Inaugural edition of Viu Pitching Forum in Malaysia opens submissions

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Inaugural edition of Viu Pitching Forum in Malaysia opens submissions

Writer: Florey DM

This is the first time that Viu Pitching Forum is held in Malaysia.

18 Sep – Calling all writers who are interested in seeing their stories brought to life as a Viu Original production, your chance is here!

Viu has recently launched the inaugural edition of Viu Pitching Forum in Malaysia, which currently welcomes writers aged 18 and above to submit their ideas to vpf.malaysia@vuclip.com. Submission is open now until 30 October 2020, 5pm.

The submitted stories must be tailormade to appeal to Gen Z and Millennial audiences in Malaysia, featuring concepts that are distinctively bold, unique and differentiated.

Other things to take note of:
• Industry first-timers and up-and-coming TV writers are all welcome to apply.
• Participants must enrol in the competition as individuals; writing teams are not permitted.
• Materials must be submitted in either English or Bahasa Malaysia.
• Participants must include a brief bio in their application and may submit up to 5 concepts each.
• Pitched concepts must be submitted in the form of a one-pager that includes a logline, a one-paragraph series overview and character descriptions.
• All submissions must be original works of the participant and all rights must be wholly owned by the participant.
• Adaptations are ineligible unless the associated rights are owned by the participant or the underlying material is in the public domain.
• Applications will be accepted via electronic submission only.

One winning writer will get his or her story adapted into a 10-episode series, with each episode having a runtime of 30 minutes of 45 minutes. It will be aired in 2021 across Viu's 16 markets globally.

Apart from that, three finalists will receive mentorship to develop their concept further and refine their pilot scripts. They will get the chance to interact with and learn from the mentors for the programme, which include showrunners Kye Sayed Fariz, Razaisyam Rashid and TJ Lee, head writers Alfie Palermo, Bernice Low and Chi-Ren Choong, actor/directors Douglas Lim and Nam Ron, and many more.

Viu Pitching Forum was first launched in Indonesia in 2016. Meanwhile, since Viu Originals debuted in Malaysia in 2018, nine Viu Original productions have been released, which garnered six regional awards at the 2019 Asian Academy Creative Awards. Viu also picked up an award for "Pretty Little Liars" in the recent ContentAsia Awards.

(Photo source: Matamata.com)

Cinema Online, 18 September 2020