Story-Pitching Competition
Introduction
The inaugural 2021 RisingStories International Story Pitching Competition which was co-launched by Studio76 Taiwan and MediaCorp Singapore attracted over 550 entries from all over the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and the United States. “The goal of the upcoming 2023 RisingStories International Story Pitching Competition is to discover and develop outstanding original stories from global scriptwriters, and to introduce original script writing talents from Asia in writing for film and television productions and the ability to collaborate across borders”, stated Mr. Dennis Yang, the CEO and Managing Partner of Studio76 Original Productions from Taiwan.
The first four winning stories in the 2021 event, Stranger In The Dark, Fix Your Life, Money On Fire and Newlyweds of 40 Years, are outstanding stories in different genres across suspense, crime and comedy. Among them, Money On Fire and Newlyweds of 40 Years are now developed into full production scripts by Studio76 and Money On Fire has received overwhelming responses at the 2022 Golden Horse Pitching Session which has taken place in Taipei in mid-Nov 2022.
The upcoming 2023 RisingStories International Story Pitching Competition is organized by Studio76 and supported by these partners：( in alphabet order )Blintn, a global B2B content database headquartered in South Korea.GroupM, the world’s leading media investment company, responsible for more than $50B in annual media investment through agencies Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence and mSix&Partners. Mission Entertainment, the content development company led by the respected senior producer Angie Chai ( for the Taiwanese romantic drama“F4 Meteor Garden”) and the new company is co-invested by Far Eastone Telecom, Star Ritz, Pili International Multimedia and Taipei Di Entertainment.Rising Films, the uprising content development company from Taiwan who has gained great attention in international content festivals. Southern Flame Ltd. is a company that focus on delivering high-quality entertainment for the world across all platforms. The scope of company activity includes incubates and investment original IPs, content, channel distribution, licensing & production. TDI,Taiwan Dream Institute is co-founded by Catwalk Production House Corp and Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).Weiyu Films, the award-winning content creation and production company based in Singapore. They have garnered a series of awards in 2022 for This Land Is Mine, including Best Drama at the prestigious Rose d’Or Awards. This year, the competition is extended for submissions in both English and Chinese, in the hope that the creative stories and concepts around the world will be discovered and be developed into feature films and drama series for global audiences.
2023 RisingStories International Story Pitching Competition gathers professionals in the film and television industry, and invites actors James Wen Shenghao, actress Hong Huifang, producer Angie Chai, director Lester Hsi, screenwriter Lyra Fu, screenwriter Chihchi Fan, producer Alain Hao to establish a professional jury team. This year's event will be expanded, and Chinese and English works are open for registration. The entries are locked in feature films and mini/TV series, whether you are a Chinese or English creator from all over the world, all are welcome to sign up, and three winners will be selected for each Chinese and English projects, and there will be a series of events such as master class and pitching workshops. For more information, please contact the official website and Facebook fan page of 2023 RisingStories International Story Pitching Competition.
Professional Jury Team
Samm Haillay
In 2020 Samm Haillay founded Kirlian, to develop an assistive tech solution to radically enhance the development of films.A member of BAFTA, EAVE and ACE he is currently Head of Film at New York based finance house ViewPark and delivers story consultancy, mentoring and training through several industry leading bodies.Previously, Samm has produced eight features all of which received red carpet premieres(Cannes, Venice, Toronto Sundance etc).His most recent film ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS won Best Documentary at Tribeca and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua is an award-winning actor and producer from Singapore. On film, she was most recently seen playing Kerry Chu in 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺 𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴(Warner Brothers) and as Emily Gemmill in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 (Astro Shaw/HBO Asia). Her television credits include 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘰 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘰 and 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 (Netflix Originals), 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘺’𝘴 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘺 (ABC), 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘶𝘮 𝘗𝘐(CBS), 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 (Channel 4), 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘵 (NBC), 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 (UFA), and 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 (HBO Asia).Kheng is at the forefront of Singapore’s art scene and was one of the 20 Singaporean artists representing Singapore in Singapore Inside Out, a showcase celebrating the nation’s 50th Year of Independence touring NYC, London, Beijing and Singapore.When not acting, Kheng is also a prolific theatre, television and festival producer in Singapore and Malaysia.Her original series, 𝘋𝘰 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘣 for Mediacorp Singapore, was the first English- language television programme to receive the maximum 5 - star rating from the nation’s main newspaper, The Straits Times.She just wrapped filming season 3 of 𝘒𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘍𝘶 for The CW, Warner Media and Berlanti Productions in Vancouver for which she is part of the main cast.
Sahana Kamath
Sahana is an award-winning producer whose body of work in international production and creative development spans two decades and senior leadership roles at studios, networks and OTTs. She has helmed international productions with channels like Star Plus and SAB TV (India), STS and TNT (Russia), Keshet and Reshet (Israel), TVN (Poland), and the BBC (UK). Her work across 26 markets and 21 languages has seen her lead the creative on features and series from multiple vantage points including those of OTT/network commissioner, distributor, executive producer, studio executive and writer.
Rules and Regulations
Aiming at finding the unearthed original stories in Asia, RisingStories is tasked to call out to all screenwriting talents, as well as the potential film and television productions of international collaborations. Creating opportunities to turn scripts into actual productions, Studio76 and our 7 event partners will joint hands to work closely to promote the final award-winning stories into production scripts, through the commercialization processes of, story concepts, script development, fund-raising, productions, marketing and distributing to global audiences. This time 2023 RisingStories Story Pitching Competition is extending to receive stories written in both Chinese and English !
Submissions opened for
Chinese and English screenwriters, any nationality.
Entry submission period
Feb 1, 2023/1 – Apr 14, 2023
Catogories
1. Feature Films/Streaming Movies/TV Movies
Runtime : less than 100 minutes
You Writers must be the original copyright owner of the stories submitted. Adaptations from novels or comics are not accepted.
2. Mini Series in 6-8 episodes
Runtime : 45-60 minutes per episode
You Writers must be the original copyright owner of the stories submitted. Adaptations from novels or comics are not accepted.Writers must be the original copyright owner of the stories submitted. Adaptations from novels or comics are not accepted.
3. Standard TV Series in 15-20 episodesRuntime : 45-50 minutes per episode
You Writers must be the original copyright owner of the stories submitted. Adaptations from novels or comics are not accepted. Writers must be the original copyright owner of the stories submitted. Adaptations from novels or comics are not accepted.
Please specify the Genres of your submitting works, such as
- Comedy/Romance/Musical
- History/Literary Adaptation/Biography
- Family/Growth Story
- Horror/Suspense
- Crime/Action
- Fantasy/Adventure
- Other
Key Dates and Milestones
( same for all Submissions in Chinese and English )
| Feb 1, 2023 | Submissions starts |
| April 14, 2023 | Submissions closes at 6pm Taiwan Time ( GMT+8 ) |
| June 2023 | Top 50 and Top 10 stories will be announced |
| July 2023 | Final Day - Top 3 winning stories will be announced. Top 10 finalists each will have 10 minutes to present their works to the judges in person or online. The Top 3 stories with highest scores will be the winners of the event. |
Submissions must include
- Logline and Synopsis : 300 to 500 words
- Characters Description: 500-1000 words
- Treatment : 1000 to 2000 words
- Screenwriter introduction: 300 to 500 words for each writer. Must include personal contact information such as mobile number and email address.
- Submissions with insufficient information will not be able to complete the registration.
Registration
Please sign up on the official website. Please note that if you are registering and submitting with a Gmail account, you will be able to re-edit online on your submitted works in text after sending in. However this function is only made available until the closing date on April 14, 2023.
The Top 50 and Top 10 finalists will be notified by the organiser in emails, the Top 10 finalists will be announced on the official website in June 2023.
All finalists are obligated to sign and agree to the "Regulatory and Obligatory Agreement" and related copyrights waiver document which will be provided in emails sent by the organiser (failure to sign is deemed to be a waiver, which will be replaced by another candidate).
The Top 10 finalists have to participate the pitching workshop and attend the pitching session in person or online.
The ten finalists are all required to participate in the " RisingStories International Pitching" in July. Each will present his/her stories with a pitch proposal and take questions from the judges in person or live online. The three finalists will be announced at the award ceremony on the same day.
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMENT
In June 2023, 10 finalists for Chinese stories and 10 finalists for English stories will be selected respectively, a pitching and awards ceremony will be held in Taipei in July 2023 with the three winning stories to be announced.
The follow-up arrangement of the selected projects
The 3 winning stories will receive an official script development agreement with an advance payment of USD$3,250 to develop the stories into full production scripts.
Script Development Agreement of the final winners and the advance payment
The payment will be made after the script development contract is signed.
Terms and Conditions
All submissions must guarantee that the copyrights of the submitting works is fully owned by the entrant. If there is any dispute over its copyrights, the entrant has to resolve the dispute before entering Top 50 selections. the organiser has full rights to reject the submissions with stories in copyrights dispute.
It is necessary to ensure that the submitting stories have not been officially commercially published. The organiser has full authority, in any stage of the event, to reject the submissions, retrieve the awards and advance payment, and to pursue related damages and legal liability.
If the project is jointly created by multiple writers, it is necessary to fill in the introduction and contact info of all writers in the registration form, and assign one person as the main contact, and each person must all agree to the registration rules. If the project is selected, all co-writers must agree and sign on the same documents.
After the registration is completed the entrants are deemed to agree to agree to the organiser's attempt in collecting and sharing of the personal information to related parties. Te organiser has the right to modify at any time and publish the partial personal information on the official website and related social media.
OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS
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