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Film Market Debuts New Pitch Platform for Emerging Filmmakers

Tasveer Film Market Unveils First-Ever Pitch Platform Dedicated to Emerging South-Asian Filmmakers

The Tasveer Film Market (TFM) today announced the debut of its Emergent Voices Pitch Platform, a hybrid system that pairs an online submission portal with curated one-on-one meetings at the 2025 edition, October 8–9. The initiative is the first market segment worldwide to reserve pitch slots exclusively for filmmakers without prior produced features, giving them direct access to distributors, streaming acquisition executives, and impact investors searching for South-Asian stories.

“Gatekeeping data show that only 11% of Sundance 2025 dramatic competition directors identified as South-Asian, and less than half of that cohort were first-time filmmakers,” said Tasveer CEO Rita Meher. “We built Emergent Voices to collapse that gap—our beta tests indicate projects that enter TFM’s pipeline are 3.5-times more likely to secure either a development deal or festival invitation within nine months.”

According to a 2024 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, South-Asian talent remains under-represented at 2.3% of theatrical leads despite the diaspora comprising 5.4% of the U.S. population. The same study calculated every 1-percentage-point rise in above-the-line diversity correlates with an average $2.4 million increase in global box-office returns, underscoring the commercial upside of inclusive slates.

The platform launch comes as global film markets rebound: the American Film Market projects more than $1 billion in deal-making during its November 2025 session, while the European documentary forum Sunny Side of the Doc logged a record €57 million in signed contracts at its June event. Against that backdrop, TFM’s new tool positions Seattle as a strategic bridge between South-Asian content creators and North-American buyers hungry for fresh intellectual property.

How it works
• Applicants upload a three-minute video pitch, top-sheet budget, and mood deck via FilmFreeway; there is no requirement for a finished script.
• An industry jury pre-screens entries; up to 24 projects advance to closed-door Zoom rehearsals led by mentors from Netflix India, Viacom18, and ARRAY.
• Finalists receive guaranteed 15-minute slots at TFM with companies including Sony Pictures Classics, Hulu Documentary Films, and Participant.
• A $10,000 cash award, underwritten by Amazon MGM Studios, will be presented to one team for proof-of-concept production.

“We green-lit two shorts discovered at last year’s Tasveer work-in-progress session; both premiered at SXSW 2025 and are now being developed into limited series,” said Kelly Fulton, VP Development at North of Now Entertainment. “The market has become a reliable discovery zone for us.”

Early-bird submissions for Emergent Voices close December 15, 2025, with a reduced fee of $30. Regular pricing escalates to $40 before the final deadline January 31, 2026.

About Tasveer Film Market

Launched in 2022, Tasveer Film Market is the first international marketplace dedicated to South-Asian cinema held outside the sub-continent. The annual event runs parallel to the Tasveer Film Festival, which screened 67 films from 14 countries in 2024 and reported an audience of 12,500. TFM’s mission is to amplify under-represented voices, broker financing, and expand distribution pipelines for stories originating from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and their diasporas.