Winners Revealed for ATF Animation, Chinese & Formats Pitches

The winners of the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) Animation, Chinese and Formats Pitches have been announced after a series of live pitches that took place online.

The ATF Animation Pitch, into its fourth edition this year, was won by Hard Boiled from One Animation. The larger-than-life animated comedy is set in a town where all the characters are food-based and follows the super-sleuthing antics of best friends Benni and Hammond.

Michele Schofield, senior VP of content distribution at One Animation, said, “This win is testament to the hard work we have invested, and we hope that one or more broadcasters see the fun and the potential in this project and come on-board as commissioners or co-production partners so that we can bring this series to life and make kids laugh with every episode.”

Singapore and Malaysia talents took the top prize across three categories—Online Drama Series, Online Movie, as well as Chinese Scriptwriting Course‚ in this year’s ATF Chinese Pitch, which saw a live pitch by nine finalists.

Yeoh Chooi Keen and Liew Mei Ying won the Online Drama Series award for Seven days (七天). The story is about a girl who is on the verge of death after saving a boy. To survive, she bargains with a soul-bringer and enters the dead space to accomplish the miracle of salvation for the soul. Facing souls with deep obsession and full regret, the hero and heroine are inspired to love life and cherish the person and things around them. They commented: “We are extremely honored to be winning this competition. Although we are only amateur screenwriters, we did it. This is a great encouragement for us, and we are determined to continue to work hard and make greater progress in the future.”

The winner of the theatrical/online movie category is The Kidnapping Case (绑架案) from Sim Soo Kee and Tan Yoke Ching. The movie tells the story of a former criminal who decides to kidnap someone for his daughter’s medical expenses and in the process, unintentionally kills the hostage.

Sim said: “The pandemic gave me better insights into human nature. When society is in turmoil, some people are selfish to preserve their lives, whereas others would sacrifice themselves to help others. Our script was completed during the pandemic and is thus affected by this social phenomenon. Our characters exist in grey areas.”

The winner of the Chinese scriptwriting category was 茹茹的全家福, from Pang Mee Mee. The script tells the story of a young policewoman who comes across a family portrait drawn by 5-year-old Ruru. Soon, she begins to suspect that Ruru’s family could be involved in a missing person case. Pang said: “I hope my story will be made into a movie and through it, people will be reminded to show more care and concern for the people around us. Sometimes, a little care and support shown can provide just enough strength to carry us through a rough patch in life.”

Blog Wars took home the award at ATF Formats Pitch. The format takes an inside look at how a restaurant is launched. In the piece, producer Nick Calpakdjian combines different formats and puts influencers into leading roles. Calpakdjian said: “Blog Wars is a concept we have been bouncing around at the office for some time and the ATF Pitch gave us the push we needed to formulate a plan and present it to the market. I am hoping that we can use the momentum gained from the win to take our project to the next stage of development and meet like-minded media companies that will assist us to bring this production to the world.”