Winning Filmmakers, Pitches, and Films!
Scroll through to read previous winners' completed films, entries, and testimonials.
Sunday Dinner
Filmmaker: Don Fanelli
Prize: $6,000
Pitch sentence: 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.
Freelance
Filmmaker: Mike Gerbino
Prize: $5,000
Pitch sentence: When a down-on-her-luck editor takes a job cutting snuff films, she is haunted by visions of the people in her videos; funds would go toward our 3-day principal photography, which begins in the fall.
Americano
Filmmaker: Tim Viola (the OG first winner!)
Prize: $2,000
Pitch sentence: 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.
I Love Jazz
Filmmaker: David Oster
Prize: $6,000
Pitch sentence: When a man’s own voice warns him of his impending murder via a jazz record, the next few moments are filled with suspense, color, and jazz, and I need funding to shoot all in one choreographed shot.
Treehouse
Filmmaker: Matthew Greenberg
Prize: $5,000
Pitch sentence: 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.
More in Production...
We have many more winners who are working on completing their films. See them below.
All Winners to Date
Swipe through to see all of our winning filmmakers, some of whom are still working on their projects!
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.
Example #1: Treehouse
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.
Example #2: Sunday Dinner
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.
Example #3: Americano
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.
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.