Denise Deegan’s script The Innkeeper has been named among the winners of the Pitch Film Fund 2022 Award. The winners of the fund which has been running since 2009 will be handed £40,000 ($55,000) to spend on developing their short films.

The Innkeeper, which retells the story of the Nativity through the eyes of a seven-year old girl, won the Comedy Award. A young girl is struggling to make her mark against her arrogant peers. When Holly is cast as the Innkeeper in her school’s Nativity play, she finds it hard to refuse Mary and Joseph room at the inn and chaos ensues. After the play, Holly and her mum go home to their hostel where we discover that they are actually homeless, and her compassion for Mary and Joseph’s plight takes on a deeper meaning.

The panel of industry judges included Jon Wardle, head of NFTS, who returns for a third year; BAFTA winner Gbemisola Ikumelo, Producer Martin Gentles; Amy O’Hara of FilmFour, and screenwriter Charlotte Bogard Macleod.

“Denise had the perfect combination of a great story, funny and emotional, very succinct and beautifully told. We were looking for a strong vision to portray the emotion of the story. It made us laugh, it had heart and it had a message.” 

Amy O’Hara, FilmFour

Image: Conor Horgan