LIVE PITCH 2025
SATURDAY - OCTOBER 18th
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
TIFF Lightbox - Cinema 5
350 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3X5
Writers bring their feature films projects and series to life, with five minutes to pitch their features and series to a live audience of supportive film fans, and a jury of industry delegates and production experts. The most original and compelling pitch will be awarded a prize of $1,500 and a $10,000 Equipment Grant sponsored by Sunbelt Rentals.
Supported by Ontario Creates and Sunbelt
JURY MEMBERS:
Elizabeth Kaiden, co-founder, The Writers Lab, (TWL); Paige Haight, Director of Television Production, Shaftesbury; Tracy Fernandez, Region 21 WISE Leader, Sunbelt Rentals; Byron A. Martin, Byron A. Martin Productions Inc.; Jessica Martins, founding partner at Hero Entertainment Partners, Jessica Liadsky, Manger, Scripted Development, Television.
ALL OR NONE
Written by KRISTIN HOLODAK
Genre: Asexual RomCom
Format: FEATURE
Comps: In the tone of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY if Sally didn’t like sex.
LOGLINE: A perpetually single 40-something is thrown back into the dating world when her closest friend winds up on her couch after yet another break up. With their chemistry obvious to everyone else, she must make peace with her asexuality and learn how to be in a relationship on her own terms.
SYNOPSIS: Fiona has reached her 40s without ever managing to fall in love. Her best friend Jordan falls in love easily. When his engagement to would-be wife number three falls apart, he lands on Fiona’s doorstep. The two agree to play matchmaker for each other, however, the more Fiona dates the more she realizes “kissing is not her love language.” Eventually someone suggests that perhaps she is asexual, blowing up everything that she thought she understood about herself. Fiona must then determine if romance is even possible for her or if she is destined to live out her life as a crazy cat lady.
YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL
Written by STEPHANIE COFFEY
Genre: SURREALISM, DRAMEDY
Format: FEATURE
LOGLINE: Still reeling from the loss of her husband, a meek, middle-aged, bank manager is shot in the head during a botched robbery. Waking up in purgatory, she embarks on a surreal quest for a second chance at life.
SYNOPSIS: Bili, a grieving matriarch, struggles to order flowers for her husband's grave, while juggling the demands of her family: her eldest daughter Lindsey picks a fight; her mother Vera insults her pantsuit; her father Ivan questions her managerial skills; and her youngest Rachel dissociates. Bili orders them all to leave.
PANG & SUFFERING
Written by SUSAN HUNG
Genre: COMEDY
Format: TELEVISION HALF HOUR
LOGLINE: A feisty former ping-pong champ is determined to reclaim greatness and live life on her own terms as she confronts failing health and burned bridges in her golden years.
SYNOPSIS: Know-it-all septuagenarian Pang Lee regularly ignores advice from her doctors and loved ones to slow down. As ailments and injuries pile up, she pushes the limits of denial and deception to thwart her daughter’s attempts to put her into a nursing home - all while pursuing the goal of leading her ping-pong team to victory, over that of her former friend (and almost lover) turned foe, Freddy Ma. Their tangled history and unresolved feelings create sparks on and off the court. Pang & Suffering is a love letter to stubborn, old, Asian ladies who refuse to quit, the families who love them, and anyone who’s ever experienced the indignities of aging.
DEATH AT THE DRIVE-IN
Written by HANNAH TERMAAT
Genre: HORROR/COMEDY
Format: FEATURE
LOGLINE: When a masked killer uses the Drive-In as their own killing ground, the movie goers and employees of the theatre soon realize that they might be stuck in their own kind of horror film.
SYNOPSIS: Set in small town Fonthill, Ontario, a group of friends decide to celebrate the end of exams with a trip to their local Drive-In movie theatre. Despite Lee Anne’s dislike of horror movies, she agrees to go in order to make her friends happy. What seems like another night of fun for the friends, employees and the rest of the movie goers, quickly turns for the worst when a masked killer, resembling the Moonlight Drive-In’s mascot Luna, takes advantage of this isolated theatre, located in the countryside.
DEAR NIECE
Written by DIANA DAI
Genre: DRAMA
Format: FEATURE
LOGLINE: When Kate, a Chinese immigrant in Canada, takes in her rebellious teenage niece from China, both women are forced to confront buried family secrets, cultural clashes, and their own paths to freedom.
SYNOPSIS: Kate, an ambitious architect in Canada, hides her failing marriage when she takes in her rebellious niece, Jessie, from China. Restless and privileged, Jessie rejects Kate’s strict rules, clashing over fashion versus finance. Meanwhile, Kate conceals her husband’s affair to preserve the illusion of success abroad. When the truth surfaces, Jessie exploits it for freedom. As Kate’s career unravels, a family crisis pulls them back to China, where long-buried secrets force both women to face their past and redefine their futures.
KELLY’S BAR
Written by MICHELE HOGAN
Genre: DRAMA
Format: FEATURE
LOGLINE: In 1980’s South Boston, a Mi’kmaq man fears he must rob the South Boston bar of the Irish-American woman he loves, in order to save the life of the brother who raised him.
SYNOPSIS: Mercy Paul, Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia, comes to South Boston to care for his beloved, desperately ill brother, Gordy. There, Mercy is talked into planning to rob the rundown Southie bar he works at, in order to get the money he needs, to save Gordy’s life. But Mara Kelly, Mercy's boss and the bar's tough, street-smart owner, is fighting to hold onto the bar she scrimped and saved for on her own, in the face of a divorce settlement awarding half its value to her ex.
Mara and Mercy are each fighting to save the one thing that matters most to them in the world, and each believes that the money in the safe under the bar holds the solution. But as they slowly fall in love, and learn to appreciate each other’s situation, they come to understand that they cannot both have what they want – and each other, too.
PANGZI
Written by SHERRY LI
Genre: SLICE OF LIFE, COMING-OF-AGE, DRAMA
Format: FEATURE
LOGLINE: After avoiding it for years, a fat, Chinese-Canadian, university student visits China for a wedding and must balance her overly critical mother and different cultural expectations in order to reconnect with her grandparents.
SYNOPSIS: Due to her struggles with her self-esteem and body image, a Chinese-Canadian university student named Hayley, has avoided visiting China for years. When she must return to China with her mother for a wedding, Hayley quickly realizes how much she’s missed in her time away. Her grandparents and her uncle have gotten older and Hayley desperately wants to find ways to connect with them, despite the language and culturalbarrier. She also reunites with her childhood friend, Dan, as well as her friend Madison, who is pursuing an acting career in China and Hong Kong. As Hayley splits her time between her family and her friends, she begins to see China differently. She imagines the life she could have lived and who she could have been. In this story, Hayley comes of age by navigating her complex identity and learns to stand up for herself by becoming comfortable with who she is.
FLOATING LESSONS
Written by ALEXIS KRASILOVSKY
Genre: DRAMA, COMING OF AGE, ROMANCE VS. CAREER
Format: LIMITED TV DRAMA SERIES
Comps: THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT, THE SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS
LOGLINE: Struggling to become a filmmaker in the early 1970s, a young woman is set adrift by the promise of sexual freedom and equality.
SYNOPSIS: The TV pilot begins with Ana's arrival at Yale as a freshman in 1969, just as it’s going co-ed in an era of sexual freedom. Brimming with self-confidence, she writes about her first lovers in a modern-day pillow book until her professor burns her writing in front of the class. Searching for a new creative outlet, she goes to the movies and falls in love with cinema. Determined to make movies despite the hurdles of being a woman in film, she turns the camera on her next lover.
Elizabeth Kaiden
Elizabeth Kaiden is co-founder, with Nitza Wilon, and producing director of The Writers Lab for women and nonbinary screenwriters 40+. Prior to TWL, Elizabeth served as Head of Development at Tangerine Entertainment, has mentored for Stowe Story Labs, and was an international theater and film critic. She is a graduate of Princeton University and the Dramaturgy program at the Yale School of Drama.
Paige Haight
Paige Haight is an accomplished producer with experience spanning digital and linear platforms, recognized for her collaborations with award-winning writers, directors, and actors. Her credits include the AMC+ series Slasher S4-6 (2024 CSA nominee for Best Drama), IFC/OutTV’s Slo Pitch (2021 Content Innovation Award Winner), Topline (2023 CSA nominee for Best Web Series), Hudson & Rex (CityTV), Irish Blood & SisterS S2 and more.
Currently, Haight is the Director of Television Production at Shaftesbury, one of Canada’s premier production companies, renowned for hits like Murdoch Mysteries, Departure, and Hudson & Rex. Over the past decade, she has held various roles within the company, ranging from Business & Legal Affairs to Development to Physical Production. Her current position allows her to seamlessly integrate creative, business, and production expertise to bring projects to camera. Haight holds a degree in Film & Media from Queen’s University.
Jessica Martins
Jessica Martins is the Founder of Hero Artists and founding partner at Hero Entertainment Partners. She has been an entrepreneur and executive for over 17 years in the entertainment industry. During her career, she has represented talent in Canada, US and Internationally and has worked with incredible talent in front and behind the camera. She has executive produced several films including Eone’s FORSAKEN (Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore), the Netflix Original KISS & CRY, and Roadside Attractions / Lionsgate, THE LAST FULL MEASURE (starring 8 Academy Award actors including Christopher Plummer and Samuel L Jackson). Her producing credits include Universal's musical biopic SPINNING GOLD (starring Broadway star Jeremy Jordan, Jason Isaacs, Wiz Khalifa, Jason Derulo and Michelle Monaghan), and most recently, she has completed the first of three films in the musical franchise JULIET & ROMEO (starring Rebel Wilson, Clara Rugaard, Jamie Ward, Derek Jacobi, Jason Isaacs and Rupert Everett, to name a few). In addition, Jessica has expanded partnerships internationally expanding the Hero Group with divisions in London, New York and Rome in addition to the Canadian flagship offices. Next up, Jessica is producing SHERRIFF STREET, directed by Oscar Award winning Jim Sheridan, and THE YEAR OF WONDERS. She is a member of the PGA, member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Women in Film and Television (Toronto, New York and Italian Chapters), the EIC, and the Women’s Executive Network (WXN).
Byron Martin
Byron A. Martin is an award-winning producer whose work spans over 100 hours of film and television shot in almost 40 countries, with credits including The Chronicles of Riddick, Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D), and American Pie favorites, managing more than $350M USD in productions. Named Best Canadian Film and TV Production Company by Corporate Vision in 2021, he is currently producing Heart Land and The Benefactor with director David Carson and Oscar-winner David Parfitt. His recent feature, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day, was Croatia’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards and winner of the 2025 Frameline49 Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.
Tracy Fernandez
Tracy Fernandes has 5 years’ experience in the film industry. She manages Operations and Sales for Sunbelt Rentals Film and TV. Her duties include overseeing studio scheduling, equipment rental, and client relations, ensuring productions run smoothly from pre-light to wrap. Tracy handles both indie filmmakers’ needs and studio requirements for large-scale commercial/ long format production shoots. She is also a regional leader for WISE (Women. Inspired. Supported. Empowered.) an employee resource group, developed by Sunbelt Rentals, to help empower and support women in the workforce.
Jessica Liadsky
As Manger of Scripted Development at Lionsgate Canada, Jessica develops dramatic and comedic series for Canada and the global co-production marketplace. Prior to her role at Lionsgate Canada, Jessica worked at eOne in the Family division across a slate of animated series. She subsequently went on to join eOne’s prime-time team, serving as Manager of Scripted Development. Before delving into television, Jessica worked with theatre companies across the country.
