The 14th Baltic Pitching Forum (BPF), which took place from 6 to 9 October in Vilnius, Lithuania, celebrated the talents of emerging filmmakers from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as this year's guest country, Italy. During the event, twelve short film projects were showcased to international industry professionals. Participants also engaged in seminars, lectures, discussions, and training sessions. The awards ceremony, held at the Italian Embassy in Vilnius on 8 October, highlighted the achievements of the selected projects. Two films stood out as the most decorated of the event: the Lithuanian mixed-media animation Walks. I Love, Therefore I Am, directed by Gintarė Valevičiūtė-Brazauskienė and produced by Justė Beniušytė, and the Latvian fiction short Seeing John Malkovich, directed by Ildze Felsberga and produced by Zane Gulbe. Each received three awards. The Lithuanian animated project Meat Jelly, directed by Emilė Maigytė and produced by Marija Lenkutytė-Bartoševič and Agnė Adomėnė, was invited to the 2027 European Short Film Co-Production Forum Euro Connection, which is part of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. The project was praised for its unique visual style, humor, and themes of self-acceptance and breaking free from societal norms. For the first time, two projects were selected to take part in the 2027 ShorTO Film Market. Walks. I Love, Therefore I Am received the You Only Pitch Twice Award, with the panel commending its extensive archival research, layered storytelling, and reflections on resistance, memory, and the past. The Estonian hand-painted animation Blue Tower, directed by Mari Koff and staged by Sergo Kibus and Kadriann Kibus, earned an invitation to ShorTO's Think Outside the Keyframe session. The panel acknowledged the project's creative potential and expressed a willingness to support the team during early development. Walks. I Love, Therefore I Am also received the Producers' Jury MEDIA Award, initiated by the Creative Europe MEDIA Desks in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Italy, which included a €1,000 cash prize. The jury praised the film's hybrid format, its grounding in a real story, and its ability to translate research into a complex cinematic narrative. The film completed its three awards by winning the Up Records Sound Post-Production Award, which offers services worth €2,000. Sound post-production supervisor Saulius Urbanavičius highlighted the film's treatment of memory, hope, and the delicate boundary between remembering and forgetting. The Producers' Jury also gave a Special Mention to the Italian short film Creature!, directed by Irene Dionisio and produced by Emanuele Segre, Alessandro Bernard, and Valentina Velardi. The jury appreciated the project's artistic approach and visual qualities, especially its exploration of empathy, difference, death, and the discovery of life from a child's perspective. The Latvian fiction project Seeing John Malkovich, a surreal comedy imagining the disruption caused by the arrival of a Hollywood star in a small Eastern European capital, received the Riga IFF Award, which grants access to the SHORT RIGA Test Screenings in 2027 or 2028. SHORT RIGA manager Lauma Kaudzīte praised Felsberga's unique artistic voice and the project's playful blending of reality and fiction. Seeing John Malkovich was also the first recipient of the Baltic Talent Digital Strategy Award, introduced this year by Baltic Talents Agency. The award includes a consultancy session to strengthen the project's digital presence, including developing an electronic press kit, a social media strategy, and market positioning. Agency founders Simona Inta and Viktorija Cook noted that the film resonated with their thoughts on the tendency to elevate international celebrities while overlooking homegrown talent. Completing its three-award haul, Seeing John Malkovich also received the Baltic Film Student Choice Award, presented by students from Lithuania's National Film School KIMO, the Latvian Academy of Culture, and Estonia's Baltic Film and Media School. The students praised the project's fresh genre approach, the enthusiasm of its creative team, and its humorous reflections on being from a small country.