The forthcoming COFILMIC comedy film festival has announced some pretty stellar new prizes and has thus extended the submission deadline accordingly. With the event itself on the 29-30th October looming ever closer, prospective filmmakers now have until the 5th September to submit their entries. Submissions of short films, sitcom pilots and comedy sketches have been flooding in and it’s shaping up to be quite the event in the comedy film calendar.
The first exciting new development is that top digital channel Comedy Central has thrown their support behind the festival. Comedy Central’s Director of Development and Content Sarah Farrell joins the COFILMIC judging panel which already boasts BAFTA winning producer Charlie Hanson (Extras, Life’s Too Short) and BBC Comedy Commissioning editor Kristian Smith amongst others. Comedy Central will sponsor an ‘Industry Choice’ award which will go to one lucky sitcom pilot with the winning entry being showcased on the Comedy Central Website and it’s creators enjoying a one-to-one meeting with industry experts at the channel.
COFILMIC founder Janet Harrison adds:
“We’re delighted that Comedy Central has chosen to support our festival in this way. Not only does Sarah bring her expertise, but the prizes they offer are fantastic – and add real value to the other opportunities already available.”
Comedy Central’s Sarah Farrell:
“We’re always hungry to find the next writing star and are pleased to be working with the good people at COFILMIC.”
Read the full Comedy Central press release here:
The second big COFILMIC announcement is that the festival has also teamed up with Picturehouse Cinemas who are now offering two prizes at the event. Firstly they will choose a ‘Picturehouse Pic’ which will be a short comedy film or sketch selected by their experienced team of programmers which will then be showcased on the main page of their website for a period of 12 months. Secondly, Picturehouse will also sponsor a ‘Best of the Festival tour’ which will see the winners and runners-up from the 2012 festival being showcased at selected Picturehouse Cinemas across the country and giving the filmmakers access to useful networking events.
Madeleine Mullett, programmer at Picturehouse Cinemas says:
“Picturehouse Cinemas are delighted to collaborate with and support COFILMIC, an organisation that is bringing wonderful talent to our screens across the country and a breath of joy to the film industry! For future funny people it starts here. We also hope to build on our relationship by hosting workshops with COFILMIC later in the year, and to roll-out any successful models across the country.”
The COFILMIC Comedy Film Festival 2012 will be held at The Comedy Store, Manchester on 29 – 30 October. The submissions deadline has now been extended to 5th September 2012 due to the addition of these prizes. For further information please visit www.cofilmic.co.uk.
