Global industry experts including Marc Lorber (ex-Lionsgate), Christian Wikander of Banijay, Emmanuelle Guilbart of About Premium Content, David Davoli of Anonymous Content, Carlo Dusi of Endor Productions and Criminal Minds writer Simon Mirren are joining the advisory board of the newly launched Ukrainian Content Club.
Kateryna Vyshnevska, co-founder and head of development at leading Ukrainian production company Film.UA, unveiled the initiative today (February 3) at Goteborg’s TV Drama Vision conference. The aim is to build international bridges for quality, internationally appealing content from Ukraine, while the war at home makes it difficult to fully finance locally.
The Club currently has a group of late-stage development projects, and the board will select the top three of those projects to move forward from April onwards; the hope is that some of the board or their contacts will also aid in commissioning of those three series.
The other local producers involved are 1+1 Media, Starlight Media and public broadcaster Suspilne. The UCC is being set up as an NGO.
“We have the stories and we have the need and motivation to tell them,” said Vyshnevska.
“Our stories are not just about the war, in fact most of them are not.” Series in development on the slate include a black comedy, an espionage thriller, a true-crime drama and more. “We have a variety of genres for different audiences,” she added.
Separately to the Club, Film.UA – best known internationally for its global hits Hide and Seek and The Sniffer – is set to go into production late next month on Those Who Stayed, an anthology 6 x 30’ series that will shoot in Kyiv. YLE and SVT – the public broadcasters from Finland and Sweden respectively – have now come on board as co-producers.
Each episode is created by a different creative team inspired by true stories of Kyiv residents who stayed after the war started. Vyshnevska added that the episodes would combine comedy and drama “showing humanity and love and hope,” telling stories such as one woman having to live under the same roof as her husband and her ex-husband because of the war, a zookeeper who stayed behind to save the animals, or a drag queen performing in an underground train station. Red Arrow Studios International is handling sales.
No comments yet