Cream.)