NEW YORK: Almost 400 acquisition executives spent their Sunday before MIPTV ensconced at the JW Marriott in Cannes screening 12 new buzzy drama titles from across the globe.<\/p>\n
The inaugural MIPDrama Screenings, featuring titles selected by a jury of show creators and showrunners, culminated with the presentation of the\u00a0Coup de Coeur for\u00a0Public Enemy<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, produced by Playtime Films\/Entre Chien et Loup for Belgium\u2019s RTBF and distributed by Zodiak Rights.<\/p>\n The emphasis on the power of drama today didn\u2019t end on Sunday, with screenings and a flurry of deals throughout the week. On Monday morning, programmers from\u00a0CBC, Telewizja Polska, Mediaset, TV2 Denmark and Radiodiffusion T\u00e9l\u00e9vision Ivoirienne<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0took part in a panel, moderated by\u00a0World Screen<\/em>\u2019s Anna Carugati, on what they\u2019re looking for in this ultra-crowded market. Period, contemporary, procedural, serialized, series and events are all on their shopping lists, and they\u2019re all looking to co-produce.<\/p>\n One key refrain heard from distributors, meanwhile, is how hard it is to access talent today, especially when so many producers are aligned with bigger corporations. Indeed, the week saw a fair bit of investment news, most notably by\u00a0STUDIOCANAL, which announced it had bought stakes in three companies<\/a><\/strong>: Urban Myth Films and Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch TV in the U.K., and Spanish outfit Bamb\u00fa Producciones.\u00a0Red Arrow Entertainment Group invested in a new production company, Mad Rabbit<\/a><\/strong>, which will specialize in high-end drama. The outfit is a joint venture between Canadian director and showrunner Kari Skogland and Red Arrow Entertainment. Patrick Nebout, who previously set up NICE Drama in Sweden, aligned with Beta Film\u2019s Jan Mojto to\u00a0launch the joint venture Dramacorp<\/a><\/strong>. Meanwhile, Endemol Shine Group announced that it has established\u00a0a new scripted hub in Israel<\/a><\/strong>, with plans to invest in local writers, showrunners and on-screen talent.<\/p>\n The ever-growing presence of digital buyers in the drama space was also a major theme of the week, with a flurry of announcements about SVOD and OTT licensing pacts.\u00a0Netflix bagged the exclusive worldwide streaming rights for\u00a0Marcella<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, a crime drama that hails from\u00a0The Bridge<\/em>\u00a0writer Hans Rosenfeldt. Televisa\u2019s blim service took Cisneros Studios\u2019s\u00a0Route 35,<\/em>\u00a0The Escape Valve\u00a0<\/em>(Ruta 35, La V\u00e1lvula de Escape<\/em>)<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0Hulu sealed a deal with Entertainment One (eOne)<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for the exclusive U.S. streaming rights to\u00a0The Book of Negroes<\/em>. Content Television landed\u00a0a presale for its brand-new miniseries\u00a0The Secret Agent<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0with RLJ Entertainment\u2019s Acorn brand. The thriller\u00a0Locked Up <\/em>(Vis a Vis<\/em>) from Imagina International Sales is headed to\u00a0Walter Presents in the U.K., marking the service\u2019s first Spanish buy<\/a><\/strong>. And all3media international sealed a deal with Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. for the Irish drama\u00a0Red Rock<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n European drama certainly took center stage during the week. A particular spotlight was placed on Germany, as part of the MIPTV Focus on Germany strand. Executives from ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, UFA Fiction and RAI spoke about the\u00a0power of German drama at home and abroad in a MIPTV panel<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>moderated by Carugati. The English-language co-pro\u00a0Versailles<\/em>\u00a0drummed up a host of interest, with the show\u00a0headed to more than 135 countries<\/a><\/strong>, including the U.K. with Amazon Prime and\u00a0the U.S. with Ovation TV<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n British drama continued to demonstrate its strength, with deals that included Keshet\u2019s\u00a0The A Word\u00a0<\/em>landing on SVT in Sweden<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and FremantleMedia International clinching\u00a0three deals for the drama\u00a0Capital<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, including a sale to the U.S. ITV Studios Global Entertainment\u2019s much-anticipated\u00a0Victoria<\/em>\u00a0presold across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada<\/a><\/strong>. And BBC Worldwide had a wealth of talent in town to showcase the eight-part drama\u00a0The Collection<\/em>, announcing\u00a0presales for the co-pro in Sweden and Denmark<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Want to make sure you\u2019re staying up to date with everything happening in the drama business today? Sign up for\u00a0TV Drama Daily<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0TV Drama<\/em>\u00a0breaking news alerts\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and visit\u00a0TVDrama.ws<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acquisition execs spent their Sunday before MIPTV at the JW Marriott in Cannes screening 12 new buzzy drama titles from across the globe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":5946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,70],"tags":[459],"class_list":["post-5944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-miptv-2016","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n