The Chicago Comedy TV Pilot Competition, designed to embellish Chicago’s stellar reputation for comedy, will bow at the Music Box Theatre next July.
Presented by Wits’ End Productions and the Chicago Film Office, the competition will be judged by savvy jury of Hollywood TV show executives and offer a sizable cash prize.
Deadline is March 27, which gives filmmakers and producers ample time to turn their ideas for TV shows into pilots, said Marion Sours, founder/director of Wits’ End.
The Competition is open exclusively to Chicagoland-based companies and limited to half-hour pilots. Its purpose, she said, “is to spotlight the outstanding comedy creativity of writers, actors and filmmakers living in the area.”
Sours and the CFO’s Rich Moskal believe it’s one of the first TV pilot competitions?possibly the first devoted entirely to comedy?”has the potential to help grow our film/TV industry,” he said.
The Competition will be held in conjunction with the Chicago Short Comedy Film/Video Festival’s 10th anniversary, presented by Wits’ End.
Over the years at the Comedy Shorts Fest, she noted, “We’ve screened about 300 comedies made by Chicagoans. It will be great to see the longer comedies entered in the pilot competition.”
A juried show, judges will be savvy comedy executives from ABC Entertainment, Brillstein-Grey Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, Comedy Central, Fox Broadcasting, NBC Entertainment, and International Creative Management.
