TDF prize winners - EyeSteel Film and Storyline Entertainment
Over $55,000 in cash prizes were awarded to projects at this year’s Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF), Hot Docs’ two day international co-financing market event, which wrapped yesterday. Thirty projects representing 12 countries were presented to a panel of over 120 commissioning editors and other funders and a gallery of over 450 industry observers.
The Canwest-Hot Docs TDF Pitch Prize was awarded to pitch team members Yung Chang, director, and Mila Aung-Thwin, producer of Montreal's EyeSteelFilm for The Fruit Hunters, a feature documentary and potential series that will explore the vast hidden universe of exotic fruit and what it can tell us about humankind’s place in the natural world. Disbursed from the Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Funds, the $40,000 cash prize is awarded to the best Canadian pitch at the Forum as voted on by attending international commissioning editors. Yung Chang directed and Mila Aung-Thwin produced the multiple award winning documentary Up The Yangtze in 2008.
New this year, the NFB Digital Development Deal, worth $15,000, was given to Angad Bhalla, director, and Lisa Valencia-Svensson, producer of Toronto's Storyline Entertainment for The House That Herman Built, the story of the friendship between an artist and Herman Wallace, a Black Panther activist who’s been in solitary confinement for 38 years – longer than anyone in the history of the American penal system. The development deal is intended to stimulate interactive, cross-media projects in the industry.
The Cuban Hat Award, which was started as a spontaneous idea by Montreal filmmakers Diego Briceño and Giulia Frati at the 2009 TDF, was also presented to Storyline Entertainment’s The House That Herman Built. Diego's handmade Cuban hat is used to receive the votes and donations and this year $1013.67 CDN was raised, including a $500 donatrion from EyeSteelFilm, along with $18 US, 5 Czech koruna, 2 Israeli new sheqel, 38 Malaysian cents, 20 pence and a Toronto transit token.
