If the Jeonju International Film Festival is known for its Jeonju Cinema Project (previously called the Jeonju Digital Project), the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival (from May 27 to June 3) has its “Pitch and Catch”. The Pitch and Catch program is entering its sixth year since it began in 2010. The public pitching event introduces excellent contents and fosters and supports female filmmakers. Fiction films eligible for the program must have at least one woman among their planners (screenwriters, producers and directors). In the case of documentaries, the director must be a woman to submit.   

The Pitch and Catch event has attracted spotlight in the Korean film world over the past several years since the event paved the way for increasingly more and more films to hit screens. Over the past several years, the program helped An Ethics Lesson starring LEE Je-hoon and MOON So-ri, Cat Funeral starring KANG In and PARK Se-young, Miss Conspirator starring KO Hyun-jung and YOO Hae-jin, Grape Candy starring PARK Jin-hee and the documentaries My Father’s E-mails, The Empire of Shame, Nora Noh, 2 Lines and Wandering Stars to meet spectators at theaters. This year, Glittering Hands directed by LEE-KIL Bo-ra had its premiere on April 23rd. The film took home the Ock Rang Cultural Prize at Documentary Pitch and Catch in 2013. Coin Locker Girl directed by HAN Jun-hee, which advanced into the final round of features, was released on April 29 to positive reception from the audiences. 

 

A 6-Week Lab Program Focused on Theatrical Releases

   

What sets the Pitch and Catch project apart from other pitching projects is the fact that it supports films through a sturdy six-week Lab activities rather than a short-term support. “We focus on practical and efficient lab activities at our Pitch and Catch, which leads to a bigger number of films released at theaters,” said KOO Jung-ah, the head of Pitch and Catch. “The preparations I had to go through for Pitch and Catch was very systematic. It was similar to a film production process,” said PARK Myoung-rang, the director of An Ethics Lesson, which received the program’s help via mentoring and doctoring services. 

The Lab program has three judges who select ten works in each section by reviewing applications in the preliminary round. Interviews narrow down them to five fiction films and five documentaries. The Fiction Film Team and the Documentary Team implement mentoring and doctoring services for six weeks. Both teams receive a lesson on preparing presentations. “Our mock pitching process is systematic to such an extent that the six-week course enables participants who have not pitched before to pitch well in the final round in front of judges and audiences,” KOO explained.  

Another strength of the Lab program is to give participants opportunities to change the directions of their works, revise them and seek ways to improve their works. First, a kind of doctoring service is provided to let participants set the directions of pitching and planning through discussions among participants and lecturers through weekly Lab times. Then, participants can get advice about the direction of planning their works through one on one meetings with the judges in the preliminary round. The judges in the preliminary round serve as mentors of the mentoring service of this program.

The Lab program upgrades the participants’ development and pitching skills. They are given opportunities to pitch their works for a total of eight minutes in front of the public during the festival period. On the second day of the pitching event, they can meet investors and producers interested in their works in person.

Feature Films Look to Variety in Genres, While Documentaries Focus on Private Projects
Films which successfully advanced into the final competition of the Pitch and Catch program of 2015 are The White Ray directed by CHOI A-leaum and SHIN Yiee-soo, House of Hummingbird (by KIM Bora), Everything You Want to Know about Ms. SOHN Drama (by Jude Jung), Play Me (by HA Myung-mi), and A Haunting Hitchhike (by JEONG Hee-jae). Documentary Pitching section which supports documentaries directed by women selected The Day by KEONG Su-eun, Family on the Bubble by MA Min-ji, Red Brick by JU Hyun-suk, Itaewon by KANGYU Ga-ram and Host Nation by LEE Ko-woon.

According to the Jury members, fiction films that advanced into the final round come in a variety of genres such as action thrillers, coming-of-age films, comedies, romance and social dramas. In the case of documentaries, the trend seems to be private projects where the directors tell their personal stories. Also, there is a strong trend towards topics such as families, labor, the division of Korea, genders and cities.  

This year, the final round will be held at the 7th Screening Hall of Shinchon Megabox on June 1st (Feature Film Pitch and Catch: 1 pm to 3 pm and Documentary Pitch and Catch: 5 pm to 7 pm). The subsequent Business Meeting will be held at Artreon TOZ in Shinchon from 11 am to 5 pm on June 2. The final winners will receive their prizes in the closing ceremony to be held in the 3rd Screening Hall of Shinchon Megabox. The works chosen by the judges and audiences in the final round will receive prize money and material aid amounting to a total of 38 million won from Megabox, OCK RANG Cultural Foundation and THEPEC&FRD Restoration Digitization.