Rola Bauer, David W. Zucker, Tom Jennings Headlining Business Content

The Monte-Carlo Television Festival’s Business Content segment, running from June 14 to 16, will be headlined by Rola Bauer, Robin Wright, David W. Zucker, Judith Light, Tom Jennings and Brendan Foley.

“We’re extremely pleased to offer an expanded Business Content strand this year,” said Cécile Menoni, executive director of the festival. “With such an exceptional group of speakers from all areas of the global on-screen business, we’re looking forward to hosting strong and interesting debates as they explore many of the current and future opportunities and challenges facing our industry.”

Bauer, executive producer for Amazon MGM Studios, and actor Wright will take part in the session Embracing Challenges: Journey Thru the Lens of Two Women. The two will share their unique journeys as filmmakers and executive producers. Wright will also dive into her work on the upcoming psychological thriller The Girlfriend for Prime Video, which she stars in, directs and executive produces.

Bauer will also take part in the panel Embracing Chaos: Journeys Thru the Television Multiverse with Zucker, chief creative officer of Scott Free and executive producer of Dope Thief and Alien: Earth. The pair will discuss their partnership, spanning over 20 years of international co-productions, including their latest limited series, Pompeii: A Day of Fire.

In Counting the Cost: Where to Film & Get the Best Breaks, Foley, creator of Sherlock & Daughter for Starlings Entertainment, and fiction jury member Brendan Fitzgerald of Secuoya Studios will reveal the places they consider utilizing as locations for filming a series, offering insight relating to the various tax breaks and incentives numerous countries offer production teams.

Moritz Polter, producer of Hundertdreizehn for Windlight Pictures, and Anant Singh, producer of Don’t Give Up for Videovision Entertainment, will join Foley for the digitally focused panel Streaming Platforms & the Challenge of Audience Engagement Through Content, along with Rémi Tereszkiewicz of BetaSeries. They will debate how the growing number of platforms brings an overwhelming availability of content and what tools can ensure audiences are maximizing personalized content and the impact this can have for a series.

Marketing & PR: Measuring the Value of Series Campaigns will highlights how series can be taken to a new level or fight fires when things go wrong and how and why TV producers and shows need PR. Foley, Judy Lung of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and Alan Nierob of Rogers & Cowan PMK will discuss this with Michael Idato of the Sydney Morning Herald.

An international panel will come together to discuss the topic of public broadcasting in Future of the Public Broadcasting Service in the Evolving Landscape. It will feature Matthew Deaner of Screen Producers Australia, Toma De Matteis of France Télévisions, Jinhyun Park of EBS—Korea Educational Broadcasting System, Vance Van Petten of Dodge Film School and Chapman University, led by U.K. television executive veteran Graham Benson. They will discuss how they are navigating their way among their more commercial competitors.

The Women in Television lineup will feature a panel made up of Shelly Goldstein, performer and writer on Sherlock & Daughter for Starlings Entertainment; Marianne Levy, hybrid rom-com author; Light, fiction jury president; and nominee Josée Vallée of Deepfake for Sphere Media.

That’s (AI) Entertainment! will explore how staying on top of the latest AI advancements is seen as a crucial tool for professional creatives and executives, as well as its challenges and limitations. Moderated by Michel Zgarka (Hitlab), it will feature creative, executive and academic experts De Matteis, Leif Holst Jensen of Inn University and Vanessa Shapiro of Nicely Entertainment.

This year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival will see the launch of the new pitch contest Tell Me A Story, a collaboration with award-winning executive producer, writer and CEO Tom Jennings of 1895 Films. Selected finalists will pitch their projects in front of an international judging panel and have the opportunity to network with TV and entertainment executives during the Business Content segment. As an added bonus, Jennings and independent documentary producer Kristin Stasiowski will lead a masterclass on the art of filmmaking in the factual genre.

Jennings will also join the Documentary Storytelling panel alongside Tonje Hessen Schei of Dox Division and nominee Sue Turley (The Stringer, XRM Media) to discuss evolutions and challenges within the different factual, creative and commercial processes for networks and streamers.