Creatives Putting Their Best Pitch Forward

Kingston Creative, in partnership with JAMPRO, hosted a Creative Entrepreneur Meetup called Best Pitch Forward. On November 27 at 5 pm, twelve lucky creative entrepreneurs pitched for a pool of funds to kick start their respective creative projects!

Best Pitch Forward was an exciting opportunity for creative entrepreneurs to share their creative ventures with a panel of three investors. From the 44 applications, twelve creatives were chosen to vie for the chance to win an investment into their creative projects.

The top spots included an Investors’ Choice winner, first runner up, and second runner up. The public got the chance to vote for their favourite pitch for the People’s Choice Award. In addition to the opportunity to pitch for funding, the chosen entrepreneurs will also attend private B2B meetings with a wider group of investors throughout December. These private investor match-making sessions, organized by JAMPRO, are intended to attract additional investment into their projects and move these creative businesses to the next level.

The judges for Best Pitch Forward consisted of Wayne Sutherland, Member of First Angels Jamaica, Opal Levy from Sisters Ink and Judith Alberga from the Content and Monetization Unit at Television Jamaica (TVJ).

THE WINNERS

Investors’ Choice Winner
After long deliberation and scoresheet auditing from the judges, there was a tie for the top spot between Kevin Jackson and Ina Sotirova

Kevin Jackson of Night Vision Media pitched a 2D animated series entitled ‘Melly and Delly’, aimed at young children ages 3 to 6. It follows an “exuberant twin brother and sister from a rural community in Jamaica, who turn their everyday problems into adventures with their mom, a local farmer and entrepreneur.”

Ina Sotirova pitched her feature film project ‘Mango Magic’. MANGO MAGIC is a magical realism film about 11-year-old Jazz, who discovers his heart’s superpower with the help of a Rasta mystic and his magic mangoes, and returns home to heal his dysfunctional family and save the environment, against the backdrop of his beloved grandfather’s death.

Investors’ Choice Winner (Second Place)
Saeed Thomas is producing a short film entitled ‘Black Girl in the Ring’ , which was presented by the project’s Director, Joshua Paul. BLACK GIRL IN THE RING, set in the backdrop of 18th Century Jamaica, is a 20 minute short that tells a coming of age story of Jamaican National Hero, Nanny of the Maroons. Nanny is conflicted by wanting to fit into the plantation culture that teaches her to not respect her skin colour and ancestry.

Investors’ Choice Winner (Third Place)
Third place went to Evonè Walters of Artibute Performing Arts. She gave a passionate pitch of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ as a fun and exciting way to engage Literature students. THE TEMPEST brings an exciting, creative and innovative way of learning for CXC CSEC students. The Shakespearean play will be staged in the Jamaican culture, filmed and distributed on their website. This filmed play will also be fused in an online course and marketed to CSEC English Literature students as an examination preparation tool.

People’s Choice Pitch Winner
The People’s Choice winner was Natasha Griffiths. Natasha gave a thrilling pitch for ‘Hush Baby Hush, a film about a naive 13-year-old girl, on the cusp of escaping the humdrum of rural Jamaica to live her American dream. Her American dream is dashed when she unwittingly exposes the illegitimacy of her unborn brother and her stepfather abandons them.

THE PRIZES
Title sponsors Sagicor and the Development Bank of Jamaica provided a pool of $400,000 in development funding cash prizes, broken down as follows:
BPF Investors Choice Winners – JMD $105,000 each

BPF Investors Choice Second Place – JMD $90,000

BPF Investors Choice Third Place – JMD $50,000

BPF People’s Choice Winner – JMD $50,000

All winners also received one (1) month free coworking at the Kingston Creative Hub and Private B2B meetings with JAMPRO Investors.

At the end of the night there were no losers as all persons who pitched on the night but did not place will also receive one (1) day free coworking at the Kingston Creative Hub and Private B2B meetings with JAMPRO Investors.