Rules The Sabam Pitch for Professionals

Film is a beautiful but expensive medium and as a festival we want to encourage talented filmmakers! Are you a film professional and can you use a little push to produce your next film?

For whom? 

The competition is aimed at:

  • Professional directors and screenwriters looking for additional financial resources to complete their short film.
  • All genres (fiction, documentary, animation and experimental) are welcome at The Sabam Pitch for Professionals.

How to participate?

Register via our form before December 1, 2024.

To register, you need:

  • A private link with download possibilities (youtube/wetransfer/filemail/...) of 3 minutes, consisting of one or max. 2 continuous scenes from a previous work that shows your potential. 
  • A short synopsis (max. half a page) of the new project. 
  • A letter of intent (max. 1 page) presenting the new project and the approach to directing. 

Project selection

The registered projects are evaluated by Sabam. From these, 15 projects will be selected and invited to participate.

Professional jury

The winners will be chosen by a well-balanced professional jury consisting of jury president, president of Ensors vzw, one representative of Sabam For Culture and three directors with different expertise (fiction/docu/animation). 

Pitch process

The Sabam Pitch for Professionals will take place on February 1, 2025 in De Grote Post. The workshop 'How to Pitch' will take place in the morning. The pitch will take place in the afternoon.

  • In the afternoon, the 15 selected projects will be pitched. First, the film fragment of a previous work will be shown (+/- 3 min.), then the maker will pitch the future project in 2 minutes.
  • After the pitch, there will be a short feedback from the jury.
  • After a short deliberation, the jury will award 5 prizes of 2,000 EUR, in addition to the previously awarded prizes.

Prizes 

  • In total, a production premium of no less than 10,000 EUR will be donated by Sabam For Cultur
  • Of the 15 nominated projects, 5 projects will be awarded a production bonus of 2000 EUR by the jury.
  • In addition, Camalux is offering three winners of the pitch a voucher worth 7,500 EUR to rent audiovisual material. This prize will be awarded by the professional jury.
  • Flow Postproduction offers one of the projects a post-production package for the completion of the short film in question. This prize is awarded by the professional jury.
  • In addition to the amounts mentioned above, the public can, for their own consideration, choose to additionally support the projects. This is done by purchasing tokens that are added in their entirety to the filmmaker's prize pool.

The professionals who win one of the prizes, donated by Sabam For Culture, Flow or Camalux, undertake to: 

  • To mention the logo of the Ostend Film Festival* on the end credits of the film with the additional message "This project was made possible with the support of the Ostend Film Festival, Sabam For Culture, Camalux and Flow".

    * Logo of the Ostend Film Festival will be delivered by mail after The Sabam Pitch for Professionals but can always be requested later at the festival. More info: industrie@filmfestivaloostende.be