NYTV Fest Awards 19 Development Deals

The New York TV Festival tonight announced recipients of 19 development deals, plus Critics and Audience Awards and other prizes. Seven development deals were awarded from the NYTVF Pitch competition — BIO Channel, Channel 4, Hasbro Studios, Logo, Red Arrow International, Sundance Channel and truTV — 1 each from Fox, Samsung and A&E; 5 from Lifetime; and 4 tied to Independent Pilot Competition categories from IFC, MTV, VH1 and Syfy. In addition to the 4 Pilot Competition development deals, the fest announced winners for Best Drama, Comedy, Actor, Actress, Directing, Writing, etc. Festival award recipients from tonight’s announcement:

Winner of the Samsung Second Screen Storytellers Competition was “D-TEC”, created by Joseph Saroufim, Peter Saroufim, and Stephen Interrante. It was announced during Samsung’s Live Pitch event on Friday evening and is receiving a $300,000 production budget from the electronics leader to create an original multi-screen series for Samsung Smart TVs.

2012 Development Deals

NYTVF Pitch

Each Pitch Partner guaranteed one development deal for an artist participating in NYTVF Pitch, with the following coming out on top:

– Sundance Channel: “I Want A New Life”” created by Stephen Soroka and Will Bozarth (New York, NY)
– Red Arrow International: “Barely Legal” created by Kynan Griffin and Jason Faller (Provo, UT)
– BIO Channel: “Para-Not-So-Normal” created by Nick Armstrong and Trevor Tevel (Los Angeles, CA)
– Channel 4: “Celebrities Solving Crimes” created by Melge Media (Brooklyn, NY)
– Hasbro Studios: “Buckle and Swash” created by Sarah Courtauld (London, UK)
– Logo: “Burly Q’s” created by Carrie Preston and Daisy 3 Pictures (New York, NY)
– truTV: “Lords of the Land: NYC” created by Frank Mosca (City Island, NY)

FOX-NYTVF Comedy Script Contest
For the fifth consecutive year, FOX partnered with the NYTVF on the annual FOX-NYTVF Comedy
Script Contest, inviting aspiring television writers to enter their scripts for original half-hour comedy
TV pilots for the opportunity to win $25,000 and a development deal with the network. Twenty-five
finalists were selected to be evaluated by FOX, and the winner is:

– “Here to Stay” from Andrew Shafer (New York, NY)

A&E and Lifetime Unscripted Development Pipelines
Launched in 2011 with A&E, and re-upped in 2012 with A&E and the addition of Lifetime, these programs sought original unscripted television concepts (including a short video and treatment) focused on individuals or small groups that represent unique points of view for each network. In each initiative, five finalists are selected from a field of 25 semi-finalists with each of the five receiving notes on their projects from the respective network’s development executives as well as a cash prize of $2,500. Finalists also receive $1,500 to shoot additional tape to further enhance their projects for a shot at the $10,000 prize and the opportunity to participate in the production of a pilot presentation with the network.

The winner of the second-annual A&E Unscripted Development Pipeline, which was selected from the five finalists announced earlier this year:

– “Private Eyes” (originally titled “Deadbeats”) from Frank Mosca, John Morena, Stephen Franciosa Jr., and Vinny Parco (New York, NY)

Finalists in the Lifetime Unscripted Development Pipeline:

– “American Bombshells” from Steven Ryan (New York, NY)
– “Cake Lush to the Stars” from Cee French Harth, Paul Harth and Jeff Schubert (New York, NY)
– “Comediennes” from Tim Paul (Chicago, IL)
– “Junk Mom” from Pat Taggart (Philadelphia, PA)
– “Ladies on the Loose” from Jenn Dlugos and Andrea Henry (Boston, MA)

2012 Independent Pilot Competition (IPC) Sponsored Awards

– IFC “Out of the Box” Award: “Hamsters” from Damian Lanigan (Brooklyn, NY)
– MTV Comedy Development Deal: “Galaxy Comics” from Kevin McMullin and Jacey Heldrich (New York, NY)
– Syfy “Imagine Greater” Award: “Time Trials” from Lee Jordan and Clay Lapari (Los Angeles, CA)
– VH1 “Theory of Creativity” Award: “Actors Anonymous” from René Ashton (Studio City, CA)
– Amazon Studios Audience Award: “Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon” from Manny Galán (New York, NY)

Additional IPC Award Winners

– NYTVF Critics Award: “Shrink” from Ted Tremper (Chicago, IL)
– Best Comedy Pilot: “Shrink” from Ted Tremper (Chicago, IL)
– Best Drama or Dramedy Pilot: “Books” from Joe Webb (Los Angeles, CA)
– Best Animation Pilot: “Pockets Universe” from John Cantlie and Edmond Melnychuk (Richmond, BC)
– Best Web Series Pilot: “Lovin’ Lakin” from Dave Mahanes and Christine Lakin (Los Angeles, CA)
– Best Nonscripted Pilot: “Newton’s Law” from Sean O’Riordan (London, UK)
– Best Actress: Zandy Hartig in “American Viral” (New York, NY)
– Best Actor: Jonathan Pessin in “In Session with Jonathan Pessin” (Los Angeles, CA)
– Nonscripted Character or Host: Alec Pinkston in “How to Get Lost” (Chicago, IL)
– Best Directing: (tie) Kevin McMullin for “Galaxy Comics” (New York, NY) and John Lyde for “The Shadow Cabal” (Provo, UT)
– Best Writing: Scott Eckert, Chris Grace, Rich Hollman, Chris O’Brien, and Nate Williams for “Actualized” (New York, NY)