A story about an outcast, dorky 12-year-old girl won over judges at the 2008 Telefilm Canada Pitch This! competition, which on Tuesday handed Toronto filmmaker Pat Mills a $10,000 cheque and bragging rights for his Don’t Talk to Irene.

Mills beat out five other pitches, including filmmaker Jeff Barnaby (The Colony), who got an honorable mention for his zombie flick Blood Quantum, which he pitched alongside producer John Christou (Up the Yangtze).

The project has already been filmed as a short, and is in post-production. Mills plans to use the $10,000 to write and shoot a similar feature.

‘I’m really thrilled,’ Mills told Playback Daily after the presentation.

The filmmaker — whose mobile short Pat’s First Kiss also screened at TIFF this year — joked that the idea for Irene was drawn from his own ‘troubling’ experiences in grade seven when he was forced to wear girls’ pants from Cotton Ginny.

‘Imagine the biggest dork you can… that is Irene,’ he told a packed room, referring to the friendless tween character who perpetually wears a pink helmet and befriends a senior citizen named Gordon.

Mills asserts that the story appeals to kids, while its dark comedic side would draw adults. ‘Imagine My Girl but better,’ he said to laughs from the audience.

Other presenters were the team of Michael Mosca, Franca Visconti, Lori Elberg and Tanya Bershadsky with their fairytale comedy The Cinderellis; the teen vampire movie Forever 15 from Halifax’s Eva Madden; Lanan Adcock and Daniel Perlmutter’s romantic comedy Friends of the Museum; and the family comedy Horn from Shernold Edwards.

Participants had six minutes to pitch their feature film idea to industry professionals at the ninth annual event, hosted by actor Ennis Esmer (Young People Fucking). Previous Pitch This! winners include Richie Mehta, whose drama Amal is currently in theaters.

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This story has been corrected. The feature version of Don’t Talk to Irene will be separate from the short, not an expansion as originally reported.