News & Reviews

Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), Australia’s largest and oldest celebration of queer film is calling on queer filmmakers to submit their proposals for the 2022 Pitch, Pleez! competition – with $10,000 in cash up for grabs for the winning pitch.

Pitch, Pleez! is proudly supported by VicScreen and provides queer filmmakers with the opportunity to create a short fiction, documentary, or web series pilot by pitching their idea to MQFF. Winners receive a $10,000 cash prize to help fund the project, a Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera worth $6,000 and an All-In-Pass to the main MQFF festival. The winning film will also be featured at the opening night of MQFF’s main festival in November 2022.

Applications close on Monday 18 April 2022 and successful applicants will be invited to pitch their idea to a panel of judges.

Chief Executive Officer of MQFF, David Martin Harris, says Pitch, Pleez! is part of a long history of MQFF supporting queer filmmakers to create Australian content.

“MQFF has a proud history of supporting queer filmmakers through our funding programs like Pitch, Pleez!, our industry days and awards. Australia has amazing queer talent and we are pleased to be able to support the creation of new work,” says David.

“There are so many Australian queer stories waiting to be told, and this program is designed to give diverse voices a platform. We want to see more trans and gender diverse stories being created, intersex and bisexual narratives – we encourage any filmmaker with a great idea to pitch to us.”

Previous winners of Pitch, Pleez! include Andrew Mills, for his short We’re Doing Well, Clare Cavanagh and Alexandra Morgan’s How to be Queer, Ana Brownfield’s A Big Life, and Hook Up by Laura Nagy and Sarah Christie.

For more information and application criteria, visit mqff.com.au/pitchpleez