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The final workshop of MIDPOINT TV Launch has concluded with the Partners´ Awards Ceremony at the industry platform CineLink Drama within Sarajevo Film Festival.
During the ceremony, which took place on Thursday, August 22, 2019, two MIDPOINT TV Launch projects were awarded.
The HBO Europe Award, a financial award of 5.000 USD granted by HBO Czech Republic, was handed out by the VP Executive Producer of Drama Development Steve Matthews, who at the same time participated in the role of a development executive tutor of TV Launch. The awarded project of this year´s edition is WILLOWS, a story about immortal beings who look just like regular people but spend their days indulging in mind numbing decadence (writer: Milada Tesitelova, director: Jan Tesitel, producer: Julie Zackova).
Synopsis of the project:
Young Anezka loses her beloved groom on the day of their wedding. He returns from the dead to her surprise, though he is soon whisked away by a secret society of immortal beings called the Willows. Anezka is determined to free him from their grasp, no matter what!
Steve Matthews commented upon the decision in following words:
“The decision gets harder every year and was particularly challenging this time around; the quality of the projects continues to improve every time as MIDPOINT itself goes from strength to strength finding and supporting talent in these dynamic times.
This year’s winner stood out for its breadth of imagination, distinctive quirky and poetical style, and colourful memorable characters displayed through an obviously personal lens; for its heart and its attractive and intriguing supernatural backdrop; and for its powerful atmospheric sense of place. We often hear in pitches that “the city is a character” and it’s rarely true. But here, there shines through a real sense of the team’s obvious love for their home city of Prague.”
The Marseille Web Fest Award, granting one person from the creative team of the winning web series project a participation at the Marseille Web Fest Writing Residence (October 14 - 19, 2019), went to the project PLAYGIRL, written by Michaela Pnacekova and Marijana Verhoef.
Synopsis of the project:
Lost in the fast-paced city of Berlin, where intimacy has the lifespan of a mayfly, two young women, one a tomboy-gamer and the other a romantic sociopath, develop an unusual quasi-mother-daughter relationship full of drugs, sex, and video games.
On behalf of MWF and its Artistic Creator Jean-Michel Albert, the award was handed out by Michaela Sabo, who acts as TV Launch´s pitching tutor and web series consultant.
After the decision has been made, she stated: “The short form series award goes to a project with a very unique voice. This project is also very well conceived for the digital market and was delivered through a strong pitch but also already has a very solid script.”
The 2019 edition of TV Launch program introduced six projects of TV series, three projects of web series and two development executive participants, altogether 22 participants from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Italy, UK, USA/Switzerland, France and Cyprus.
The projects went through a 9-month long training consisting of three residential workshops and individual online consultations. Workshop 1 was held in November 2018 in the Slovak Republic and was focused mainly on defining the series concept and outlining the pilot scripts, whereas Workshop 2, taking place in spring 2019 within Finale Plzen FF in the Czech Republic, was dedicated to completing the pilots, creating season outlines and financing strategy.
The third and final workshop was aimed at marketing strategies and pitching training. The climax of the program, the public project showcase entitled the Season Finale, was held on August 20 in Sarajevo, offering the participants new networking opportunities.
About
MIDPOINT is a training and networking platform for film and TV development operating under the auspices of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. One of its programs is MIDPOINT TV Launch, an "idea-to-market" project development program, is the only existing residential, project-based program targeting and tailoring its content for emerging television professionals – both creative teams and development executives - coming from the Central and Eastern European region and the only project-based program of this kind accepting mini-, digital / web series, as well as ongoing series projects.
The 2020 call for applications will be open in October, with the deadline of January 31, 2020.
You can find more information here.
MIDPOINT TV Launch is realized with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Czech Film Fund, the International Visegrad Fund and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund. It is presented in cooperation with the Finale Plzen Film Festival, the Sarajevo Film Festival – CineLink Industry Days, HBO Europe, Serial Eyes, Marseille Web Fest, C21 Media, Series Mania, CANNESERIES Institute, MIA TV Market, Art Department Masterclass, CHARACTER – Film Development Association and the Audiovisual Producers' Association. MIDPOINT operates under the auspices of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
