I also got to spend a day at the Hot Docs Forum. I feel you can learn a lot about the current landscape (not to mention learning how to better your pitches) by listening to other filmmakers pitch and seeing the industry’s reaction. I’m hoping to write more about this later – but I wanted to point out this excellent piece about the Hot Docs Forum and pitching Forums in general by Brian Newman in his newsletter last week.
Speaking of how you can learn a lot about the industry from pitch forums, Brian comments on what he calls the “Pitch Forum Industrial Complex” where filmmakers pay a lot of money to receive unhelpful feedback and platitudes about unpromising collaborations (btw – if you don’t – subscribe to Brian’s newsletter – I highly recommend it). Check it out and let me know what you think.