Monster Fest 2021 / 18 November 2021

AACTA Presents MONSTER FEST PITCH Free Event

AACTA PITCH in partnership with MONSTER PICTURES, has quickly become Australia’s ultimate horror and genre film development initiative that supports emerging filmmakers in developing their original feature film concepts.

Since the initiative began, more than 300 submissions have been received, several of which have been optioned by Chris Brown’s production company Pictures in Paradise and Monster Pictures to finance them and take them to market.

If there’s anything that Monster has learnt over the last 11 years in film distribution and marketing is that YOU NEED TO START EARLY! Marketing and audience engagement needs to start well before shooting and should continue throughout the entire filmmaking process.

As an independent filmmaker at financing stage, demonstrating that you understand how to reach an audience is essential. This proves to any potential market place partners that you have a solid grasp of your film’s potential.

Monster Fest is pleased to announce AACTA Presents MONSTER FEST PITCH at Monster Fest 2021 in Melbourne, using the process of the AACTA Pitch initiatives as the format, the session will outline how to effectively create early stage materials to pitch your feature film concept and start developing an audience and fan base for your film as you do this.

The session will run through how to create:

• Pitch Decks
• Sizzle Reels
• Audience engagement and marketing plans and strategies
• Digital and Social Media Marketing as a direct pathway to audiences

It will feature on screen presentations using examples of these materials, screen Short Films as examples of a ‘Proof of Concept’ for features, and an emerging filmmaker panel.

We’ll also screen the AACTA PITCH BITE winning pitch from the final TOP 8 Finalist’s pitch session that will be part of AACTA’s ScreenFest 2021, taking place on December 7th.

PARTICIPANTS:  

  • Josh Sambono: A Jingili filmmaker from Sydney who has been a finalist in both AACTA / Monster Pitch Comps in 20 and 21. He has made two Short Films as ‘Proof of Concepts’ for his pitch entries and we’ll discuss his experience for both years and his process in turning the shorts in to features.
  • Michael Kratochvil: A Melbourne based filmmaker who has two shorts playing at Monster Fest this year and is in the process of developing these two Short Films into features film concepts.
  • Grant Hardie: Monster Pictures owner and Monster Fest Festival Director.
  • Alfie Lagos: the founder and director of Lexlab, who specializes in digital media marketing implementation for feature film campaigns.

SCREENING:

Short Films can help launch a career and they are often used to showcase the talents of the filmmakers to pitch a feature film concept. Ultimately, a short film can establish a filmmaker in the festival scene, catch the eye of a producer and pave the way to a full-length film. As part of the session we will show two short films that are highly effective examples of ‘Proof of Concepts’ for features:

I CALL UPON THEE (Australia 2021)
Director: Michael Kratochvil
Runtime: 14.24

TERROR ZONE (Australia 2020)
Director: Josh Sambono
Runtime: 8.29

AACTA Presents MONSTER FEST PITCH is a Free Live Event at Monster Fest 2021 on Sunday 12th December 2pm at Cinema Nova Carlton in Melbourne and you only need register your Full Name via an email to registration@monsterfest.com.au to get a seat at this unique one-off event. CINEMA NOVA is located at 380 Lygon Street Carlton.