What should my one-sentence pitch look like if I want to get film funding?

Submit it here for a chance to fund your narrative or documentary short film. Filmmakers write in all the time asking if they can see examples of winning sentences. Below you can find real, winning sentences submitted by independent filmmakers who have received thousands of dollars in funding  and services to make their short film pitches a reality. You’ll notice that not every winning sentence is included here. Out of respect for the filmmakers and their concepts, we don’t release the winning sentences until the final films are released. The Film Fund does not favor one genre over another. In addition to the real sentences, our judges have written a few examples, which you’ll also find below. You can also read an in-depth analysis of winner Don Fanelli’s sentence here.

Real, winning sentences from our winners:

• A man struggles to understand why each attempt to build the perfect treehouse leaves him staring at an empty tree with no evidence of previous work; the funding will go to creating multiple treehouses.
• An Italian-American man confesses to his passionate siblings that he is now vegan and refuses to eat their traditional Sunday meatballs and I need $ for a DP & prod design.
• When an undocumented refugee hacker discovers evidence linking a politician to a tragedy on social media, he teams up with a PR director to expose the story; film is shot–need funds for audio post.

Hypothetical examples written by our judges:

• A woman is haunted by a misunderstood psychological condition where she struggles to find joy in even the happiest of situations, and I need the funding for our DP and lighting rentals.
• When killer crabs attack a small-town hotdog bun factory, only one man can stop all hell from breaking loose, and most of our funding will go to professional crab-wranglers.

Have a great pitch sentence of your own?

Submit it to one of our independent film funding contests here for a chance to receive up to $10,000 in funding and other prizes to make your project a reality.