Location | Duluth, Minnesota United States |
---|---|
Founded | 2006 |
Founded by | AJ Tesler |
Hosted by | Philip Gilpin, Jr. |
Language | English |
Website | Catalyst Story Institute & Content Festival |
Catalyst Story Institute & Content Festival, formerly the ITVFest (The Independent Television Festival), is an arts organization and an annual festival gathering of fans, artists and executives from around the world to celebrate outstanding independent narrative production.
The festival gives independent television and narrative artists [1] the opportunity to share their work with television professionals and a larger community of independent TV producers.
Catalyst Story Institute & Content Festival is the only independent television festival in the United States. ITVFest is the first festival dedicated to independently produced pilots and webseries, with an emphasis on new media. [2] [3]
Festival support has come from companies and media outlets including Sony, The TV Academy (the Emmys), Fox TV Studios, RDF, Comedy Central, SyFy, FX (TV channel), GSN, HBO, Current TV, The Hollywood Reporter, Tubefilter, Stickam, B-Side and Comcast. [4]
Catalyst Story Institute & Content Festival was founded as The Independent Television Festival in 2006 by producer AJ Tesler, and was originally held in Los Angeles, California. [4]
In 2013, Philip Gilpin, Jr. took over as the festival's Executive Director. [4] [5] ITVFest moved from Los Angeles to Vermont to find a rural setting where industry leaders and creators could escape the big city to build relationships with the goal of creating an industry pipeline for independent television creators to have direct access to industry decision makers. [6] In 2015, on attending ITVFest IndieWire called independent television is "a real, new part of the industry that deserves attention." [7]
In 2017, ITVFest partnered with HBO in a deal that awarded festival winners meetings with top executives. [8] Bob Bakish, CEO of Viacom, keynoted at ITVFest 2017. [9] [10] In 2018, Adaptive Studios bought the rights to Astral, a television drama set to include actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, from a creator met at ITV Festival. [11] Powderkeg's Laura Fischer and Gary Dourdan were among the judges at ITVFest in 2018. [12] After ITVFest 2018, Vermont officials dropped their support for television and film in the state. [13]
In 2019, ITVFest moved to Duluth, Minnesota, attracting thousands of attendees. [14] [15] Also in 2019, ITVFest contracted a multiyear sponsorship with Abrams Artists Agency, marking the first direct connection between a TV festival and an agency, while simultaneously rebranding to Catalyst Story Investitute & Content Festival. [16]
2024 winners
2019 winners
2019 Documentary Official Selection
2018 winners
2016 winners
2015 winners
2013 winners
2012 winners
2010 winners
2009 winners
2008 winners
2007 Winners
2006 Winners
Stephen James Merchant is an English comedian, actor, director, and writer. He was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series The Office (2001–2003), and co-writer, co-director, and co-star of both Extras (2005–2007) and Life's Too Short (2011–2013) alongside Ricky Gervais. With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" Wheatley in the 2011 video game Portal 2. Merchant co-developed the Sky One travel documentary series An Idiot Abroad (2010–2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015–2019).
Aidan Murphy, better known as Aidan Gillen, is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of three Irish Film & Television Awards and has been nominated for a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award, and a Tony Award.
Saul Hersh Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright.
Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. is an American actor. He has starred in various television series, including The Shield (2002–2008), Justified (2010–2015), Vice Principals (2016–2017), The Righteous Gemstones (2019–present), Invincible (2021–present), and Fallout (2024–present). He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Justified, and then later for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Fallout.
The Golden Calf is the award of the Netherlands Film Festival, which is held annually in Utrecht. The award has been presented since 1981, originally in six categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Culture Prize and Honourable mention. In 2004, there were 16 award categories, mainly because in 2003 the categories Best Photography, Best Montage, Best Music, Best Production Design, Best Sound Design were added.
The WGC Screenwriting Awards are administered by the Writers Guild of Canada, and are awarded to the best script for a feature film, television or radio project produced within the Guild's jurisdiction, written by a guild member in good standing, and broadcast or released in North America or screened at a Canadian film festival for the first time in the previous year.
A web series is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single instance of a web series program can be called an episode or a webisode. The scale of a web series is small and a typical episode can be anywhere from three to fifteen minutes in length. Web series are distributed online on video sharing websites and apps, such as YouTube, Vimeo and TikTok, and can be watched on devices such as smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and Smart TVs. They can also be released on social media platforms. Because of the nature of the Internet, a web series may be interactive and immersive. Web series are classified as new media.
Jeremy Leo Kewley is an Australian actor, writer, and producer. He made his professional acting debut as an adolescent in the feature film The Devil's Playground (1976).
Vickie Gest is a documentary and drama producer from Brisbane.
Adam Stein is an American film director and screenwriter working in Los Angeles, California.
Nick Vincent Murphy is an Irish screenwriter and novelist. He is best known for his work on the TV comedy series Moone Boy (2012–15), the Moone Boy novels, the animated series Dorg Van Dango (2020–21), and the feature film Hideaways (2011).
Women's Image Network (WIN) is an organization that creates, applauds and shares stories because powerful and excellent media builds inclusive and tolerant communities. Each year since 1993, to increase the value of women and girls, Women's Image Network has been promoting gender parity by producing The Women's Image Awards, which celebrate outstanding film and television that also dispels media stereotypes. Awards, The Women's Image Awards are produced just before the Hollywood awards season.
Geoffrey Gould is an American actor of theater, film and television.
The National Film Awards UK are presented in an annual award show hosted by the National Film Academy (NFA). As of 2015, it has taken place in Central London at the Porchester Hall. The most recent 9th National Film Awards UK was held on 4 July 2023.
Peter Gwynne Morgan is a Welsh television and film writer/producer. A winner of the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming for his work on Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, he is married to American documentary director Marina Zenovich.
Paul Clifford Hendy is a British script-writer, novelist, director, producer and filmmaker. In his early career, he was a TV presenter hosting the BAFTA nominated Dear Mr Barker (BBC), Don’t Try This at Home (ITV), The Disney Club (ITV), and the final series of Wheel of Fortune (ITV). He was a regular reporter on ITV’s This Morning and hosted Stash the Cash.
Sophie Hyde is an Australian film director, writer, and producer based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is co-founder of Closer Productions and known for her award-winning debut fiction film, 52 Tuesdays (2013) and the comedy drama Animals (2019). She has also made several documentaries, including Life in Movement (2011), a documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and television series, such as The Hunting (2019). Her latest film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2022. Her upcoming film Jimpa stars Olivia Colman and John Lithgow.
Steven McGregor is an Australian filmmaker, known for his work on Redfern Now, Black Comedy, Sweet Country, and numerous documentaries, including My Brother Vinnie.