International jury members T
Laurence Herszberg, Founder and General Director of Series Mania (March 17-24) revealed the 15 projects of 16 selected as part of the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions (March 21). The 16th project, to be announced February 21, will also be presented out of competition in partnership with the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Having received 450 projects from 66 different countries, the goal of the Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions is to help these high-end European and International drama projects find potential financial partners. An international jury of industry professionals will determine the best project among the 15 projects and prize the Best Project Award €50,000 to help develop the winning series.
“We could not be prouder of the fact that this year we received a record number of submissions with increasing interest from African countries including Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria” commented Herszberg. “Genres that dominated the selection process this year included thrillers and detective stories followed closely by historical dramas with a strong appeal to the 90s. We also received many women themed stories based on real life events. We greatly look forward to unveiling the winner of the Best Project Award with €50,000 on March 21 in Lille.”
The 2023 international jury of industry professionals includes: Jury President Caroline Hollick (United Kingdom), Head of Drama, Channel 4; Michele Zatta (Italy), Commissioning Editor, RAI Françoise Guyonnet (France), Executive Managing Director TV Series, StudioCanal; Jarmo Lampela (Finland), Head of Drama, YLE - Finnish Broadcasting Company and Lindsey Martin (United Kingdom), VP, Development & Co-Productions, CBS Studios International.
SELECTED PROJECTS
The biopic "Asma" (8x52’) written by Antoine Vitkine and produced by Patricia Boutinard Rouelle for Nilaya Productions (France); the crime drama "Cooper" (8x45’) written by James McNamara, Amy Jephta and Malla Nunn, based on Malla Nunn Books and produced by Kylie du Fresne for Goalpost Pictures and Nimrod Geva for Quizzical Pictures (Australia, South Africa); the psychological thriller "Dust and Coal" (8x52’) written by Ronen Ben Tal, Ron Ninio, Ofer Seker and Eleanor Sela and produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and Morgane Le Moine for First Love (Israël, France); the thriller "Executioners" (6x60’) written by Pedro Garcia Rios and Rodrigo Martin and produced by Alberto Rull for Vertice 360 (Spain); the action crime "Fort Apache" (8x50’) written by Ivano Fachin, Giovanni Galassi and Tommaso Matano and produced by Fabrizio Donvito, Marco Cohen, Benedetto Habib, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli for Indiana Production Company (Italy).
Other selected projects are the geopolitical hostage thriller"Hijacking Paradise" (6x52’) created by Stijn Deconinck and produced by Dimitri Verbeeck for Caviar (Belgium); the drama "Yop" (8x45’) written by David Jassy and produced by Moa Westeson, Cindy Hanson and Anni Faurbye Fernandez for Nevis Productions (Sweden); the LGBTQIA+ drama "Letters to Leonard" (5x50’) written by Fotis Dousos and John Samaras on an idea of Pierros Andrakakos and produced by George Linardakis for Stefi Productions (Greece); the high-tech thriller "Monitor" (6x60’) created by Nikolai Müllerschön and produced by Fabian Massah & Marc Malze for Endorphine Production (Germany) and the comedy "Our Father" (8x55’) written by John Cairns and Michael McCartney and produced by Aaron Farrell for ShinAwiL and Dominic Scheiber for Reel One Entertainment (Ireland, Canada).
The last projects are: The historical "The Bronte Girls"(6x60’) written by Caroline Kelly Franklin and developed by Parsonage Productions Ltd. with ZDF Studios (United Kingdom); the thriller "The Salvatore Mundi Case" (6x52’) written by Angela Soupe and Antoine Vitkine and produced by Florent Gellie for Incognita and Nathanaël La Combe for Wonder Films (France); serialized Crime drama "The Unquiet Dead" (6x60’) written by Abdul Malik, based on the book series created by Ausma Zehanat Khan and produced by Shaftesbury (Canada); the war thriller "Unspoken" (6x30’) written by Zhanna Ozirna and Filip Syczyński and Produced by Anna Rozalska, Dmytro Sukhanov and Natalia Liber for Match&Spark (Poland), Toy Cinema (Ukraine) and 2Brave Productions (Ukraine) and the historical crime "Vanished" (6x45’) written by Mikael Torfason and produced by Britta Hansen and Franziska Lindner for Red Pony Pictures and Ragnheidur Erlingsdottir for Zik Zak Filmworks (Germany, Iceland).
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