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Indigenous storytellers soar in Canada

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6 x 60’ Drama Series Based on the best-selling classic novel by Emile Zola

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22/09/2021 10:49

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Indigenous drama in Canada

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

First peoples ﬁrst in line

1970s. But the last year-and-a-half has been absolutely incredible,” says Minifie. While there has always been interest in Indigenous stories, Minifie says the crucial difference today compared with other promising moments in history is how unacceptable it is becoming for anyone other than an Indigenous person to tell their stories. “I’ve seen our subject matter being needed and wanted but still being directed by white men mostly. The change has been within the last year-and-a-half during Covid-19,” says Minifie, whose credits include scripted and documentary projects such as Indian Horse, The Grizzlies, Monkey Beach, America Divided and BC: A History. Narrative, or storytelling, sovereignty should be a key In Indigenous storytellers in Canada are targeting the requirement of any Indigenous-led production in 2021 m mainstream as the industry continues its overdue push for and beyond, but it remains hard fought for. And while the g greater diversity, equity and inclusion. surge in interest in their stories is no doubt welcomed by many Indigenous creatives, it’s crucial that they are By Nico Franks handled with cultural sensitivity. “Most Indigenous books that are on the market now and he global reckoning around on- and off-screen that are doing well have been optioned by non-Indigenous media representation may have burst into life over companies. That’s the standard right now in Canada,” says the past 18 months, propelled by the Black Lives Minifie, who won the rights to option Joshua Whitehead’s Matter movement. But countless determined individuals award-winning ‘Indigiqueer’ novel Jonny Appleseed for and groups have been pushing for the kind of change we the screen. A four-part miniseries is in the works, a coming-of-age are now seeing throughout their careers, with Indigenous story of a ‘Two-Spirited’ and Indigenous queer youth who peoples at the forefront. This is clear to see in the form of broadcasters such as transitions from life on a reservation to the bustling city. Two-Spirit refers to a person who the Aboriginal Peoples Television identifies as having both a masculine Network (APTN) in Canada, which Making the industry and a feminine spirit and is used by was established in 1992 to deliver authentic programming for and more equitable and some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual about Indigenous audiences to all representative of the Canadians, as well as viewers around diversity that’s in Canada identity. Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/ nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer the world. member of Peguis First Nation This October sees the latest edition has been happening (Treaty 1). of the ImagineNATIVE Film & Media since the 1970s. But the Minifie says the response to the Arts Festival, founded in 1998 and last year-and-a-half announcement that Stories First now the world’s largest presenter has been had optioned the book was both of Indigenous screen content from absolutely “overwhelming and pleasantly Canada and around the world, taking incredible. surprising” and she is in talks with place Toronto. potential investors. The Canadian Constitution Leena Minifie Keen for the show to emulate recent recognises three groups of Aboriginal Stories First international hits out of the UK such peoples: First Nations, Inuit and Métis, who are three distinct peoples with unique as It’s a Sin and Fleabag, Minifie admits these major US/ histories, languages, cultural practices and spiritual UK coproductions were made on budgets an Indigenous beliefs. More than 1.67 million people in Canada identify broadcaster alone can’t compete with. This gets to the heart of the dilemma many Indigenousthemselves as an Aboriginal person, according to the 2016 census, and this group is both the fastest growing and led producers face. As the need for greater representation in media throws their work into the spotlight of youngest population in Canada. Leena Minifie is a Gitxaala and British producer and international buyers, the desire for more exposure and digital strategist who, as CEO at Vancouver-based Stories increased budgets must be balanced with a feeling of duty First, explains how long the journey to get to where we to Indigenous broadcasters such as APTN. But Minifie believes they shouldn’t have to choose are has been, and how long there is still to go. “Making the industry more equitable and representative of the between one or the other and wants to see more diversity that’s in Canada has been happening since the mainstream players engaging with Indigenous X

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Red Marrow’s lacrosse drama The Grizzlies

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Indigenous drama in Canada

Horror movie Slash/Back follows a group of teens battling extraterrestrials

broadcasters. This should be done out of necessity to understand Indigenous communities better and ensure productions are made in the right way, including on-set training, says Minifie. “Mainstream studios, distributors and agents all have to learn about supporting racialised and Indigenous productions. There’s a lack of understanding of the subtleties of producing within these communities. “There have to be more co-ventures and they’re going to have to be open to listening and learning from people who understand that how you make these shows is not the status quo. You have to bring a complexity and nuance and a cultural sensitivity,” says Minifie. The exec is encouraged by the increasing collaboration between Canadian broadcasters partnering on projects to lift them up. Recent examples include APTN and TVO in Canada working together on #Unsettled, a 10-part drama from Jennifer Podemski’s Redcloud Studios and Derek Diorio’s Distinct Features. It follows an urban Indigenous power couple who uproot their family from their affluent life in Toronto to move to a Northern Ontario First Nation after unexpectedly losing their fortune. Meanwhile, Minifie points to the continued important work of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), whose annual report for 2020/21 highlighted the government’s C$40m (US$31.3m) investment in the ISO over the next three years. “While this figure amounts to roughly half of the requested amount, it is nonetheless the largest investment in Indigenous screen content since the founding of the APTN more than 20 years ago,” said the ISO, which also pointed to potential legislative changes that could see an increase in Indigenous-created content among Canadian broadcasters in future. Nyla Innuksuk is an Igloolik-born, Iqaluit-raised, writer, director, producer and virtual reality content creator based in Toronto. During a recent online panel organised by the International Sámi Film Institute (ISFI) about Indigenous nous storytelling in the Arctic, Innuksuk agreed reed the industry is steadily coming round nd to the notion of storytelling sovereignty gnty for BIPOC (black, Indigenous and people of color) creatives.

The industry got tired and boring. It was the same thing over and over again. All these fresh new voices from racialised people are coming and the industry is seeing there’s financial value in supporting these voices too.

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Alethea Arnaquq-Baril Red Marrow Media

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

The ISFI has supported Innuksuk’s horror movie Slash/Back, which follows a group of 14-year-olds battling extraterrestrials in Nunavut, a massive, sparsely populated territory in northern Canada that forms most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. “I had non-Indigenous producers on Slash/Back and it was important for me to have 100% creative control and they understood why,” says Innuksuk, who points to executives at Netflix and Paramount who are also Indigenous people as another encouraging milestone for the industry. “Once there’s representation at these different institutions and we have amazing Indigenous people within them, that makes it so much easier to go there and be comfortable and have these conversations,” says Innuksuk. In September, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) appointed J’net Ayayqwayaksheelth as director of Indigenous relations and community engagement, a newly created NFB position based in Toronto. In collaboration with the NFB Indigenous Advisory Committee, Ayayqwayaksheelth provides leadership and cultural awareness within the NFB to implement organisational change and transformation at all levels of the institution, guiding the organisation and its partners in Indigenous matters. This includes ensuring that Indigenous employees and artists’ cultural and spiritual needs are understood and met and providing leadership and cultural awareness to non-Indigenous staff and artists. “For an outspoken Indigenous arts leader like myself, this opportunity represents a turning of the page in authentic Indigenous storytelling in Canadian filmmaking. We are overdue to have these difficult conversations. By introducing this senior-level position, it signals that the NFB is ready and willing to do the work of remembering and acknowledging ongoing Indigenous excellence and innovation,” said Ayayqwayaksheelth upon the announcement. As Ayayqwayaksheelth’s comments suggest, Indigenous people have experienced, and continue to experience, individual and collective trauma stemming from colonisation in Canada. Hugely painful reminders of this continue to appear, none more harrowing than the recent discovery of over 1,000 unmarked graves at former schools for Indigenous children across Canada. Meanwhile, the sstatistics highlight Canada’s staggering Indigenous women, girls, Tworates of violence against a Spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual people, violence that q qu estioning, inters has impacted the Indigenous production community directly. It’s no surprise, then, that so many i Canada directl in creatives grapple with the projects from Indigenous In past, present and future. ttraumas tr aumas of the p always had Indigenous filmmakers “We’ve alwa submitting sad stories because we’re screaming into Minifie, citing issues such as residential tthee void,” says M th and the taking away of land. schools, sterilisation sterili “There’s “There a younger generation saying those [subjects] [subjec are too triggering and too sad,” adds Minifie, who disagrees but adds that the fact the debate even exists highlights the double d standards Indigenous creators face. stan X

A NEW 8 X 60’ CRIME DRAMA

ANNE MARIVIN

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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Indigenous drama in Canada

“That won’t be a thing in eight to 10 years. We don’t discuss if white Caucasian stories should have sadness and trauma within them. Everyone else gets to make complex and nuanced stories and that’s how it should be for Indigenous people,” says Minifie. Indeed, Indigenous creatives are at pains to stress that intergenerational trauma does not define them, and their cultures are overwhelmingly celebratory and filled with both joy and resilience in equal measure. This desire to tell a variety of different stories from an Indigenous peoples’ perspective is bringing producers who previously specialised in factual over to scripted. Alethea Arnaquq-Baril is a filmmaker known for her work on Inuit life and culture and is one half of Red Marrow Media, alongside fellow Inuk writer, producer and director Stacey AglokMacDonald. As the production company’s Twitter bio states, “we make people laugh, we make people cry,” and its credits include the award-winning seal hunt documentary Angry Inuk, lacrosse drama The Grizzlies and Inuktutlanguage comedy TV series Qanurli. Slash/Back creator Nyla Innuksuk and the NFB’s J’net Ayayqwayaksheelth Arnaquq-Baril and AglokMacDonald are developing another, Animiki See Distribution (ASD) is a wholly owned as-yet-unannounced TV series together whilst seeking to break down colonial systems in the industry that are subsidiary of Dadan Sivunivut, itself an independent part preventing more Indigenous communities from around of APTN, and has a mandate to market and distribute the world working together as demand for non-English Indigenous-produced content to broadcasters globally. ASD has a growing catalogue across scripted and language storytelling skyrockets. “There’s a reckoning happening in Canada and a factual programming produced by Indigenous creatives recognition of the value of Indigenous voices. The worldwide, including the New Zealand-made Colonial industry is seeing that it’s not only important to have Combat, which takes a humourous look at Kiwi colonial diversity in the industry but a whole wealth of different history. Launched in 2018, ASD is headed by general manager kinds of storytelling that’s fresh and new for the western Susan Boshcoff, who is open about the fact she is not an world,” Arnaquq-Baril told the recent ISFI online panel. “The industry got tired and boring. It was the same Indigenous woman. One of her tasks leading the company thing over and over again. All these fresh new voices from is to train someone who will eventually run it. Boshcoff has noticed an uptick in demand for content racialised people are coming and the industry is seeing from ASD’s library over the past 18 months, with the online there’s financial value in supporting these voices too. “Streamers like Netflix have also played a huge role in markets proving helpful in putting the programming in that because people are seeing more international content front of an array of different buyers looking to diversify and that’s opening people’s minds to different kinds of their schedules who may have been dismissive of its appeal in the past. storytelling. It’s an exciting time,” said Arnaquq-Baril. “Buyers would hear ‘Indigenous’ and think it was The exec pointed to the work of New Zealand’s Taika Waititi, whose latest TV series, Reservation Dogs for all cultural content. That’s the battle we’re up against. FX/Hulu in the US, co-created with Sterlin Harjo, is the We’re looking to expand and we firmly believe our latest in a long list of Waititi projects that have shown content doesn’t need to sit in niche areas. It belongs with mainstream broadcasters as well,” says Boshcoff, who says “Indigenous stories can also be bankable.” Meanwhile, Arnaquq-Baril welcomes the arrival of territories such as Germany, the Netherlands, France and Uvagut TV, which became Canada’s first Inuit-language the US are opening up considerably. While productions from Indigenous-led producers take TV channel when it launched at the beginning of 2021 and their rightful place in the mainstream, Boshcoff warns is available to international audiences online. Created by Nunavut Independent Television and non-Indigenous producers not to assume this means the IsumaTV, it will “be an engine for spawning all kinds of door is open for them to tell stories that are not their own. new filmmakers and production companies” as budding “That’s been the challenge in the industry for Indigenous Indigenous creatives see a route to bring their projects on creatives. Other people have been telling their stories for a long time,” she says. screen, Arnaquq-Baril believes.

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Redcloud Studios and Distinct Features’ #Unsettled for APTN and TVO

SVOD PROFILE: HBO Max ax x iin n Eu Europe uro rop pe e

Channel C Cha nnel 21 International | Fall 2021

German coming-of-age story Para: Wir sind King

Mad for Max The streaming wars continue to heat up with the European roll-out of WarnerMedia’s SVoD service HBO Max in October. But how does the platform plan to stand out amongst its competitors? By Ruth Lawes

nother month and another streamer gears up to take on the likes of Netflix in the quest to win subscribers around the world. This time it’s the turn of WarnerMedia and its direct-to-consumer streaming platform HBO Max, which will launch in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain and Andorra on October 26. This will be swiftly followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia early next year, as part of a strategy that will see existing streaming services HBO España, HBO Nordic and HBO Go rebranded as HBO Max and supercharged. It is very much the next phase in the roll-out of HBO Max, which, prior to its European expansion, has been available to watch in the US since May last year, as well as in 39 territories across Latin America and the Caribbean. Like its fellow US media edia giants, WarnerMedia faces a trickier task launching around the world compared with the SVoD upstarts due to its existing output deals with various international ternational players and potential rivals. For example, HBO Max’s launches in major markets kets the UK, Germany and Italy are off the table ble until existing outputt deals for HBO originalss with Comcast-owned d European pay giant Sky have expired in 2025..

It’s really important to have teams in every location where we operate. We want local people in every single office to curate, optimise, market, sell and communicate the product, because we believe in that local flavour, and we’re committed to deliver that.

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Christina Sulebakk HBO Max Europe

Christina Sulebakk, general manager EMEA at HBO Max Europe, told delegates at the in-person Series Mania event in Lille, France, in September that HBO Max would only launch in a market when the offering is substantial enough for local viewers. So far, HBO Max has got off to a promising start in the US. According to its parent company AT&T, HBO and HBO Max had a combined 67.5 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2021, a surge of 12 million viewers in the space of a year. Buoyed by this, AT&T quickly revised its initial forecast of 67 to 70 million worldwide subs by the end of this year to between 70 and 73 million. Yet HBO Max still has some way to go to catch up with its rivals. The Walt Disney Company has reported that its streamer Disney+ had 116 million subscribers worldwide as of the third quarter of this year – an astonishing feat given that it was only launched in 2019. 2019 Meanwhile, Netflix’s total subscriber base currently it remains the world’s stands at 209 million. While W llargest la rgest streaming service, servic its growth rate has been 2021, adding only 1.5 million much slower in 2021 subscribers in Q2. With Netflix and Amazon Prime, and an newer entrants such as Apple TV+ and s NBCUniversal’s Peacock, has HBO Max P entered the market at saturation point? “We will have to fight for consumers’ attention, a at tention, as we should,” said Priya Dogra, president EMEA and Asia p resident of WarnerMedia Wa Series Mania. “It raises the Pacific, at Se bar on storytelling. It raises the bar on storyt technology. And it’s a net positive for consumers in the end because that is how it should shoul really work.” The back backbone of HBO Max’s library in Europe will w be made up of HBO’s US originals, such su as thriller The Undoing,

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

SVOD PROFILE: HBO Max in Europe

We’re committed to connecting to audiences and you achieve that by reflecting consumers’ values, communities and ways of life on the screen. And the way you do that is to tell local stories and work with local creators, developers and producers.

“ Danish drama Kamikaze

Priya Dogra WarnerMedia

the critically lauded drama Succession and the epic Game of Thrones, alongside WarnerMedia’s wider originals slate. Its library includes the likes of DC Comics, Warner Bros and Cartoon Network, all of which will be on one service for the first time. But this more US centric content will also be complemented by local stories. Among the European series commissioned for HBO Max is Kamikaze, a Profile Pictures-produced Danish drama following an 18-year-old on a journey of rediscovery after losing her parents and brother in a plane crash. The 8x30’ drama stars Marie Reuther, Charlotte Munck, Mads Reuther and Aleksandr Kuznetsov. The series, which will stream wherever HBO Max is available, is written and adapted by screenwriter Johanne Algren, conceptualised by Annette K Olesen, directed by Kaspar Munk and produced by Ditte Milsted. “We’re committed to connecting to audiences and you achieve that by reflecting consumers’ values, communities and ways of life on the screen. And the way you do that is to tell local stories and work with local creators, developers and producers,” Dogra explained. To maximise the streamer’s local offerings, local teams, rather than an algorithm, will curate playlists on the service. Execs are in place to commission originals and the international roll-out is being led by former Hulu exec Johannes Larcher, head of HBO Max internationally for WarnerMedia. “It’s really important to have teams in every location where we operate. We want local people in every single office to curate, optimise, market, sell and communicate the product, because we believe in that local flavour, and we’re committed to deliver that,” said Sulebakk. Another incentive to focus on European originals is the European Union’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which imposes a 30% European content quota on offerings for the region’s subscribers from this year. “The quotas will make us work hard, as they should, but at the heart of it is a commitment to being not just a global service. We want to bring the best of the US programming to Europe and supplement that with as much local-language and local storytelling as we can,” Dogra said. While WarnerMedia’s back catalogue and new original

content will take up most of the room on HBO Max, its buyers are still very much on the look-out for third-party acquisitions. Acquisitions have long been part of HBO’s strategy outside of the US, with dark comedy thriller Killing Eve, produced by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and the BBC, and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale proving successful, despite originating from the media giant’s competitors. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to licensing. Hannes Heyelmann, executive VP of programming for WarnerMedia in EMEA, heads content, windowing and acquisitions strategies across almost 100 channels in the region. As he put it at the recent digital Edinburgh TV Festival, the content acquired for HBO Max will only be made available in countries where it fits, rather than across the entirety of HBO Max. “We wouldn’t necessarily buy something mething that is hyperlocal and just buy the entire footprint,”” he said. “If we feel it would only work in Spain, for example, mple, we would only lyy license it for Spain. It’s not about volume, olume, it’s about abou ut customising the service to local needs.” eds.” In particular, Heyelmann said HBO Max iss looking to greenlight crime procedurals edurals and d popular sitcoms in the vein of The Office. While the HBO brand is synonymous mous with h adulterous gangsters, expletive-spewing -spewing g media moguls and extremely violent violen nt weddings, HBO Max’s content offering offerin ng overall is set to be a lot more familyy friendly, friendlyy, y, given the streamer’s ambitions. “It’s something for everyone,” Dogra said. “We’re trying to appeal to a very broad audience group with the highest quality programming. g. It ranges from reality TV shows that are going to be guilty pleasures to searing aring documentaries that are an indictment tment of governments and societies, to crime thrillers and fun comedies.” This means HBO Max is venturing ring into areas such as dating and reality with US originals such as FBoy Island, hosted osted by US comedian Nikki Glaser, which was made X

Director D Dir ector Annette K Olesen and Kamikaze’s writer Johanne Algren Ka

SVOD PROFILE: HBO Max in Europe

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

WarnerTV Comedy’s German-language original Arthur’s Law from new writer Benjamin Gutsche

available in July. Produced by STXalternative, the series sees three women move to a tropical island along with 24 men to identify which of them is looking for love rather than just competing for cold, hard cash. Another example of a show that may not seem like HBO’s usual fare but is proving popular enough to be renewed for a third season is Selena + Chef. The cooking show, produced by July Moon Productions and The Intellectual Property Corporation, sees popstar and actor Selena Gomez welcome a celebrity chef into her home to cook recipes. As well as more unscripted programming like this, Heyelmann said he wants to stock up on sports, music, docs and true crime series, as well as music competition formats. HBO Max will also double down on adult animation series to build on the success of science fiction sitcom Rick & Morty and WarnerMedia’s cult Adult Swim brand. “You will see a major difference in the content that will be offered versus what HBO is offering at the moment,” Heyelmann claimed. In fact, it may be easier to define HBO’s slate by what it does not want, which are shows that are “trashy and lowbrow,” according to Heyelmann. “On dating shows, for example, we want contributors to be treated with respect and not talked down to,” he added. “There has to be tension and people that you like and people you don’t, but there is a fine line where you don’t treat people the way they should be treated.” As for coproductions, they are certainly not off-limits and are in fact welcomed by HBO Max’s executive team. English-language coproductions are driven by Sarah Aubrey, head of original content for HBO Max, and senior VP of international originals for HBO Max Jeniffer Kim, both of whom are based in the US. For non-English-language copros, the one holding the reins is Antony Root, executive VP of original programming and production at HBO Europe, who has been leading the charge for HBO originals outside the US for the past decade. The preference, however, is for HBO Max to have the first-window rights, with coproducing broadcasters ideally

airing a show once it has debuted on the streamer. “If we were to copro with a broadcaster in Spain, our expectation would be to have the first window and the broadcaster would have the second. But in many instances, this can be a win-win because you share part of the production costs and the marketing spend,” Heyelmann said. “The broadcaster has the bigger reach, so it’s fine for them to go second as it will still be a new show for those who haven’t seen it on HBO Max. It can really work out, but sometimes it does get too complicated.” Much like coproductions, HBO Max is open to working with unknown talent, both on- and off- screen, to bolster its offering. “We’re very open to working with new talent, both writers and actors, as well as smaller production companies,” Heyelmann said. Under this bracket falls German-language original Arthur’s Law (Arthurs Gesetz), which came from new writer Benjamin Gutsche and production outfit Good Friends Filmproduktions. The series was the first original comedy from WarnerMedia’s German network TNT Comedy, which was recently rebranded as WarnerTV Comedy, and follows the eternally unfortunate Arthur, who suffers one blow after another, as he plots to kill his wife so he can collect her life insurance and make a new start with his lover. “It is not necessary to have a great track record. It does help, however, as it gives us comfort if someone has delivered before,” Heyelmann said. “But what already established people deliver is the past and we want new stuff. Emerging talent just needs to be convincing with what they want to produce, and writers can come directly to us.” Meanwhile, A-list on-screen talent can be a valuable asset when it comes to marketing, while unknown actors can add authenticity to projects, according to Heyelmann. In Para: Wir sind King, a German drama created by 4 Blocks producer Wiedemann & Berg for WarnerTV Series (fka TNT Serie), three of the four lead actors were not famous when the series debuted. A coming-of-age story about friendship, the show follows four women in Berlin desperate for a luxury lifestyle, who get sucked into a regrettable opportunity to make money. “It really helped create this believable world because viewers weren’t saying, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve seen all four of these actors in different roles on five difference programmes across television last week,’” Heyelmann said. WarnerMedia looks poised to offer a compelling enough service to draw subscribers across Europe, p , even if it must bide its time for complete coverage of the continent. But this could explain its openness ess to explore coproductions compared mpared with the likes of Disney+, meaning HBO Max may be about to be welcomed with open arms in Europe.

It is not necessary to have a great track record. It does help, however, as it gives us comfort if someone has delivered before. But what already established people deliver is the past and we want new stuff.

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Hannes Heyelmann WarnerMedia EMEA

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COUNTRYFILE: Ukraine

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Ukraine is joining the international coproduction party, with new projects and partners. Executives from the country reveal their the th e copro strategies and a the fruits of their an international alliances. in nt B By Ed Waller

Markuss

New partners in crime U

kraine was once a big buyer and Eccho Rights started working of international TV formats. more with Ukrainian producers. But, perhaps more significantly, According to a story C21 drama producers published back in 2014, it was third Ukrainian on the list of the top format importers started looking westward for in Europe, with all the big talent new partnerships and alliances, shows, gameshows, reality formats – particularly since their biggest even scripted formats – heading into northern neighbour and potential partner was suddenly off limits local production there. That all changed with the conflicts as a copro partner. Deals with and invasion of that year, and the broadcasters and distributors in resulting currency devaluation Europe started being forged and and advertising slump meant now, a few years later, Ukrainian Ukrainian networks couldn’t afford companies are dipping their toes international format rights, so there into the international coproduction was a concerted push towards more market for the first time. “We have a great deal of creativity local development and original in Ukraine and our shows are production. internationally, but Ukraine certainly still imports successful some formats from the global circumstances mean there just market. In September, C21 broke isn’t very much money. To solve the news that a local production of this, we need to unite first with global scripted format hit Yo Soy each other and then with other Betty la Fea (Ugly Betty) was Eastern European countries,” said underway with 1+1 Media Group Film.UA Group CEO Victoria Yarmoshchuk at C21’s Content for this fall, for example. However, that push towards Ukraine On Demand in September. more local development led to two things. The first was the creation of some original formats, a number of which started selling internationally. Shows such as Crack Them Up, Servant of the People and Sugar Daddy started securing international deals, and Hide & Seek distributors like Small World

Having led the charge when it comes to Ukrainian content exports in recent years, with travelling dramas such as The Sniffer, Love in Chains and Hide & Seek, Film.UA is embarking on its first copros with non-CIS partners. Scripted werewolf series Monster Inside, for instance, is being coproduced by Film.UA, Eccho Rights, Incendo in Canada and UK/Italian prodco Born Wild. The series follows a Canadian gangster who is forced to leave the country. After finding shelter in Ukraine, he is attacked by a werewolf, which results in him developing special powers. Regarding the four-partner copro alliance, Katya Vyshnevska, head of development and coproductions at Film.UA Group, says: “We didn’t force it; they were natural partners and it was an organic coproduction. It also made a lot of sense commercially because it is in the English language and Ukraine has just signed a coproduction treaty with Canada, which creates additional opportunities for financing.” Vyshnevska adds that “natural” partners for Film.UA tend to be from neighbouring countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) or the CIS region, as well as places that have large Ukrainian populations, such as Canada. “With X

We have a great deal of creativity in Ukraine and our shows are successful internationally, but there isn’t very much money. We need to unite first with each other and then with other Eastern European countries.

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Victoria Yarmoshchuk Film.UA

COUNTRYFILE: Ukraine e

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Drama copro The Silence

From top: Kateryna Vyshnevska, Oleksandr Bohutskyi and Iryna Chernyak

neighbouring countries and places where lots of Ukrainian people have migrated to, there is a lot of shared experience. There are a lot of Ukrainian people living in Poland, for example, so they are a good fit as we share similar stories,” Vyshnevska says. Film.UA’s move into coproduction is a logical progression from its presale deals with the likes of TVP in Poland and ZDF Enterprises on Hide & Seek, plus its more recent codevelopment deal with France-based APC Studios on The Wrong Man, a dramatisation of the true story of a Ukrainian man wrongfully convicted and imprisoned as a serial killer. Media Group Ukraine (MGU), which operates channels including Channel Ukraine and the OTT platform OLL.TV, is another company getting into the copro game. Iryna Chernyak, MGU director of sales and Channel Ukraine director of acquisitions, has spent the past few years not only boosting programmes sales, with licence deals in Asia, CIS and Africa, but is also forging partnerships with companies including India’s GoQuest Media and copro alliances in the Baltics and the Balkans. “We have two interesting cases,” Chernyak says. “The first is from a couple of years ago, called Markuss, an eight-episode crime drama. There was an organic opportunity for it to be produced with another country because of the storyline. We adapted it to Latvia very quickly.” The show, the first ever coproduction between Ukraine and Latvia, was made by MGU and Helio Media of Riga and aired on Channel Ukraine and TET in Latvia. More recently, MGU’s streaming platform OLL.TV became a copro partner alongside Germany’s Beta Film, Russian prodco Star Media and Croatia’s HRT and prodco Drugi Plan on crime series The Silence (6x60’, aka Malicious Concealment),

which had its world premiere at the NEM conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September. “This is the first example of an international coproduction involving a streaming platform in Ukraine,” says Chernyak. “It will premiere on the platform this year and maybe afterwards on our linear channel.” As well as the creative upside to be had from coproductions, many execs in Ukraine highlight the financial benefit of sharing production costs. “Right now, the whole world is looking to turn 100 dollars into 300, and we need to be able to facilitate it,”

Ukraine has a lot that speaks for itself and now the tax incentives are in place and the cost of production is very low, you get a lot of bang for your buck. This will help achieve its coproduction potential.

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Nicola Soderlund Eccho Rights

says Oleksandr Bohutskyi, president of Ukrainian broadcaster Starlight Media, which operates the channels ICTV and Novy Kanal, among others. “It could be as simple as making people aware of the projects and the topics, and then later we can develop them. But we have to do it together, because we don’t have any partners in any of our closest neighbouring countries.” MGU exec Victoria Korogod, director of Channel Ukraine, adds: “As a country, we’re actively trying to integrate ourselves into the external world. We had Markuss a couple of years ago, a copro that was broadcast in both Ukraine and Latvia. Different countries have different

mentalities but I see great opportunities for copros in Poland – look at something like Nordic copro The Bridge. Our OTT platform is moving into this space, working with producers in Germany and Croatia on shows coming out next year [such as The Silence]. “Ultimately, we’re hoping this visibility will attract partners for coproductions from all over the world. Co-funding with another producer gives us a bigger budget and a better chance at making a global series.” Many execs from Ukraine look enviously at initiatives like The Alliance, the copro partnership between public broadcasters in France, Italy, Germany and now Spain, and N12, the similar pact between Nordic pubcasters. Execs including Yarmoshchuk and Vyshnevska from Film.UA have perhaps been the most vocal in the calls for a copro partnership between CEE broadcasters. “As a producer, I’m always hunting for money and there’s not enough money in our country,” says Vyshnevska. “But there is not enough money in most countries, so it makes sense for us to coproduce together. It’s sometimes difficult, but I think we’re making some strides in that direction.” However, Eccho Rights managing partner Nicola Soderlund has a word of warning over such formal alliances: “Ukraine has a lot that speaks for itself and now the tax incentives are in place and the cost of production is very low, you get a lot of bang for your buck. This will help achieve its coproduction potential. “Canada and Ukraine was a perfect partnership [for Monster Inside] but with some alliances, like N12 in the Nordics, it actually makes it harder to ﬁnd money and partners. I’ve never believed in being forced into creative environments. The story dictates where you take it and who you work with.” However and whomever Ukrainian producers and networks partner, their arrival in the coproduction space is a welcome addition. Examples such as Monster Inside and The Silence show that Ukrainian companies are entering the coproduction market in force – not just with partners in the CEE or CIS regions, but further aﬁeld in more lucrative markets such as France, Germany, the UK and Canada.

More info s.kupreev@starmediaﬁlm.com

CONTENT ECONOMICS: Classic drama

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

In with the old The Covid-19 pandemic has changed demand for library content and classic cla drama series are still comforting audiences under lockdown. But how much longer will this trend go on? B By Oli Hammett

lassic drama series like Breaking Bad, their housebound viewers who were wanting more Spooks and The Sopranos were in high than one episode of something.” And it wasn’t just VoD platforms seeking classic demand last year as productions all over the world were forced to stop. The celebrated HBO shows, with distributors everywhere noting high Mafia drama, for instance, was named as the hottest demand from traditional buyers to fill empty show of 2020 in the UK by GQ magazine, despite schedules. According to Jack Davison of media analysis firm 3Vision, this is still very much the case. concluding way back in 2007. “Anecdotal evidence from broadcasters tells me With fewer new shows slated, 2020 was dubbed “the year of the re-watch” as broadcasters and that classic dramas have never been in such high streamers turned to award-winning hits in the hope demand, especially among the traditional buyers,” they would appeal to new, younger audiences as well he says. “Previously, SVoD buyers were very happy as the people who saw them when they originally to take shows in their second window, as you would always have an audience that hadn’t seen them. aired. “Broadcasters were left with huge holes in their Now, though, platforms promote the first window so schedules and at ITV Studios we are very fortunate heavily that there’s no value in local broadcasters to have such a wealth of titles at our disposal,” says having the show afterwards. “If SVT in Sweden buys a Julie Meldal-Johnsen, executive Young show, Netflix will still retain VP of global content at the people the newest season plus all producer and distributor. “We’ve seen buyers coming were suddenly the original ones, so people will finish it there. Buyers to us about shows they may watching in are actually being not have bought before, and the middle of pushed commercially we’ve been through a number to open their eyes to of stages since lockdown began. the afternoon. This led to slightly older shows, Early on, news and documentary young people discovering because they will do content was in high demand as shows they never would better for them.” people looked for guidance and have done before. Buyers old and answers, but shows that enable new are seeking escapism, with comforting or Claire Jago out the next familiar characters, have since Banijay Rights untapped gem in classic drama, grown in popularity.” As well as increased demand for classic dramas, and one of the most impressive things about the there was also an upturn in collective viewing as genre is how wide its appeal is. Whether a detective people banded together with their families and procedural like Midsomer Murders or a high-octane housemates in the face of uncertainty, seeking rollercoaster like Breaking Bad, there is as much out content they could all enjoy. This, according to appeal in these series for those who have never seen All3Media’s executive VP of EMEA, Stephen Driscoll, them before as there is for those who watched them drove demand for classic series among streamers in first time around. Claire Jago, executive VP of EMEA sales and particular. “Consumption of content went up in general during acquisitions at global distributor Banijay Rights, lockdown, as it was the year that supercharged believes young viewers have been the biggest new SVoD platforms,” he says. “People suddenly weren’t audience for classic drama series. “People last year were watching TV at a different wanting to watch the news every night and they wanted something comforting. We saw an increase time of day than they normally would,” she says. in demand for shows of ours like Midsomer Murders “Young people were suddenly watching in the middle and All Creatures Great & Small, for that view of a of the afternoon. But schedulers were never going to take viewing away from older people who bucolic England. “We saw several international buyers relicensing might have been feeling lonely. This led to those shows, especially our traditional buyers who young people discovering shows they were looking to build out their catch-up services. never would have done before, like our They needed to expand to offer something else to show A Place to Call Home, which X

“

Breaking Bad

CONTENT ECONOMICS: Classic drama

is an Australian period drama. It’s not too taxing or horrific and it’s something nice to embed yourself in.” Whatever caused the boom in classic content, execs agree it’s here to stay. Most say that it was an important part of their slate before the pandemic, and that Covid didn’t necessarily affect the amount of such content buyers acquired last year. However, the popularity of these series definitely increased. Indeed, the interest in older, more comforting shows could give buyers and commissioners a whole new demographic to target. “As well as younger people, buyers are after older audiences,” says Davison. “Some digital services’ memberships are plateauing or even struggling to maintain subscribers, and to grow further they need to reach older audiences too. Classic drama could be a very effective way of doing that. “You can never be sure what will happen with your classic archive – look at Norman Wisdom in Albania. He became the king of TV there, as he was one of the only Western actors allowed to be watched behind the Iron Curtain. Streamers could tap into a whole new audience through classic drama, and that’s arguably why traditional broadcasters are focusing more on reality and entertainment. It’s a new genre and something more difficult for Netflix to compete with.” With the production industry now opening up again, where does classic IP go from here? Will it have its moment in the sun again? Jago thinks so, as there is an ever-growing source of classic content. “Classic IP is incredibly important to us,” she says. “We have a lot of foreign-language drama, which was another phenomenon seen last year. It’s not just Nordic noir anymore – Italy, France and others are making high-quality shows. Not being able to film here and there meant we had to fill in some gaps, and that broadened people’s horizons. “We also saw an upswing in demand for series of ours like The Fall, which was rediscovered by so many people, along with Broadchurch. Broadchurch The Sopranos

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Broadchurch saw a resurgence in popularity. Inset: Evergreen UK dramas All Creatures Great & Small and Poirot

Some digital services’ memberships are plateauing or even struggling to maintain subscribers, and to grow further they need to reach older audiences too. Classic drama could be a very effective way of doing that.

“

Jack Davison 3Vision

stars Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Jodie Whittaker, who were all relatively unknown then. It’s nice for viewers to have that realisation too, as they feel like they’re discovering actors early.” ITV Studios is also continuing to experience strong demand for its catalogue shows. “There has been no drop-off in demand at all in the last 12 months,” says Meldal-Johnsen. “We have ‘whodunnit’ series like

Poirot and Miss Marple that have been sold in over 100 countries each. “Apart from that, crime shows like Line of Duty and Bodyguard have been highly sought-after as the global crime trend continues. In the Asia-Pacific region, we’ve seen sales of dramas like Rosemary & Thyme, Cracker and detective show A Touch of Frost. It’s not just UK content, either – we sell shows from all over the world, and classic catalogue content is very popular.” Classic drama is something that has traditionally been housed on local platforms. But with its value increasing, many execs believe it’s only a matter of time before global SVoD services like Netflix, Amazon and HBO Max start investing in more catalogue content and pricing local buyers out of the classic TV market. As previously mentioned, this may lead to linear broadcasters focusing on factual and entertainment. Davison says these streamers could then use classic drama to hook in new viewers for their highend series. “SVoDs have all sorts of ways to drive viewers to their platforms,” he says. “One is through classic drama. Once people are on the service, they’ll have a look around, and instead of promoting new high-budget dramas, buyers sometimes find more value in the meme culture surrounding shows like Friends or the US version of The Office, as opposed to a new actor in a relatively unknown series. Sometimes they’ll just use social media to draw people in with something they’ve already seen, as that has a bigger pull.” Even if it is used to that end, Jago doesn’t see it as a bad thing. Indeed, she says English-language drama is just the start. “It’s an exciting time for classic drama, with the emergence of new SVoD platforms, all of which want a piece of the action,” she says. “BritBox is moving into the non-Englishspeaking world for the first time, so that means a whole new society gets the chance to watch Spooks and Hustle. Those are going to be valuable clients for us, as they give audiences the time to discover or rediscover those shows.”

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Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Rose Marie Vega discusses how a brain injury led to the founding of her LA-based distributor RMVISTAR and reveals the secrets to selling non-English-language formats to major US networks. By Ruth Lawes

nly half-jokingly, Rose Marie Vega, founder and president of boutique distributor RMVISTAR, says that her back story could be turned into a television series. A self-described Los Angeleno, raised in the City of Angels, she was born to a Nicaraguan mother, orphaned as a child and educated at various boarding schools across Europe before selling shows for the likes of HBO and NBC. At one point in her 30-year career, Vega feared she would have to turn her back on the industry she loves. More than a decade ago, Vega slipped, fell and suffered a brain injury during a conference at a Beverly Hills hotel. “I was out for 18 months, I had to learn to walk again and I was ready to give up,” she says. “But everyone was adamant that I had more to give and I’m so glad they kept telling me to get up and do something.” That something was RMVISTAR, an indie distributor that sells action, comedy, drama, horror/ thriller, romcoms and Christmas movies and other programmes. Vega set up the company after spending years in executive positions, including as a director of business affairs and administration at Universal Television and a director at NBC’s sales arm, licensing programmes including Will & Grace in the late 1990s. Before the accident, Vega was VP of international distribution of Latin America, Portugal and Spain at HBO, responsible for shopping titles such as The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. RMVISTAR was born out of Vega’s desire to unearth little-told stories and tell them to audiences around the world. These stories included the Argentinian series La Chica Que Limpia, a series that follows a single mother forced to become the cleaning lady for a crime organisation in order to pay her sick son’s medical bills. Moments after watching the trailer at Rio Content Market, Vega signed up to represent the show, spotting its global potential. The format has since been sold to Fox in the US, where it will air as The Cleaning Lady this autumn. Meanwhile, there are ongoing talks for remakes in France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, as well as for a Castilian version in Spain, Vega says. Projects with strong female lead characters, like La Chica Que Limpia, attract Vega and make up a large portion of RMVISTAR’s slate. They include supernatural crime series Vampyra, about a reporter

La Chica Que Limpia

My Big Break Rose Marie Vega

I had to learn to walk again and I was ready to give up. But everyone was adamant that I had more to give and I’m so glad they kept telling me to get up and do something.

“

Rose Marie Vega RMVISTAR

working on a murder investigation when she slowly starts to become a vampire, and dramedy Finding Grace, which stars comedian Grace Fraga (The Steve Harvey Show) as an LA-based millennial comedian with a disastrous love life. Vega also sold Chilean biopic miniseries Isabel, about the author Isabel Allende, to WarnerMediaowned SVoD HBO Max, alongside partner MGE Entertainment. The trick to succeeding with major US networks is taking on the right people and having flexibility and trust, says Vega. “It’s down to creating a good team that you can depend on to get your message across, including the right agent and great lawyers. Working with writers that are open to changing elements of their work, such as characters, also helps,” she observes. But, most of all, it is down to the show, adds Vega. “It starts with a good product, then the work developing it in a way that it’s easy for someone to do their job. That means no holes in the story, no holes in the character arcs and that it holds its own,” she says. It is perhaps this innate creative flair that led to Vega securing her first executive producer credit on The Cleaning Lady during the coronavirus pandemic. “Lockdowns allowed me to dive into being more of an executive producer. I was in the writers’ room with the studio and developing characters,” she says. Vega is also in development with a major US studio for her first original production, a mystery thriller penned by a team of Spanish writers, the details of which are being kept tightly under wraps. She pitched the project to three major players at the last in-person Content London before Covid-19 scuppered physical events and landed one a few months afterwards. As for what’s next for Vega and RMVISTAR, surely it’s only a matter of time before her own story is broadcast globally.

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Three-year plan Big Deal Films Dreaming Whilst Black Dhanny Joshi

Dhanny Joshi, co-founder of Big Deal Films, discusses what support from Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund means to the company and his ambitions for the prodco over the next three years. By Karolina Kaminska

ondon-based indie Big Deal Films was initially set up as a talent management company in 2014, before founders Dhanny Joshi and Thomas Stogdon decided to expand into the production space. Earlier this year, the prodco was selected to join Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund, through which the commercially-funded UK pubcaster takes minority stakes in small and mid-sized enterprises to help them to grow their businesses to the next stage. “We were uniquely placed in the sense that we produce both factual and scripted, had serious ambitions in both areas and didn’t really want to suppress that by focusing on one or the other, which can happen when you’ve got limited resources, especially with scripted being such an expensive genre to operate in,” Joshi says. “What it has done is given us a little bit of breathing space so that we can put the appropriate level of resources into building up both factual and scripted. This investment has allowed us to put our cash resources into hiring talent and given us some cashflow relief as well. For me, it has allowed me to stop focusing on making sure the bills get paid on time and instead focus on strategy, business development, new relationships and new territories.” Over the next few years, Joshi hopes Big Deal Films will evolve into a multi-genre company at the forefront of diverse storytelling, with a reach that extends across the world. “We want to be one of the leaders in diverse storytelling, but our ambitions are bigger than just being boxed into the diverse area. We are a multigenre company and want to be at the forefront of cutting-edge, young voices and stories being told. We want to be in all areas; we’ve never boxed ourselves into being just one genre,” Joshi says.

We want to be one of the leaders in diverse storytelling, but our ambitions are bigger than just being boxed into the diverse area. We want to be in all areas.

“

Dhanny Joshi This multi-genre ambition extends into the kids’ space, where Big Deal Films is currently working with BBC Studios on an adaptation of actor, writer and comedian Humza Arshad’s Little Badman book series for children. Following that launch, Joshi says the prodco “will absolutely be looking to make a mark in the children’s animation space.” “Our three- to five-year strategy is that we want to have shows in the US, in India and in the Far East,” the exec continues, adding that he has been in conversations with a production company in India. Before branching out into the rest of the world, however, the prodco has more work to do in the UK. “In the short term we’re focusing on the UK; there’s so much more work to do here before I start thinking about America and everywhere else,” says Joshi. “We want to land scripted shows with the BBC, with ITV, Channel 4, Sky and we want to be doing big documentaries with the streamers as well.”

Among its scripted projects is Dreaming Whilst Black, billed as the BBC’s first black comedy drama, based on the acclaimed web series that follows an aspiring filmmaker, played by Adjani Salmon, who co-created the show with Ali Hughes. Inclusion is a priority for Big Deal, which not only strives to provide opportunities to people from all backgrounds and walks of life, but has itself benefited from initiatives aimed at diverse storytellers. “When the BBC did a scheme in 2015 and gave six diverse commissioners assistant commissioner roles, everything changed for us. We started getting commissions and were able to have meetings; companies and channels wanted to meet us. It was a great scheme that worked and that needs to be implemented throughout the platforms,” Joshi says. So what does the exec make of the broadcasters’ overall efforts to become more diverse and inclusive? “I can see they’re trying. Do I think more could be done? Yes. I think the first step is to enable more commissioners from diverse backgrounds,” he says. “Diversity of thought needs to be more involved. Just looking at things from a surface level in terms of race is too much of an easy win; they need to focus more on class and disability. Put people who are from those backgrounds in decision-making roles, give them responsibility, give them the capacity to make a mistake, to learn and grow in the job. That’s something I would like to see more of, but I do think all the channels are trying.”

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Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Three-year plan Boat Rocker Media David Fortier (left) and Ivan Schneeberg

Following a slew of acquisitions, Canada-based production group Boat Rocker Media is turning its attention to forging creative partnerships with on- and offscreen talent. By Ruth Lawes

oronto-headquartered Boat Rocker Media has embarked upon five years of rapid growth since its rebrand in 2016, when it was known as Temple Street Productions, the company behind science-fiction thriller Orphan Black. Since then, the firm has snapped up a range of production companies across multiple genres, including premium scripted drama outfit Platform One Entertainment, unscripted firm Matador and animation studio Jam Filled Entertainment. Boat Rocker’s swift expansion prompted a streamlining of its structure in 2018, which saw it combine its content, distribution and brands team into a single entity called Boat Rock Studios, led by MD Jon Rutherford. Now that the framework has been put in place and reorganised, Boat Rocker Media’s co-executive chairman David Fortier says the company is focusing on exploiting this new infrastructure over the next three years. Rather than buying more companies, Boat Rocker wants to strike partnerships with talent and storytellers. Last year, Platform One struck a first-look deal with Game of Thrones star Lena Headey’s Peephole Productions, while more recently Boat Rocker Studios paired with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad) to turn his novel Sag Harbor into an HBO Max series executive produced by Laurence Fishburne. “Our growth strategy is to take advantage of the platform we have built, which has production, distribution and creative capabilities across all genres and at every budget level. We want to increase our sources of IP, increase the amount of content we produce and increase our rights ownership,” Fortier says. “At the heart of it is that stories come from people and, given our relationship with talent in the industry, we want to find opportunities to tell their unique stories.” Boat Rocker Media co-executive chairman Ivan

Boat Rocker-owned Platform One has a first-look deal with Game of Thrones star Lena Headey’s prodco

We are spending more time looking outside of North America. We’re growing our office in London and we’re on the lookout to produce more programming there.

“

Ivan Schneeberg Schneeberg adds: “If you want to have a shot at great content, you’ve got to start with a storyteller who cares about the story they’re telling. If there’s ambivalence, or you’re just trying to make content for the sake of making content, then your chance of having a show that resonates and that gets renewed is almost non-existent.” As well as Toronto, Boat Rocker has also established offices in New York and London. While the company’s focus is primarily on the North American market, the coming years could bring further expansion into Europe and Australia. “In the last few years, we have been really anchoring our presence in the US, as it’s such a big market and is important to us as mainly Englishlanguage content producers. It has been hard to penetrate that market and we have worked on establishing ourselves as a meaningful indie among US buyers,” Schneeberg says. “But now we are spending more time looking outside of North America. We’re growing our office

in London and we’re on the lookout to produce more programming there. Currently, we’re figuring out how we grow our presence in the UK even more. We’re also talking to some companies in Australia and we have had very early conversations with various European companies.” In the next three years, Schneeberg and Fortier see the industry overall being defined by more consolidation, such as the recent purchase of Reese Witherspoon’s prodco Hello Sunshine by a Blackstone-backed private equity firm run by former Walt Disney Company executives. “Platforms will have to decide if they want to be vertically integrated businesses and be both content creators and platforms, or whether they want to focus on platform building. For us, as platformagnostic content creators, it means there will be more opportunities to sell shows, but companies will need to have scale and be able to meaningfully develop IP to do so,” Schneeberg says. Another priority for Boat Rocker over the next three years is diversity and inclusion. Measures undertaken so far include senior staff receiving training from the Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion, while a diversity scholarship has been introduced at Boat Rocker’s animation company Jam Filled Entertainment. “It has become increasingly evident to us that we’re a company run by three white men, and that imposes on us an additional obligation to really dig into diversity and inclusivity within our business and within our storytelling,” Schneeberg says.

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Endemol Shine Israel dramedy Fifty

Development slate

Banijay Group Scripted projects showing ‘new perspectives’ from Europe, the Middle East and Asia are a priority for the production and distribution giant. By Ruth Lawes

s the industry saying goes, content is king – and production and distribution giant Banijay sure has a lot of it. Having acquired dozens of prodcos in multiple territories, including the Endemol Shine Group (ESG) last year for a reported US$2.2bn, the firm now boasts more than 100,000 hours of scripted and unscripted programming. Heading up scripted for the production and distribution giant in Europe, the Middle East and Asia is Lars Blomgren, who moved over from ESG, where he held a similar role, last year. Working for the biggest independent producer and distributor in the world has its advantages when it comes to ensuring a healthy Endemol Shine India’s Bombay Begums

development pipeline, with Banijay owning more than 50 scripted labels around the world. “Our producers are independent, and every local producer has its own creative mindset and it does whatever is best for its own market,” Blomgren says. “The biggest difference is we’re a big group now and we can look at projects, tweak them and elevate them.” As for the English- and non-Englishlanguage content Banijay is looking to develop, diverse stories told by diverse on- and off- screen talent are high on the agenda, according to Blomgren. “Like everyone else, we need to have better representation in front of the camera and behind the camera.

Diversity is so important, plus it opens up new perspectives, stories and histories,” he says. In development is a new factual drama for UK pubcaster the BBC with the working title Independence Day? How Disabled Rights Were Won, produced by Dragonfly and One Shoe Films. Written by Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr, the story is told through the eyes of Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, two disabled cabaret performers who met at a gig in 1989 and went on to become the driving force behind the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network campaign group. Series that blend historical events and fiction are also big business for the group. Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) and Banijay UK-owned Kudos, for example, are producing SAS: Rogue Heroes, whose cast includes Connor Swindells (Vigil), Jack O’Connell (The North Water) and Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones). Based on Ben Macintyre’s book of the same name, the series is a dramatised account of how the British Army’s special forces unit was formed under extraordinary circumstances in the darkest days of World War Two. Meanwhile, with Israel being a major exporter of scripted formats, it’s no surprise to hear Blomgren has a focus on developing IP from the territory. “Israel has got great formats that are adaptable, and the country has a strong creative history,” he says. One show with adaptation potential is Endemol Shine Israel dramedy Fifty, which tells the story of a widowed

Lars Blomgren

screenwriter struggling to raise her children and re-enter the dating world. Franco-German cultural broadcaster Arte recently acquired the finished version from Banijay Rights. In addition to Israel, Blomgren says India is a country to watch. “India is one of the fastest-growing markets. It’s very different in many ways, but they don’t mind leaning on big IP or remakes, and that works for us,” he says. Endemol Shine India makes drama Bombay Begum for Netflix and Banijay Asia is involved in a remake of French comedy Call My Agent (Dix Pour Cent). “It’s an amazing market with fantastic stories to tell, based on its books and its history,” Blomgren adds. “The most important thing is to trust your partner to execute and produce high-quality programmes, because IP owners don’t want to end up with IP being optioned to see it get stuck in development.” Other territories of interest are France, where Banijay is headquartered, and the UK, Blomgren adds. Meanwhile, the exec admits securing IP to develop isn’t always easy, but Banijay’s considerable size and power does allow its producers to bring a little more to the bargaining table, if necessary. “We have a scripted fund to support production companies. This could be, for instance, if one finds a big IP and there’s a bidding war and the sum is higher than its development budget. We can step in and provide support.”

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Netflix’s Sex Education

he Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF) was set up three years ago to boost the creation of free-to-access content for young people in the UK. Supporting more scripted content produced locally for British teens to watch as opposed to US fare on streaming services has been a top priority for the fund. While commercial pubcasters like ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have been the first port of call for projects supported by the fund so far, there’s no reason why many series supported by the YACF won’t also find themselves in international waters. Particularly given the popularity of content aimed at this age group abroad with a British accent, as highlighted by shows such as Netflix’s Sex Education. Administered by the British Film Institute, the YACF’s latest round of development funding has seen a host of ambitious projects given a leg up, spanning issues such as mental health, invasive tech, suicide and grief. Deepfake, from London’s RubyRock Pictures, is a coming-of-age teen thriller about the power of reputation, the divide between Gen X and their parents and the secrets that play out in our digital lives. In a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business, 15-year-old Amy is targeted by an anonymous online profile who releases increasingly shocking, perverted and extreme deepfake videos that undermine her reputation. Another project looking at the impact of technology on the lives of young people is Bunty, which comes from Beano Studios and Northern Irish writer Emma Moran. The series explores themes around surveillance capitalism, globalisation, and specific issues facing young women in Northern Ireland today: the oppression of old ways from their own community and new problems arising from social

Development slate

Young Audiences Content Fund Social issues are top of mind for UK producers using the Young Audiences Content Fund to develop thought-provoking dramas aimed at teenagers. By Nico Franks

Jackie Edwards

media, the internet and artificial intelligence robots. Bunty is the name given to a new AI robot created by US tech company, IO, which has recently set up in a small Northern Irish town. Disguised as a teenage girl but designed by a bunch of “older tech-dudes,” Bunty struggles to fit in at the local school where she is sent to test her ability to pass as human. Luckily, she is taken under the wing of the group of misfits who adopt her as one of their own even when the community unearths IO’s real intentions. Meanwhile, I’m Not Gonna Lie

to You is inspired by the dramatic increase in suicide rates among young women and girls and comes from Natalie Mitchell and Bryncoed Productions. The producers aim to make a series that helps audiences understand mental health struggles in a truly empathetic way, showing the inside track for a young teen audience. The series will take the audience into the life of a young girl, represented through rotoscope animation, as her world unravels and anxiety and depression lead to suicidal thoughts. Elsewhere, Naked, from Londonbased Hillbilly Television, tackles today’s obsession with body image head on, following a young woman’s journey of self-discovery through her transformative experiences life modelling for students at art school. And on the development slate of Ardimages UK, the production company established in 2016 by Manon Ardisson (God’s Own Country), who now runs it with producer Chiara Ventura, is Staff of Oranyan. Described as a fantasy-adventure, teen coming-of-age series, the show is set between Hackney’s BritishNigerian community and the Yoruba

afterworld and has been created and written by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini and Samuel Babajide Ibini. Inspired by their experiences of growing up in East London, the creators wanted to make a show that showcased their Hackney roots and Yoruba ancestry in a compelling and thoughtful way. The story will examine the lack of support for young black people experiencing grief, particularly via the lens of a racist media reporting on their friend’s death. Now in the final year of its threeyear pilot, the YACF has suffered a disappointing cut to its funding from the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, with its overall budget for the three years reduced to £44.2m (US$61.3m) from the £60m initially promised in late 2017. However, it is hoped the YACF will continue into a fourth year and beyond as it looks to continue supporting the development of free-to-air alternatives to shows such as Sex Education. Fund head Jackie Edwards says: “The government-backed YACF has been transformative for the industry, breathing life into ideas that would not have come into being without it.”

Channel 21 International | Fall 2021

Three-year plan Vertigo Films Britannia

James Richardson

London-based indie Vertigo Films is looking to up the ante with more characteristically British crime thrillers whilst exploring new genres and navigating the production challenges posed by Brexit. By Ruth Lawes

ertigo Films, founded in 2002, was originally conceived as a film company. For the silver screen, it’s been behind hit feature films such as Bronson, the violent crime movie that gave Tom Hardy his breakout role, and gritty sports flick The Football Factory. But after building an integrated distribution, sales, post-production and VFX operation in the movie business, the company, which is run by co-founders James Richardson and Allan Niblo and CEO Jane Moore, decided to shift its focus to television. Since then, Comcast-owned Sky and Amazon have proved fruitful partners, with Vertigo making historical mystical drama series Britannia for Sky Atlantic in the UK and Amazon Prime in the US. Its police procedural series Bulletproof was a ratings winner on Sky One, but has since been cancelled following multiple sexual misconduct allegations against its co-creator and lead actor Noel Clarke, which he has denied. Over the next three years, Richardson says the aim is to develop new shows, as well as new seasons of the existing shows on its slate. Recently announced by Vertigo are Mammals, a comedy drama about marriage for Amazon UK starring James Corden and Sally Hawkins, and Sky Max crime caper A Town Called Malice from Nick Love. The latter is a gangster series set in Spain’s Costa del Sol in the 1980s, described by director of drama commissioning at Sky Studios Gabriel Silver as if “Dallas and Pulp Fiction created a love child to the strains of Duran Duran.” As for what other genres Vertigo might move into, Richardson says the company will continue to produce shows that are cross-genre with a “rebellious” angle. “We’re not the company that’s ever going to make brilliant shows such as Line of

What we do is take an idea or genre and put a slant on it. We don’t want to just produce a sci-fi series or action series or a police procedural, we want to have a show with an original take, as well as a sense of humour.

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James Richardson Duty or Broadchurch,” Richardson says. “But what we do is take an idea or genre and put a slant on it. We don’t want to just produce a sci-fi series or action series or a police procedural, we want to have a show with an original take, as well as a sense of humour. We also want to work with great writers and actors who want to do something a little bit different that still has commercial and international appeal.” Vertigo is also eyeing shortform content, according to Richardson. This is because the proliferation of streaming platforms means watching shorter programmes on the go using devices is becoming more popular. “There are new opportunities that the SVoDs are creating and one area we should or could be looking at is shortform,” Richardson says. “We’re still deciding if it makes sense for us, though, and it’s such a changing world, so we’ll see what happens.”

As for international expansion, Richardson says an office outside the UK is not on the cards in the next few years, but if Vertigo was to set up elsewhere, it would be in the US, he adds. “There is just so much focus on the UK and Englishlanguage market at the moment. We’ve also always been a company that enjoys the fact we’re one of the only indies left, and we’re proudly independent and proudly British,” Richardson says. “Now, we partner up with other companies around the world to make shows and we’ll continue to. There’s not a huge necessity to start setting up offices all over the place, because if we want to start a project there are lots of potential international partners.” In the coming years, Richardson says the biggest issue faced by Vertigo and the UK production industry will be a lack of off-screen talent and fewer resources due to Brexit. “The real problem now is how sustainable the current UK industry is, as it’s so busy and you can’t find staff or facilities,” he says. “Before Brexit, producers would be able to fill the gaps with talent or facilities from partners in Europe. But now, because of the paperwork involved, that’s not an option anymore.” Richardson says there is no clear-cut solution to staff shortages. “It’s hard to know what the answers are, as we want the industry to be hugely popular and busy but at the same time there is a breaking point. As for Brexit, it’s above my pay grade but I will certainly say it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

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