"Love In Chains"
Despite the recent pandemic-related changes to the program of the event, Film.UA Group is determined to bring some of its hottest properties to MIPCOM. Most notably, a hit period drama "Love In Chains", and "The Sniffer", an internationally acclaimed detective series that aired in many countries worldwide to date.
“We are looking forward to this year’s MIPCOM,", said Evgeniy Drachov, International Sales Manager at Film.UA Distribution. "Our industry is especially important in challenging times like these – we bring joy and respite to millions of viewers worldwide. That’s why it’s both a pride and a pleasure to introduce some of our best projects to the global professional audiences in Cannes.”
"Love In Chains" is a drama about the trials and tribulations of a slave girl, Kateryna raised as a noblewoman and caught in between two worlds. The drama has its highly anticipated season 3 coming out this November, all while season 4 is moving into production. Both of the upcoming seasons are now co-produced with Polish TVP, following its sensational success on Polish TV in 2019, where the series has become the top show with a 4+ audience, breaking into a record 3 million viewers on the first season finale and reaching well over 20% share. Both seasons ended up airing back to back, with an immediate rerun, and left its dedicated fan following to crave for more. After launching all around Eastern Europe, in Spain, Japan, and South Korea, the series is finally coming back with a new season this autumn.
As for "The Sniffer," a show about a detective with an unusually keen sense of smell portrayed by charismatic Kirill Käro, it has recently become the first big Eastern European show on SKY Krimi in Germany. Film.UA distribution’s Evgeniy Drachov and SKY Germany’s Carolin Schoenhaar both have expressed excitement in bringing top-quality Ukrainian drama to the large Germanophone audience. With four seasons out and the fifth season of "The Sniffer" confirmed in development, further news about the project is likely to come out from Cannes.
New animation
Not all is drama for Film UA, the Ukrainian leading company has launched the teaser of "Hrafn Academy", its new animation series for global audiences. The title is developing by Ukrainian animation studio Animagrad in cooperation with Iceland GunHil (the part of SagaFilm) and this year it was successfully presented on Serie Series and Cartoon Forum 2021.
An outstanding Icelandic biochemist, Hrafn Sigurdsson, is terminally ill. As time is running out, his only chance to survive is to discover the cure on his own. The scientist opens an academy for gifted students in Ukraine, of all places. The Academy is a laboratory: Hrafn needs kids with an IQ level to match his own for clinical trials of the experimental treatments he’s developing.
“Now is the golden age of YA animation,” says Kateryna Vyshnevska, Head of Development and Co-productions at Film.UA Group (the mother company of Animagrad Studio), “It’s a global trend that can tell wonderful stories and attract top talent. This train is gathering speed—just look at all the global streamers commissioning YA and adult animation out of the US—and we are confident it will soon arrive in Europe.”
The series engages with the covetable YA audience and stands out from the crowd thanks to its distinct visual style (developed by a young Ukrainian illustrator Myroslava Shevchenko).