±«Óãtv Comedy Short Films are designed to give up and coming talent an opportunity to bring their comedy ideas to life. They’re a way for writers, directors and producers to develop and showcase exciting new worlds and memorable comedy characters.
We had a successful first year with Mobility winning the BAFTA for best short-form and Funboys being commissioned to series for ±«Óãtv Three. This year we are focusing our Short Film strand so that it serves more as a nursery slope for potential TV series. We want shorts to continue to be a space for talent to experiment and be part of the development journey, just as we do with scripts, tasters, and pilots, but without the pressure of having every aspect of a possible future series fully mapped out.
Shorts should be a place for you to test out dialogue, tone, character dynamics and chemistry with the aim of developing further for television. As with our inaugural year, we want our shorts to continue being a home for the best and most exciting comedy talent from around the UK.
We’re currently prioritising ideas that align close to our genre brief, so we’re keen to hear comedy-first ideas that feature high gag rates and strong comic characters.
Short Films should be around 10 minutes and are set at a £100k tariff. You can watch the current Short Films on ±«Óãtv iPlayer and we will be releasing new shorts throughout the year, so keep an eye out!
How to pitch
This opportunity is open to UK-based production companies only, and we do not accept ideas from individuals. This is a rolling brief with no deadline, so we will accept ideas from production companies at any time.
Send us a treatment and be sure to include a script extract or sample writing from the attached writer.
You can submit your proposal using the submission system PiCoS. Please direct your pitches to your assigned commissioner with ‘Short Film’ included in your proposal title. If you don’t have an assigned commissioner, please direct your pitches to the Head of Development.