Seriesmakers Opens For Submissions; CBC BIPOC Initiative; Bollywood Female Gaffers Incubator; German Deals For Beyond — Global Briefs

Jesse Whittock
·3 min read
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Marti Noxon & Frank Doegler Among Showrunner Speakers For Series Mania And Beta’s Seriesmakers Initiative As It Opens For Submissions

Series Mania Forum and European content powerhouse Beta Group have opened their €120,000 Seriesmakers initiative for submissions and unveiled several high-profile speakers for its inaugural event. Marti Noxon (Sharp Objects, UnReal), Agnieszka Holland (House of Cards, Burning Bush), Michael Hirst (The Vikings, The Tudors and Frank Doegler (Game of Thrones, The Swarm) are among nine speakers unveiled for the initative’s first online edition. Janine Jackowski (Toni Erdmann, Skylines), Israeli script doctor Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz (The Girl From Oslo), Isabelle Lindberg Pechou (Trom) and Brazil’s Felipe Braga (Sintonia, LOV3) are among the mentors. Feature film directors who have had at least one movie screen in the official selection of a top film festival in the past five years who are looking to move into series production can now submit projects, with two selected for €50,000 ($52,500) awards from Beta or a new €20,000 award for emerging talent offered by the Kirch Foundation. Ten (including team efforts) will selected, before three winners take the grants home. The deadline for submissions is September 15. Laurence Herszberg, General Director of Series Mania, and Koby Gal Raday, Chief Content Officer of Beta, oversee the initiative.

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CBC-BIPOC TV & Film Showrunner Catalyst Launches At Banff

CBC, BIPOC TV & Film and the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) have unveiled an accelerator program to support the career advancement of senior writers who identify as Indigenous, Black or People of Colour. The CBC-BIPOC TV & Film Showrunner Catalyst, unveiled yesterday at the Banff World Media Festival, will provide high-level professional coaching, designed through an anti-racist and equity-focused lens, and additional tools and support systems necessary to reach a showrunner level in Canada. The inaugural participants have been selected. They are Andrew Burrows-Trotman (Frankie Drake Mysteries, Diggstown, The Porter); screenwriter, poet and emcee MOTION (Coroner, The Porter, Revenge of the Black Best Friend) and Tanzanian-born Canadian-British creative Ian Iqbal Rashid (Sort Of, This Life, Touch of Pink). Each will also be paired with an external showrunner, who will serve as a mentor. The inaugural program will run through the summer and fall.

Women In Film And Television Association India And Bollywood Grip Tools Provider Set Up Female Gaffers Program

Bollywood actress Richa Chadha and director Shuchi Talati are launching an incubator program for women wanting to work as gaffers in the Hindi film industry. They have teamed with the Women in Film and Television Association India and lighting and grip equipment provider Light N Light to create Undercurrent Lab, which officially launches today. This will provide ten participants with a week-long crash course from gaffers and cinematographers, after which they’ll be sent out into the field to work as trainees. Two will be placed on Richa and Ali’s maiden production Girls Will Be Girls. Richa — whose had planned as an all-women production operation — said she had found there were “virtually no women” working in Hindi lighting departments. Sponsored by Light N Light and powered by Mastercard and Berlinale Talents, the lab begins today and runs until June 18.

German Broadcasters Snap Up Beyond Rights Factual Content

Sky Deutschland, RTL, Discovery Germany, ZDF Studios and SevenOne. Entertainment been shopping for factual at UK-based Beyond Rights. Sky’s German arm secured a near-100-hour package comprising shows such as royal biography series Elizabeth, Prince Andrew doc The Prince and the Paedophile and competitive dog grooming show Pooch Perfect USA. RTL took Motor MythBusters, while Discovery Germany took all six seasons of Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords. ZDFS bagged MH370: The Cover Up and season two of Underground Worlds and SevenOne took the first three runs of Undercut: Wooden Treasure and the final season of Massive Engineering Mistakes.

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