See some incredible pilots, some incredible industry panels.

Three is the premier place to be.

It's really important in every industry to have community.

This is where it begins, here at Series Fest.

I think Hollywood is changing, but not fast enough.

We need the gatekeepers to open the door and series fest.

They're blasting the doors open.

It's all eyes focused on the Mile High city this weekend.

An ambitious and exciting new festival called Series Fest, an international television pilot festival uniting artists, television executives and producers to find the next big hits (music) Finally, there's an independent avenue for people who want to just go into the TV business.

(music) (music) (music) I'm Gemma chan.

It's such a great idea to have a festival dedicated to TV like this.

(music) First, we're going to kick it off with our third annual pitch a thon.

I love that you have pitch sessions here, because that is the one thing they don't teach you in film school.

They don't teach you in college.

And it turns out to be probably the most important function of creating a show and getting it on the air.

One of the reasons why we're here is to remind the filmmakers that are here, and they have an impact, and they make a difference.

I'm going to learn probably more than anybody else.

It's great to be here at Series Fest.

Series.

Fest.

What up?

Thank you so much.

It says Steve Carell on it, but it's we can build a marketplace here, a place like series fest the way that Sundance did in the early 90s with independent film.

I'm excited to be here as an artist, performing tonight at the kick off the series fest.

(music) And this is the best audience to come out to in the entire world.

Oh, we've really expanded our year round programing, and we're no longer just a six day festival in Denver.

We're really a full year round organization, which is really exciting for us.

Two women founders supporting women has always been at the forefront of our mission, and we started a featuring women platform, which we house all of our women initiatives under.

Last year, we announced our women's Directing mentorship, where we opened submissions to female directors.

The prize is to shadow an episode to study under one of our directors, but the goal is to mentor.

I cannot recommend this mentorship enough.

The whole thing was just really amazing.

Not only did I have the honor of winning the mentorship, I got the opportunity to direct my first episode of television.

I have since directed multiple episodes of station 18 and have gone on to direct TV shows such as The Equalizer and Quantum Leap.

We are going to award the director's mentorship to Shelby Bible Study Series.

Fest is an important relationship with Shonda Land, because they're really on the ground and bringing voices that are new and fresh and uplifting people who might not have had the opportunities.

I'm really, really grateful to series fest and for this opportunity.

So yeah, I'm I'm freaking pumped.

What's really exciting to me is to uplift women creators, and especially women creators that are over the age of 45.

We've started a scholarship here in my mom's name, so that they can go back to school and get their masters in screenwriting for TV and film.

It was really fun and I learned a lot, and now I can even, like watch a movie without like thinking, oh, did they do this?

Or do they not do that?

The big thing that I've learned is just the whole actual, more professional way of producing these kind of things and making it just really give me another perspective into just how it's done.

I have to say that I really enjoyed that it was very inclusive and that everyone got a shot at what they wanted to do, and regardless of ideas, we all put it together and decided on one that we all could agree on.

And I feel like everyone had their voice heard, which is common in a lot of different aspects like we come to Denver and make genuine connections, new partners, new agents, new managers, excellent representation, and people you can work with the rest of your career.

You all you filmmakers out there, if you have a series that you want to get exposure series, fest is the place to do it.

It'll be bigger than the NFL in 3 years.

Everything good that has ever happened in my entire career has somehow, in one way, shape or another, come from series fest.

You can make it.

But then what?

That's what's great about series fast is there's a place, a platform, and people see it.

And the fact that there's this, there's Series Fest, which allows you to put it in front of an audience and gives you a platform to put it out there.

Like that's the most impactful thing as artists that we can ever hope for.

Thank you series fest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you series fest!