My SDI

Our Edinburgh Pitch is small affair, but one of community, warmth and passion. As we open the call for submissions for the 2023 edition and start to organise what will be the first in person edition in three years, we wanted to look back on some of the powerful projects and talented teams who came to visit us in Edinburgh in the recent years and celebrate the recently finished films!

Edinburgh Pitch Insights is a series of informal and candid online discussions, focusing primarily on documentary pitching and the often challenging journey of securing funding for features. Join us to hear filmmakers and producers' experiences and advices. This is also the opportunity to discuss together what the future of pitching could look like, to contribute to a more sustainable, supportive and fairer industry.

**Please note that these sessions will not be recorded**

Our first guests are Simon Chambers and David Rane, respectively director and producer of the IDFA 2022 hit Much Ado About Dying which won Best Pitch at the Edinburg Pitch (online) in 2020. 

Simon is a documentary filmmaker whose feature films have screened and won awards internationally, and been broadcast on BBC Storyville, Arte and many more. He also teaches documentary in the UK and India and is a Documentary Story Consultant. 

David Rane of Soilsiu Films is a BAFTA-winning producer and director who over the last 20 years has produced many award-winning documentary films for national and international broadcasters, and a number of animated films and short fiction films. David is also the founder and festival director of the Guth Gafa international Documentary Film Festival.

Much Ado About Dying | 82 min | UK

Filmmaker Simon finds his life drastically interrupted when he is called back to London from India to care for his retired bohemian gay actor Uncle David. Everything that could go wrong does go wrong. David’s anarchic spirit is unbreakable. He fights with Simon, refusing to go into a care home, insisting on dying in the squalor of his unheated tumble-down house. He can’t remember where he put his false teeth but he still knows nearly all the lines from his beloved Shakespeare plays. David’s real life starts to echo “King Lear”, the play about an old man going mad and giving his kingdom away, as David starts giving away thousands of pounds to a hot sexy “helper”.

How do we deal with and care for our relatives who are living longer than ever? How does Simon help David to have a good death?

"So moving and funny and altogether extraordinary" - Juliet Stevenson (UK actress - Truly, Madly, Deeply)

"An exuberant romp of a film. Unflinching and shot through with humour and affection, it feels ground-breaking and, in the end, strangely uplifting" - Kim Longinotto

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For your calendars - the next Edinburgh Pitch Insights:
- Tuesday 14th March // 1-2pm UK time - Director Mirissa Neff for This Is National Wake
- Tuesday 28th March // 1-2pm UK time - Director Borja Alcalde for La Sagrada Familia

Applications for the Edinburgh Pitch are currently open and you have until Wednesday 29th March 2023 to submit your project/s. Find all the info on how to apply here.

The Edinburgh Pitch is a public forum and Observer passes will be available from May - watch this space!

The Edinburgh Pitch is supported by Screen Scotland