‘Royally,’ ‘Giving Up’ Lead Pilot Competition Winners At NYTVF 2017

Over the weekend, as people around the country contemplated their Halloween costumes, a show with a costumed hero scooped up an award. Royally, which follows a party princess who becomes a petty criminal, won the Critics Award at the New York Television Festival (NYTVF), while the marital comedy Giving Up was named “Best of the Fest.”

In total, 10 out of the 52 pilots selected for this year’s NYTVF earned victories across the festival’s award categories. Royally and Giving Up both earned multiple victories, as did the drama project Manic and the comedy Jeff’s Place. In addition, 11 creative groups earned pitch deals, development awards, and grants from the networks and distributors in attendance.

In a press release, the NYTVF said it facilitated 600 networking and pitch meetings at its 2017 event, an increase of 50 over the previous year. A reported 77 companies participated in those meetups.

“A dozen years after our first Festival, I continue to be impressed by the talent that we are attracting from a thriving community of independent creators,” said NYTVF Founder and Executive Director Terence Gray in the release. “These individuals and their diverse points of view are making the art form of television better because they have chosen this episodic medium as the way to tell their stories. And we are proud to be in a position to bring them opportunities to showcase their work and advance their careers, while providing industry decision makers with access to this talent.”

Here, via the release, are details about all of the projects that went home winners after the 2017 NTVF:

2017 WINNERS – INDEPENDENT PILOT COMPETITION

2017 WINNERS – NYTVF SCRIPTS

When a border patrol agent is recruited to work as a spy to help overthrow a country, he doesn’t realize that the country he enters is a parallel America on the verge of collapse.

2017 NYTVF DEVELOPMENT DEALS AND NETWORK AWARD WINNERS 

Jillian Armenante (Los Angeles, CA)

In addition to the above, New York Women in Film and Television awarded a platinum membership to Sarah Salovaara in recognition of her work on “Let Me Die a Nun,” and Just For Laughs ComedyPro awarded the inaugural ComedyPro Award to Moujan Zolfaghari, Timothy Dunn, David Sidorov and Trevor Williams in recognition of their work on “SPLUNCH.” The latter award is a package of complimentary passes to the 2018 ComedyPro Conference in Montreal as part of the annual Just For Laughs Comedy Festival.