DEADLINE EXTENDED to 7/18! Join us for the Owning It Accountability Challenge 2022 Summer Cohort!

Overview

After the success of the 2021 Owning It Accountability Challenges, we’re back for our third cohort covering pitch decks!

Are you working on a pitch deck you’ve been telling yourself to complete, but just can’t get past that one stumbling block? Is the last step you need to find your next producer, funder or business partner the deck you can’t complete? Looking for someone to hold you accountable to make sure you move forward in the next steps in your business and/or project? This challenge is for you! 

Submit by Monday, July 18, to be considered to participate in our next accountability challenge for pitch decks. If selected, you’ll be paired with another woman or nonbinary creator to be your partner to support you over the month of August to complete your pitch deck. 

You’ll be connected to a mentor to meet with throughout the month, have an opportunity to attend a pitch deck workshop and the challenge will culminate in a feedback session with industry leaders. Also by participating in this challenge, you will have an opportunity to receive a free formation of your LLC or corporation provided by eMinutes Arts and attend a workshop about this process. 

FOR THIS COHORT, WE ARE SELECTING ONLY TWELVE (12) WOMEN AND NONBINARY CREATORS AND/OR ENTREPRENEURS TO PARTICIPATE TO ENSURE WE PROVIDE THE BEST BESPOKE EXPERIENCE FOR THE COHORT. WE ARE ALSO SELECTING UP TO FOUR (4) PROJECTS EACH PER BELOW MEDIUM:

- Film (documentary or fiction; shorts or features)

- TV Series (documentary or fiction)

- Audio/Podcasts (all audio storytelling)

APPLYING TO THE PROGRAM DOES NOT GUARANTEE PARTICIPATION. 

THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IS FRIDAY, JULY 15. SEE BELOW FOR THE PARTICIPATION CRITERIA, KEY DATES, MENTORS AND FEEDBACK LEADERS.

SELECTED PARTICIPANTS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY JULY 20.

Your submission fee goes to support The Owning It program. 

We hope you’ll join us!

INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLY:

• Sign up here on this site and pay the submission fee.
• Apply with more details here to ensure your application will be considered.

KEY DATES:

• Wednesday, June 15th: Submissions open
• Tuesday, June 21st: Information session
• EXTENDED - Monday, July 18th: Deadline to submit
• Wednesday, July 20th: Notifications of selected projects
• Monday, August 1st:  Accountability Challenge Begins for selected participants
• Wednesday, August 10th: Pitch Deck Workshop for selected participants
• Wednesday, August 31st: Pitch Deck Feedback Session for selected participants
• **By participating in this program you are also committing to meeting with your partner and mentor at least three times throughout the month of August as well as to attend the workshops and reels feedback session. 

CRITERIA: 

• You are a woman or nonbinary creator. 
• You are working on a deck that you can use to pitch your project or company to potential financiers or partners.  
• You are working in one of the following mediums: film (documentary or fiction; shorts or features), TV series (documentary or fiction), or audio/podcasts (all forms of storytelling). 
• Applicants should have experience and training within at least one of these fields:

• Directing
• Producing
• Production Company 
• Screenwriting 
• Small business in film and entertainment (can include production company, entertainment platform, event business, etc) 

• You have worked on the pitch deck within the last year.
• This is at least your second draft of the pitch deck. 
• Does not have to be New York based to participate in the challenge. 

CHALLENGE COMMITMENT:

• To participate in the challenge, you must commit to meeting with your accountability partner at least three (3) times during the challenge. You also must attend the Pitch Deck workshop, the eMinutes Arts workshop and the final feedback session. 
• You will have the opportunity to meet with your mentor and partner twice during the month of August. Your mentor is only committed to meeting with you for those meetings. Any other meetings or communication is at the mentor's discretion. 
• Your goal of participating in this challenge is to refine your current pitch deck for potential funding and partnership opportunities.
• At the end of the challenge, you will prepare a five (5) minute pitch and receive feedback from a panel of industry leaders. You should prepare for the feedback session as you would for a pitch to your intended pitch deck audio (funder, partner, etc).
• The feedback session will be open to the public where there will be an audience Q&A for the cohort participants to speak about their challenge exeprience.

GOTHAM MEMBERS: To RSVP for this event with your member's discount, log in to your Gotham account and register through your Members Dashboard.

Instructors

Maria Altamirano

Producer - Mentor

Maria Altamirano is a Peruvian-American independent producer with a passion for bold stories that explore the complexity of the human experience. Her work has screened at festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, and San Sebastián. A Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow and The Gotham/Rotterdam Lab Producer Fellow, her credits include Alexis Gambis' feature SON OF MONARCHS (HBO Max), winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and Raven Jackson's award-winning short NETTLES (Criterion Channel). She is currently in post-production for Jackson’s debut feature ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT, produced in partnership with Pastel and A24, and is also a Co-Producer on HBO’s critically-acclaimed bilingual comedy series LOS ESPOOKYS. Maria completed NYU’s MBA/MFA program, where she was awarded the Media Services Award for excellence in creative producing. Prior to filmmaking, Maria was Market Research Manager at Paramount Pictures where she generated key development and marketing insights for the studio’s slate.

Arielle Diaz

Writer/Director - Mentor

Arielle Diaz is a writer-director, and performer. She has written for the Emmy nominated series The Last Man on Earth on Fox starring Will Forte, David E. Kelley’s new series, Big Shot on Disney+ and is currently a writer-producer on Netflix’s original series Gentefied executive produced by America Ferrera. She is also the co-creator, director and star of the short film Desert Like a Witch. She is currently writing a feature, and her first book. When she’s not writing, Arielle performs burlesque in Los Angeles, and sings and writes songs. She is represented at CAA, Grandview Management, and Barnes, Morris, Klein & Yorn.

Meghan Ross

Writer/Director - Accountability Pitch Workshop Leader

Meghan Ross is a writer/director, comedian, and activist based in Austin who was recently selected for the Sundance Episodic Lab. Her short films have made The New Yorker’s Best Shouts of 2020 list and she was nominated for The Webby Awards 2021 for her short, If You Ever Hurt My Daughter, I Swear to God I’ll Let Her Navigate Her Own Emotional Growth, which features narration by Jon Hamm. Meghan’s writing has appeared in Reductress, IFC, Slackjaw, VICE's Broadly, TV Without Pity, The Toast, and some other defunct but beloved sites. She co-created and hosted the late night show That Time of the Month for 5 years and is currently the Head of Creator Success at Seed&Spark. Most importantly, Meghan is an aspiring stage mom to her rescue pit-lab, Dreidel.

Jenn Shaw

Writer/Director - Mentor

Jenn Shaw is an award-winning commercial and narrative writer/director. Her bold and cinematic filmmaking has distinctive humor and dramatic instinct. Her passion for crafting strong character-driven stories for a variety of platforms is evidenced in her directorial campaigns for brands including Facebook, Capital One, KIA, USAA, Complex, the NFL Network, Pizza Hut, and Verizon; as well as in her narrative and documentary films. She has directed several films exhibiting at major festivals including Pan African Film Festival, Hollyshorts, Edmonton International and Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. Her ESPN film $15 Kicks was executive produced by legendary director Spike Lee, and it earned her a selection in the 2017 Shoot Magazine’s New Director DGA Showcase, a Black Reel Award and a spot at American Pavilion’s Showcase at Cannes Film Festival. Currently, she’s has a feature film in development with the production company tinygiant titled The Pill. The Pill was shortlisted for 2022 Tribeca’s Untold Stories Initiative and Cannes Breakthrough the Lens. Recently, she directed two short films I Won The Lottery and Charlie and the Hunt starring Marvel’s first deaf superhero Lauren Ridloff (Eternals, Walking Dead) and was the winner of 2021’s Women in Media CAMERAderie Showcase. Shaw is an alumna of the Fox Network’s Diversity Writers Program and participated in Gotham’s (formerly IFP ) 2020 Episodic Program with her pilot and series Afro. She is currently the Executive Producer and director of running series for Religion of Sports and Vice and Adidas called Running While Black. Shaw is managed by Anonymous Content and repped by Sola Fasehun of The Distribution Collective (TDC).