Preview: Co-Production Forum at Heart of Europe International TV Festival

Within the framework of Heart of Europe International TV Festival, Polish Television (TVP) is introducing the first edition of the Co-Production Forum. The event is designed to create an opportunity to establish co-productions and business exchanges for participants within the CEE region.

“As we set up Heart of Europe International TV Festival last year, we have learned there actually is a need for an industry networking event in our region,” says Marek Solon-Lipiński, Heart of Europe International TV Festival general manager and director of the international relations department at Polish Television. “With some successful collaborations that started last year, we felt called to expand our festival part of the event with an industry branch. Being one of the largest TV broadcasters in the CEE region, we also assumed that it is our duty to lead with such an initiative, in hopes to create a space for growing opportunities for cooperations within the region but also to build a community in the field of TV content production that could undertake the dialogue with the possible partners outside of CEE.”

The organizers will select up to ten projects in three categories: feature film, feature series and documentary. Those selected will be able to present their work in front of CEE broadcasters, TVP decision-makers, film funds and other media industry professionals. The pitching sessions will take place November 14 to 17.

“Producing partnerships create a great opportunity both for handling the production with common economic input and for exchanging expertise between countries of similar cultural backgrounds,” Solon-Lipiński says. “Our aim is to explore the possibilities of such inputs and exchanges and see how we can fit into the European and worldwide TV business with producing content not only appealing to the audiences of the region but also to the general audiences outside of it. We are hoping to see how this initiative can work in that aspect, but we would also like to create an event that would form a field of study on the needs in those areas to effectively work on programming strategies for the future.”

Along with the pitching sessions, the organizers are planning panel discussions with prominent professionals that will be addressing those issues in order to create some guidelines for making successful TV content.

The Co-Production Forum is looking for film, TV series and documentary projects at various stages of preproduction. For this edition, organizers are keeping it fairly open and unlimited with the eligibility terms, “as we do want to use this event also as a means of recognizing the industry needs in our region,” Solon-Lipiński says.

He encourages those with co-pro aspirations for their project to take a chance and come to Warsaw to meet programming decision-makers from the TV business in person. “This is a great opportunity to start present or future collaborations and learn about the business in other countries,” says Solon-Lipiński. “There will be a lot of networking opportunities at our event. We would be very happy to see you in Warsaw this November.” Submissions are now open at the Heart of Europe Festival website until the end of September.