The third edition of EastSeries took place in Odesa on 18. - 19. July. It is a drama series pitching competition organized by the Odesa International Film Festival Film Industry Office Team, powered by ScripTeast - a master training program for the best Eastern European scriptwriters, in partnership with Series Mania, a unique event entirely dedicated to series and supported by Star Media, the biggest international film company in Ukraine.
Six drama series projects from Eastern Europe with international potential were selected for participation:
CARPATHIA Marysia Nіkіtiuk, Maryna Stepanska, Nariman Aliev (Ukraine)
DEAD AND MARRIED by Kristina Jilly (Hungary)
DISSTAF by Nenad Antonovic (Croatia)
HAPPY NATION by Dmytro Hrypun (Ukraine)
SALVIA by Stefan Peca (Romania)
THE GIFT by Olga Chajdas, Marta Konarzewska (Poland)
Following pitching training by the renowned tutor and producer Agathe Berman, the participating writers, directors and producers pitched their projects to a jury and public audience that included broadcasters, distributors and potential co-producers.
The jury consisted of Adrienne Frejacques Commissioning Editor Drama Department, ARTE (France), Mirela Nastase Director ZDF Enterprises (Germany), Francesco Capurro
Head of Series Mania Forum (France), Dariusz Jablonski, President, ScripTeast / Independent Film Foundation (Poland) and Vlad Ryashin, General Producer, Star Media (Ukraine).
After due deliberation, the Jury awarded Olga Chajdas and Marta Konarzewska from Poland for project THE GIFT with the invitation to UGC Writers Campus by Series Mania 2020
The Jury wrote: "We believe in the high potential of this project. It's a character driven story with a strong female lead upon transgenerational trauma which goes beyond the border of Poland and can reach an international audience".
The Star Media Award (post-production service package in the amount of USD 20.000) went to HAPPY NATION by Dmytro Hrypun (Ukraine). Giving the award the Jury commented:
“One of the projects took us to a coming of age journey from childhood friendship to organized crime in post soviet Kyiv in the 90’s. It was efficient, colorful and promising.”
UGC Writers Campus by Series Mania (https://seriesmania.com/en/industry/ugc-writers-campus)
A week-long writing workshop open to 20 European writers. It will take place in Lille in March 20. The 20 selected writers will have the chance to be trained and mentored by experienced A-List writers and to meet the key industry decision-makers during the Series Mania professional Forum. A unique opportunity to develop project and a network!
Star Media (http://www.starmediafilm.com)
Star Media is one of the leaders in the production of television movies in Ukraine and abroad. The company produces about 30 projects annually, being TV series and wide-screen theatrical features. Star Media’s library of rights comprises over 5,000 hours of finished content in various genres produced by the company.
Odesa International Film Festival (http://www.oiff.com.ua)
Support and development of Ukrainian cinematography inside the country and on the international stage, popularization of high-level intellectual films. Main professional platform that gather Ukrainian and foreign filmmakers. Exclusive film premieres, workshops of leading world filmmakers and unique festive atmosphere – all of this is brought together in the 9 days of the Odesa International Film Festival!
ScripTeast (http://www.scripteast.pl)
ScripTeast is a European master training program for the best Eastern European scriptwriters, organized by the Independent Film Foundation of Poland. Since 2006 altogether 149 scripts have been developed within the program and as of today 50 of them are in production or have already been produced and distributed, many to commercial success and critical acclaim.
