A winner was announced yesterday at the pitch forum of the international series concept competition Hypewriter. The decision of the international jury, consisting of Virág Zomborácz, creative producer at RTL Hungary, Péter Kolosi, Chief Content Officer at RTL Hungary, Kristoffer Rus, producer at Paprika Studios Poland, and Bence Trunkó, creative director of Paprika Studios was that Anastasia Hoppanova's drama series project titled “Earthling” turned out to be the best among a high quality slate of 8 finalists and won the grand prize of 10,000 euros and the opportunity to further develop the project in collaboration with Paprika Studios and RTL Hungary.
In “Earthling,” when a quirky woman claiming to be an alien appears in a picturesque small town, only a conspiracy theorist and single father of three believes her. As the rumors spread and the government closes in on her, she must find her way in the chaotic world of humans, build a new family life and secretly repair her spaceship, leaving everyone in the dark as to whether she is truly extraterrestrial or just quirky and a little crazy.
“Although there was some uncertainty in the national and international markets for fictional series at the beginning of this year, we at Paprika Studios were never discouraged by the unfavourable developments. Regardless of the current mood, we remained firmly convinced that good stories will ultimately always overcome economic fears and negative market trends. In the middle of the year, interest in fictional series content came to the fore again and it became clear that the power of human stories is undiminished. It was a refreshing experience to see such strong stories from the Hypewriter finalists again this year. The competition was tough, and the entries presented the judges with a difficult decision. Congratulations to the winners; Anastasia Hoppanova's concept rightly won the grand prize,” said Ákos Erdős, CEO of Paprika Studios.
In the sixth edition of the Hypewriter competition, almost 250 writers/creators from 40 countries on 6 continents submitted their entries. The participants went through a rigorous two-stage selection process. In the first stage, fifteen works were selected to take part in an online workshop and a semi-final. Of these, eight creators (or pairs of creators) presented their ideas to the jury and the audience in Budapest on October 8.
“Series are an incredibly important genre that offers countless possibilities; it’s no coincidence that even the most serious filmmakers have turned to this genre in recent years. We specifically looked for ideas that we could imagine both on linear television and in streaming and that would work well in both formats. Another important aspect for us was that the idea had to be original, and we found that in the winner,” stated Péter Kolosi, Chief Content Officer at RTL Hungary.