Fifteen international series projects have been presented at the Drama Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum of MIA 2022, with producers from Italy, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Israel and Ireland.
The projects were selected by the Drama Selection Committee, an experts panel consisting of Erik Barmack, CEO and Founder of the US company Wild Sheep Content; David Davoli, President International of the US company Anonymous Content; and Robert Franke, Vice President Drama of the German pubcaster ZDF Studios; Emmanuelle Guilbart, CEO of French distributor About Premium Content; Françoise Guyonnet, Executive Managing Director TV Series at StudioCanal; Meghan Lyvers, Director Original Drama at Sky Studios UK; Marc Lorber, Senior Vice President International Coproductions at Lionsgate UK; and Kateryna Vyshnevska, Producer, Head of Development at Ukrainian Film. UA Group.
The selected projects competed for the third consecutive year for the prestigious Paramount+ Award, assigned by a global jury of Paramount Executives to the best project submitted to the Drama Pitching Forum 2022.
The Paramount+ prize, awarded by Jaime Ondarza, EVP and General Manager South and MENA Hub of Paramount+, was given to THE ABBESS, a TV series produced by Peter Carlton, Warp Films. The hilarious show, inspired by the novel The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark, explores the Machiavellian dynamics of an abbey of cloistered nuns vying for convent power.
The Official Drama Selection 2022 also included: the courtroom drama #IBelieveHer, produced by Pembridge Pictures and created by Mary McGuckian, inspired by the Belfast Rugby Rape Trial, which sheds light on the difficulties imposed by society on rape victims. The sci-fi ADD, produced by Submarine, is about a group of boys forced to escape the high-tech bubble in which they have lived for most of their lives. France’s Alpha, created by Matthieu Bernard & Louis Aubert and produced by Les Films du Cygne, tells of a group of young European activists who, in order to push the top brass of European politics to rectify their environmental impact, take their children hostage. We move to the United Kingdom Carlisle House, the series from British company RubyRock Pitcures conceived by Jessica Norman & Rebecca Crookshank and produced by Zoe Rocha. Based on the novel The Empress of Pleasure, the series chronicles the rise and fall of Teresa Cornelys, founder of Soho’s first nightclub and former lover of Casanova. The UK is also involved in the UK/Canada co-production of The Last Wish of Sasha Cade, produced by Dominion of Drama, based on Cheyenne Young’s novel of the same name. After Sasha’s death from cancer, her best friend Rachel begins receiving letters from the deceased, which will lead her to meet a new friend. The Sudden Appearance of Hope, another UK project, is a series produced by Three Tables Productions and created by Veronica Gleeson, which follows the story of Hope, a jewel thief who is able to erase her own memory from the memories of people she meets.
Among the Italian projects, on the other hand, we find Rodeo Drive’s Cosplay Girl, created by Massimo Bacchini, Eleonora Cimpanelli and Giulio Rizzo. The series is based on Valentino Notari’s homonymous novel and tells the story of teenager Alice who finds refuge from her own teenage dramas in cosplay. The second Italian project is Fandango’s Infinite Crime, a series created by Cristiano Barbarossa and Fulvio Benelli and based on the novel of the same name, which tells the true story of a professional soccer player turned ‘ndrangheta ringleader. The third Italian project is the Veneto noir The Ballad of Mila, signed by Minerva Pictures and conceived by Massimo Vavassori: after witnessing her father’s murder, Mila dedicates her life to studying martial arts to execute the perfect revenge. The last Italian project is The Hive by Fabula Pictures, created by Roberto Cinardi and Francesco Calabrese: Ava, a young orphan, is part of a matriarchal sect that possesses a dark hidden side. Also presented will be an Italian-French Co-production (Media Musketeers, ILBE) for Crimson Crown, the first serial project produced by Dario Argento: four now estranged friends come to terms with their dark past. Turning instead to Israel with two projects: Kav Hatefer, by Eran Riklis Productions, follows a Jerusalem detective who is drawn into a complicated relationship with an ultra-Orthodox woman; and Mirit & Gingy, by Nawipro Productions, created by Karen Hochma. After entering into a surrogacy agreement in Georgia, a couple finds themselves having to deal with the surrogate mother’s hostage-taking of their future child. Finally, the Franco/Finnish project Lumia, created by Fire Monkey‘s Anastasia Heinzl and Mikko Pöllä: Lumia, a Parisian teenager, is invited to spend Christmas in her mother’s Finnish village, where anomalous light phenomena occur.
