Bell Media’s BravoFACT and Women in Film & Television (WIFT-T) have announced a partnership on a new pitch competition as part of BravoFACT’s Year of The Female Filmmaker initiative.

The new competition will launch on Oct. 1, where short-film teams (which must include a female producer or director) can submit their entries. Six teams will then be selected to partake in a pitch coaching session from an industry professional, as well as receiving tickets to the 2016 WIFT-T Showcase and getting the chance to present their projects to a jury of industry insiders and BravoFACT professionals.

The six chosen teams will then present their pitches to an audience of WIFT-T members and industry personnel, with the winning team taking home $40,000 and the second place team $30,000. In addition, the winning team will receive two WIFT-T programming passes (worth $500) that can be put toward future participation in any of WIFT-T’s paid programs. The runner-up team will be recognized onstage at the WIFT-T Showcase in March, 2016.

In the past three months, BravoFACT has awarded more than $1.1 million in funding, with 50% of that total mandated to projects with female leadership. In early September the Bell Media-directed fund awarded $570K across 13 short film projects, while in June the fund awarded $563K across 12.

The submissions deadline for the BravoFACT WIFT-T pitch contest is Jan. 8, 2016.