The romantic comedyTokyo Crush has won the best project award at Series Mania Forum’s annual Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.
The France-Japan coproductionwas selected from 15 projects for the €50,000 prize, one of the most prestigious awards at the Forum, the industry section of the Series Mania festival taking place this week in Lille, France.
Tokyo Crush is produced by Jonas Ben Haiem and Jean-Félix Dealberto for France’s Salle Commune, which launched in 2022 with backing from Charades, and Hiroko Oda for Japan’s Flag Inc. It is written by Clémence Dargent.
The series centres on Mona, a bold Parisian chef, who is hired to reinvent a struggling Tokyo izakaya - if only Toshiro, the talented and annoyingly handsome grandson of the founder, would let her.
The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions jury was presided over by M-K Kennedy, executive managing director of TV series at Studiocanal.
The jury also included André Béraud, head of scripted, programmes and feature films at ICI Radio-Canada Télé; Henriette Marienlund, head of drama at Denmark’s DR Drama; José Pastor, head of drama and fiction at Spain’s RTVE and Frank Seyberth, head of coproduction, international fiction at Germany’s ZDF.
“After a good amount of debate, we chose Tokyo Crush because we loved the potential we saw for the story in and out of the kitchen,” said Kennedy. “It felt fresh like a series with multiple points of entry for audiences. Featuring an ensemble of characters and conflicts that are ripe for great comedy: clash of cultures, tradition versus modernity, competition and will-they/won’t-they romance. All of which made it singular.”
“In the difficulties of today’s world, I’m delighted to see that a romance comedy took the top prize. This is just what the audience needs during this time,” added Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania.
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