Deadline extended to MONDAY 2/26!
Overview
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 your application by February 26 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.
To learn more about this challenge, click here to watch the recording of our virtual info session.
FOR THIS COHORT, WE ARE SELECTING UP TO TWELVE (12) WOMEN AND NONBINARY CREATORS AND/OR ENTREPRENEURS TO PARTICIPATE TO ENSURE WE PROVIDE THE BEST BESPOKE EXPERIENCE. 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 February 26. SEE BELOW FOR THE PARTICIPATION CRITERIA, KEY DATES, MENTORS AND FEEDBACK LEADERS.
SELECTED PARTICIPANTS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY March 1.
Your submission fee goes to support The Owning It program. We hope you’ll join us!
Instructors
Liz Cardenas
Liz Cardenas is an award-winning producer, writer, director and actor. Nominated for the Producer Award in 2023, she won Best First Feature at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards for Roshan Sethi’s 7 DAYS (Tribeca 2021 | Cinedigm) starring Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan, which she produced for Duplass Brothers Productions, and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award in 2019 for Augustine Frizzell's NEVER GOIN’ BACK (Sundance 2018 | A24) starring Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone and Kyle Mooney, which she produced with Sailor Bear.
A former reporter for The Dallas Morning News, Liz’s films are often inspired by real life, and under her Ten to the Six Pictures, she strives to tell bold and diverse stories that are impactful, as well as entertaining. She has two projects in post-production – a Gotham Narrative Lab film and a documentary on one of the last nomadic tribes in Turkey – and seven features in various stages of development, including one she wrote, one she’s set to direct, one based off the Oscar-qualifying Indigenous short film, BURROS, which Eva Longoria is an EP, and one that just received the 2024 Sundance Institute + Gold House Multicultural Filmmakers Fund grant, titled 1972. Additionally, she’s currently developing a TV series inspired by her award-winning short film, IMAGO, about a Latino trans teen in Texas with her collaborator Lio Mehiel (MUTT| Sundance 2023, IN THE SUMMERS | Sundance 2024).
Liz is based in Los Angeles and Dallas, where she grew up with her Hispanic father who immigrated to the US from Mexico City and Irish-American mother from the East Coast.
Meghan Ross
Seed&Spark - Head of Creator Success
Meghan Ross is an Austin-based writer, director, producer, and comedian who was selected for 2022 Women at Sundance Adobe Fellowship, Sundance Episodic Lab 2021-2022, and 2022 NewNarratives grant from NewFilmmakers LA & Warner Bros. Discovery’s OneFifty for her half-hour comedy Here to Make Friends (also her personal tagline). Her shorts made The New Yorker’s Best Shouts of 2020 list, she was nominated for The Webby Awards for "If You Ever Hurt My Daughter, I Swear to God I’ll Let Her Navigate Her Own Emotional Growth", featuring narration by Jon Hamm, and her writing has appeared in Reductress, VICE's Broadly, TV Without Pity, The Toast, and other defunct but beloved sites. She hosted the late-night show "That Time of the Month" for 5 years, the Instagram Live show "No One Asked For This" for 2 pandemic years, and is currently Head of Creator Success at Seed&Spark. Most importantly, Meghan’s an aspiring stage mom to her rescue pit-lab, Dreidel.
Jenn Shaw
Jenn Shaw is a DGA award-winning commercial, documentary, and narrative director specializing in genre stories that champion the underdog and unveil a unique cultural experience. Her bold, cinematic filmmaking has both distinctive humor and dramatic instinct with a love for coming-of-age and sports. She has directed over 50 commercials, documentary films and over eight narrative shorts premiering at Hollyshorts, Pan African, Cannes Short Film Corner and Tribeca Film festivals. Her past Executive producers include Spike Lee and Queen Latifah. Her ESPN film "$15 Kicks" was executive produced by Spike Lee and earned a Black Reel Award. Within the last two years, she’s directed three narrative shorts, "I Won The Lottery…" and "Charlie and the Hunt" starring Lauren Ridloff (Eternals, Walking Dead) and a Tribeca Studios P&G film titled "Gaps" Executive Produced by Queen Latifah and starring Lorraine Toussaint. She’s directed projects supported by NBC Universal, NFL Network, and numerous high-level commercial brands. Recently, she was the executive producer and director of the docu-series "Running While Black" for Vice, and Adidas. Her feature film The Pill (working title) is in advanced development with tinygiant and in TIFF’s Break Through the Lens 2022-23. The film is set for production in 2024 with casting director Kim Coleman (Love Craft, SpaceJam: The New Legacy) slated as Executive Producer.
Date & Time
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
12:00 AM - 12:00 AM EST
RSVP DEADLINE: February 27, 2024 @ 11:45 PM
Location
NO LOCATION — COMPLETE THE APPLICATION THROUGH THE RSVP PAGE
RSVP Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLY:
Sign up by clicking the "Purchase Ticket" button above, and pay the submission fee.
GOTHAM MEMBERS: To RSVP for this event with your member's discount, log in to your Gotham account and register through your Members Dashboard.
KEY DATES:
- 1/31: Submissions open
- 2/15: Virtual Info Session
- 2/26: Deadline for submissions
- 3/4: Accountability Challenge Begins for selected participants / Orientation
- 3/13: Pitch Deck Workshop for selected participants
- 3/29: 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 March 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 and the final feedback session.
- You will have the opportunity to meet with your mentor and partner twice during the month of March. 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).
