Deadline extended to 2/23!

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 Wednesday, February 23rd, 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 March 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 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 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST. SEE BELOW FOR THE PARTICIPATION CRITERIA, KEY DATES, MENTORS AND FEEDBACK LEADERS.

SELECTED PARTICIPANTS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY FEBRUARY 24TH.

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, February 2nd: Submissions Open
• Wednesday, February 23rd: Deadline to Submit 
• Thursday, February 24th: Notifications of selected projects 
• Tuesday, March 1st: Accountability Challenge Begins for selected participants 
• Thursday, March 10th: Pitch Deck Workshop for selected participants 
• Thursday, March 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 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).
• 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 enroll in this class with your member's discount, log-in to your Gotham account and enroll using the link in your Member Dashboard.

Instructors

Corinne Gillard

Spotify Content Executive - Accountability Challenge Audio Mentor

Corinne is an Emmy-nominated TV producer, podcast showrunner & development executive. She began her professional life in television as an intern on the final seasons of The Oprah Winfrey Show and for the following eight years, produced non-fiction content for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.? In 2017, she became the Director of Development at Crooked Media and over the course of her tenure, worked to launch an array of hit shows including Keep It, Hysteria, America Dissected and This Land, among others. In 2019, she launched the Emmy Award-winning series,?The Tamron Hall Show?for Disney/ABC and in 2020, she became Oprah Winfrey’s senior producer, working on culture-shaping conversations for The Oprah Conversation?on Apple TV+, and the primetime event, Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special watched by millions of people around the world. Currently, Corinne is a content executive at Spotify where she oversees key partnerships and a portfolio of premium audio programming in various stages of production and development spanning multiple genres, formats, and company initiatives.  

Rochée Jeffrey

TV Writer - Accountability Challenge TV Mentor

Rochée Jeffrey is a Howard University graduate who hails originally from Jamaica. As a television writer, her credits include Golden Globe-nominated comedy series SMILF (Showtime), Woke (Hulu), Bigger (BET+), Santa Inc. (HBO Max) and co-executive producer of Grown-ish. Her award-winning, Oscar-qualifying short film Suitable was a finalist in the American Black Film Festival HBO Competition and premiered on HBO in February 2019. She serves as a producer and writer on the feature film Throw it Back and Make it Clap For Trudy Jones starring Tiffany Haddish, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Young Thug (executive produced by Paul Feig). The film was also featured on the 2019 Hit List. She has an adult animated series at AppleTV+. Rochée recently directed an independent television pilot starring David Arquette. She’s represented by UTA and Rain Management Group.

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.

Sarah Winshall

Producer - Accountability Challenge Film Mentor

Sarah Winshall is a creative producer and the founder of independent production company Smudge Films. In 2018 she produced CLARA’S GHOST (Bridey Elliott, Sundance), and the award-winning documentary, ¡LAS SANDINISTAS! (Jenny Murray, SXSW). Previous films have played at Sundance, SXSW, New Directors/New Films, CPH:DOX, Outfest, Rotterdam, at MoMA, and on the Criterion Channel. Last year Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley’s STRAWBERRY MANSION, and Jane Schoenbrun’s WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR both premiered at Sundance, and are both slated for wide release in 2022. Her latest film is GIVE ME PITY!, a dazzling musical extravaganza from director Amanda Kramer, made its World Premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2022. Later this year, Sarah and Smudge Films will partner with Fruit Tree and A24 for Jane Schoenbrun's I SAW THE TV GLOW.