WorldScreenings: Inter Medya

With an ever-expanding catalog of Turkish drama ripe to travel the globe, Inter Medya counts among its most recent slate additions Last Summer, which takes viewers on a roller-coaster ride of emotions as it explores love, family and friendship with a dose of action. According to Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya, the company is already fielding emails and calls from those interested in the title. Okan compares Scorpion, another new title Inter Medya is representing, to Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters, featuring a battle between a mother and a daughter. Then there’s the true-story-inspired Ramo, which is currently in its second season.

“As a surprise, because we haven’t announced this title yet in the international market, we would like to mention our latest addition to our slate, The Trusted,” Okan tells World Screen. “Produced by the acclaimed production house TIMS&B, the title is one of the strongest series that has been launched in 2021. The series tells the story of Marashli, who unwittingly meets Mahur and saves her life. The Trusted drags us into an adventure in pursuit of both love and great secrets. We are really excited to see its global success.”

In addition to boosting its offering of traditional, long-running dramas, Inter Medya is shining a spotlight on its new miniseries category. The miniseries are designed to appeal to the tastes of streaming platforms, counting between six and ten episodes per season, with episode durations varying between 25 and 60 minutes.

“We call these miniseries New Generation Turkish Series,” says Okan. “They certainly bring different interpretations to traditional Turkish drama, and Respect, Interruptedand Naked are the titles that we can show as the greatest examples of this new category. All of these titles stand out for being brave, bold and edgy.”

The miniseries slate is in tune with the emerging industry trends that correspond to the rising number and increasing use of online streaming platforms. But traditional Turkish drama, too, is growing in global interest, as evidenced by deals overseen by Inter Medya’s sales team, which is looking to promote established series, new titles that tick that traditional Turkish drama box as well as the miniseries additions for the OTT era and even feature films.

Joining Okan, Inter Medya sales executives Sibel Levendoglu (Africa, Western Europe, U.S., Canada, Australia), Elena Pak (CIS), Pelin Koray (OTT platforms, Asia, Poland, Macedonia, Greece, Israel), Sinem Aliskan (CEE), Ruba Zeitouni (MENA) and Beatriz Cea Okan (Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Latin America, U.S. Hispanic), discuss these slate highlights, what makes them stand out, where they’re best suited to travel and why.

“In terms of our core business, which is distribution, we continue to spread our know-how and we will do what we always do,” says Okan. “We are distributing our content in more than 140 territories worldwide. Distribution will always be at the core of our business. In parallel, after 29 successful years in content distribution, we have started producing content for streaming platforms. We are also working to produce some feature films right now. We aim to keep producing high-quality productions, locally and in cooperation with major international production companies.”

See Inter Medya’s Spring 2021 Showcase here.