c cis: content content report eport · r mana s uaine t e-ma we are happy to present you the...

Media Resources Management. 22 Zakrevsky St., Kiev 02660, Ukraine www.mrm.ua Tel.: +380 (44) 459-4610; e-mail: [email protected]

We are happy to present you the October issue of the CIS: Content Report where we tried to gather the most interesting up-to-date information about rapidly developing content production and distribu-tion markets of the CIS region. As far as most of the locally produced series and TV movies are further distributed and broadcast mainly inside the CIS terri-tories, we picked up the most interesting and original projects with those script-ideas that have interna-tional appeal and may further travel abroad to Eu-rope, Asia or the North America both as readymade product or formats. Besides there are a lot of full-length features recently launched into production in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries that for sure may have not only successful interna-tional distribution but also be the award winners and nominees of different international film festivals. De-spite large portion of information on the new movies, shows and series you’ll also find the detailed report on the recent deals of international distributors with the CIS-partners.

In our “Focus” we would like to tell about KIEV ME-DIA WEEK - a unique project for media market in the CIS region and Central and Eastern Europe – that took place on September 15-19 gathering numer-ous television, movie and media business experts from all over the world. This year KIEV MEDIA WEEK presented high-level consolidation of six professional

conferences, international content market and sev-eral special events in order to achieve synergy, learn about current trends of the international media busi-ness and create unified communication platform for media professionals worldwide.

In the light of recent political events the television mar-ket of Ukraine was forced to change a bit the genre of the content aired. The entertaining content loses its relevance and may seem quite defiant against the tragic events. Content Report editorial team held a discourse with Ukrainian 1+1 TV Channel program-ming director Andrei Koval who told how the broad-casting schedule is formed today.

And one more thing we’d like to remind you. Planning your business calendar for 2015 do not forget to book time to visit the major event for television and media professionals in the CIS region - KIEV MEDIA WEEK 2015. Organized by Media Resources Management company, this unique media industry project, one and only of a kind in the CIS and Central and Eastern Eu-rope is a one stop destination for the whole range of international events for media industry professionals.

Please do not forget that we are here to be your local source of information and analytics.

We wish a pleasant reading!

coNTENT REPoRTcОбзор новостей рынка производства и дистрибуции аудиовизуального контента

Ì ÅÄÈ À ÐÅÑÓÐÑÛ Ì ÅÍÅÄÆÌÅÍÒ« » №2 1 April, 2012

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coNTENT REPoRTcОбзор новостей рынка производства и дистрибуции аудиовизуального контента

№20, October 2014

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CONTENT REPORTCОбзор новостей рынка производства и дистрибуции аудиовизуального контента

МЕДИА РЕСУРСЫ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ« » №2 1 April, 2012

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CONTENT REPORTCОбзор новостей рынка производства и дистрибуции аудиовизуального контента

№12 April 30, 2013

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СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

CONTENT REPORTCIS:CМЕДИА РЕСУРСЫ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ»« № 1(9) 13 января, 2011

КИ Н О Т Е АТ Р АЛ Ь Н Ы Й Р Ы Н О К В УКР АИ Н Е :

Ц И Ф Р О В И З АЦ И Я КА К О СН О В Н О Й Т Р Е Н Д

Р АЗ В И Т И Я (25)

Media Resources Management, ул. Закревского, 22, Киев, 02660, УкраинаТел.: + 380 44 459-4610 Факс: + 380 44 459-4611 [email protected] www.mrm.ua1

тема номера слово редакцииУже в первые дни нового года нам, редакции Content Report, сразу стало понятно, что в 2011м все мы будем усердно и неустанно трудиться. Занимаясь подготовкой первого выпуска обзора новостей рынка производства и аудиовизуального контента в этом году, мы с радостью обнаружили, что даже в новогодние праздники работа во многих продакшнах идет полным ходом, а дальше, как говорится, станет еще больше. Как неоднократно было отмечено, вследствие кризиса основательно изменилась конъюнктура рынка, поменялась расстановка сил и возможностей, поэтому работать действительно есть и будет над чем. Подтверждением тому является количество собранного в этом (полупраздничном) номере материала.

В сегодняшней теме номера мы остановились на одной из самых болезненных тем отечественной киноиндустрии – рынке кинотеатров. На страницах Content Report мы неоднократно публиковали мнения о том, что едва ли не основной проблемой (хотя эту тему активно поднимают все, кому не безразлична судьба национального кинематографа), сдерживающей развитие индустрии «полного метра» на постсоветском пространстве, является катастрофическая нехватка кинозалов. Однако рынок продолжает стремительно развиваться. И если поводов для оптимизма относительно увеличения количества кинотеатров попрежнему не так много , то по внедрению современных технологий за прошлый год имеются все основания для гордости за это. Между тем попытаемся разобраться, есть ли свет в конце тоннеля?!.

Первый номер Content Report выходит в канун Старого Нового года, который (наконецто) завершает череду праздников, поэтому еще раз хотим пожелать нашим подписчикам в 2011 году найти свой верный путь и следовать ему с упорством, трудясь не покладая рук. У каждого своя дорога, но цель у нас одна – развивать и улучшать отечественный рынок. По коням, господа!

Артем ВакалюкГлавный редактор

Content Report

сергей каратаев : «на данный момент

еще остаются нераспроданные фильмы, которые были созданы до

кризиса» (31)

интервью номера

Ри

с. О

леси

Сав

енко

ПР ОИ З В ОД СТВ О : (2)СЕ Р И АЛ (2)

ТЕ Л Е Ф И Л Ь М (7)

ТЕ Л Е Ш ОУ (10)

АНИМАЦИЯ (12)

ДОКУ МЕ НТАЛЬ НЫ Й ПР ОЕ КТ (13)

К И Н ОФ И Л Ь М (14)

Д И СТР И Б УЦ И Я (15)

КАД Р Ы (20)

Т Е Л Е ПО КАЗ (21)

Т Е ХН ОЛ ОГ И И (22)

ПР О КАТ В УКР АИ Н Е (24)

О ТР АСЛЕ В Ы Е МЕ Р О ПР ИЯ ТИЯ (29)

Review of audiovisual content production and distribution in the CIS countries

Media Resources Management

We are happy to present you the April issue of the CIS: Content Report where we tried to gather the most interesting up-to-date information about rapidly developing content production and distribution mar-kets of the CIS region. As far as most of the locally produced series and TV movies are further distrib-uted and broadcast mainly inside the CIS territories, we picked up the most interesting and original proj-ects with those script ideas that have international appeal and may further travel abroad to Europe, Asia or the North America both as readymade product or formats. Besides there are a lot of full-length features recently launched into production in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other CIS states that for sure may have not only successful international distribution but also be the award winners and nominees of different international film festivals. Despite large portion of in-formation on the new movies, shows and series you’ll also find the detailed report on the recent distribution deals.

In our “Focus” we continue the cycle of articles dedi-cated to the current situation on TV markets of the post-Soviet countries. The region is developing rap-idly both in terms of its TV market volume and the number of players on it led by such states as Rus-sia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In previous issue we focused on TV markets of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and this time we’ll provide a short analy-sis of such territories as Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova.

Last autumn members of Russian association of televi-sion and movie producers chose Red Square Screen-ings as the most important industry event of the season. The idea of the forum aimed at showcasing the Russian cinema for the international film community belongs to Yevgeny Gindilis – Red Square Screenings’ execu-tive director, founder and producer general of Russian film company TVINDIE. He is also a member of Euro-pean Film Academy (EFA). In an exclusive interview to CIS: Content Report he told about achievements, pri-orities and plans of his company and his own as well as about the experience of international coproduction.

And one more thing we’d like to remind you. Plan-ning you business calendar for 2013 do not forget to book time to visit the major event for televi-sion and media professionals in the CIS region - KIEV MEDIA WEEK 2013, September 10-13, 2013. Organized by Media Resources Manage-ment company, this unique media industry proj-ect, one and only of a kind in the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe is a one stop destination for five international media industry events.

Please do not forget that we are here to be your local source of information and analytics.

We wish a pleasant reading!

CONTENTS

TV MARKETS: UKRAINE, BELARUS, GEORGIA, MOLDOVA

(23)

FOCUS

YEVGENY GINDILIS: THE WORK OF

EUROPEAN PRODUCERS CAN’T

EVEN BE COMPARED TO THE ONE WE HAVE

TO DO (25)

INTERVIEW

DEAR COLLEAGUES

Production: (2)SerieS (2)TV moVieS (7)TV ShowS (9)FeaTure FilmS (11)

distribution (16)cinema distribution Year 2012 in ukraine (22)

focus (23)

interview (25)

Media Resources Management

Contents

KIEV MEDIA WEEK 2014: HOW IT WAS

(25)

focus

AnDrEI KOVAl: “If we succeed to receive for production the same

budget as we used to spend for russian content acquisitions, I think we will be able

to establish an efficient production process”

(31)

IntervIew

DeAr ColleAgues

Production: (2)SerieS (2)TV moVieS (8)TV ShowS (10)FeaTure FilmS (12)

distribution (19)cinema distribution Year 2013 in ukraine (24)

focus (25)

interview (31)

http://mrm.ua/en/

№20, October 2014

2 Media Resources Management. 22 Zakrevsky St., Kiev 02660, Ukraine www.mrm.ua Tel.: +380 (44) 459-4610; e-mail: [email protected]

production production production

Producer: Elena Vasilieva.Director: Semen Gorov.Script: Nikolai Kutsik.Cast: Yuri Gorbunov, Nazar Zad-niprovsky, Igor Skripko, Galina Bezruk.number of episodes: 20.Genre: Sitcom.

A rElATIVE frOM MOSCOW

Ukrainian production company 1+1 Production is shooting 20-episode sitcom A relative from Moscow. The project pre-miere is set for this year.

Synopsis: When Valera’s father runs away to Great Britain rescu-ing his life from FSB and mafia the son accidentally got to know about uncle Ivan – father’s brother who lives in Ukraine. With-out a passport for travel abroad and only with a hundred dollars in a pocket Valera has got only one chance – to find the uncle and hide at his place until the father settles the situation. Such way he finds himself in a Hutsul (Hutsuls - ethno-cultural group inhabiting the Carpathian mountains, Ukraine) village where no-body has ever seen a “moskal” (aka Russian). Now he has only two ways: to change himself or to change the Hutsuls.

series

1+1 PrODuCTIOn

Producers: Olga Kochetkova, Rauf Atamalibekov.Director: Roman Gapanyuk.Script: Ilya Tsofin.Cast: Dmitry Vlaskin, Aleksandra Bogdanova, Anna Mikhailovskaya, Olga Tumaykina, Natalia Danilova, Kirill Kuznetsov.number of episodes: 8.Genre: Drama.

In THE SAGITTArIuS

Russian production company Central Partnership in copro-duction with TM Production started shooting 8-episode biogra-phy drama In the Sagittarius. Filming takes place in Minsk and will last till the 30th of November. The project is commissioned by Russian Channel One.

Synopsis: It is the story of “Soviet Pele” Eduard Streltsov. The Melbourne Olympics champion, great forward of the nation-al team and FC Torpedo he was struggling till final victory not only in the field but also in his life. Complicated relations with the women, enviers’ intrigues, authorities’ revenge, and friends’ betrayal – he passed through all those hardships thanks to the fans’ devotion and endless love to football.

series

CEnTrAl PArTnErSHIP, TM PrODuCTIOn

Producer: Natalia Klibanova.Director: Sergei Komarov.Script: Sergei Komarov, Julia Kli-menko, Andrei Romanian, Natalia Koretskaya, Mikhail Kabanov.Cast: Alexei Barabash, Yevgenia Brick, Kirill Safonov, Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, Yevgeny Stychkin, Vladimir Simonov.number of episodes: 8.Genre: Biopic.

THOSE EyES VIS-à-VIS

Russian production company Central Partnership started shooting 8-episode biography drama Those Eyes Vis-à-Vis. Filming takes place in Moscow and will last till the middle of De-cember.

Synopsis: Simple guy from Odessa Valeriy Obodzinskiy thanks to phenomenal talent becomes a real superstar in the USSR. He does not look like all others – his songs are only about love and pop-clothes are lightsome and alternative. While the country is building its “socialistic bright future today” Obodzinskiy does not sings anthems to the party and Komsomol. He sings about love to a woman in a country that has “no sex”. As far as he does not compromise – he neither enters the Communist Party, nor sings the patriotic morale-boosting songs – he is gradually be-ing cleared from the stage as persona non grata.

series

CEnTrAl PArTnErSHIP

Olga Kochetkova

№20, October 2014



Producers: Anton Shchukin, Aleksandr Dulerayn, Valery Fe-dorovich.Director: Andrey Dzhunkovsky.Script: Petr Vnukov, Irina Arkadi-eva.Cast: Martha Nosova, Nikita Panfilov, Anastasia Meskova, Anton Denisenko, Maria Shuma-kova, Roman Mayakin, Lukerya Il’yashenko, Anastasia Klyueva.number of episodes: 8.Genre: Sitcom.

DOlCE VITA 2

Russian production company Good Story Media started shoot-ing the second season of sitcom Dolce Vita. The series produc-tion is commissioned by Russian TnT TV Channel.

Synopsis: The primary objective was to change the characters’ personalities to the limit. Each of the characters will be discov-ered from absolutely different angles. Igor will gradually start changing for the better. However, the one he was in the first sea-son is nothing but a mask. The reason was that a woman hurt his feeling in the past…

series

GOOD STOry MEDIA

Producer: Rodion Pavlyuchik. Director: Aleksandr Itygilov. Script: Natalia Shimboretskaya. number of episodes: 4. Genre: Detective.

A nEffy

This September Russian production company Green film start-ed shooting 4-episode detective A neffy. The movie premiere is planned by the end of this year.

Synopsis: The senior Shalimovs used to reject cynically their son’s bride – provincial girl Yulia – favoring him as a wife Olia Gladisheva – their friends’ and partners’ daughter. Dima could not forget his beloved and started seeking the girl who had run away and was pregnant with his child. Unfortunately he died in a traffic accident. Lyudmila Shalimova died a year after that. Sev-en years after those tragic events Shalimov got to the hospital and he understands that his days might be numbered…

series

GrEEn fIlM

Producers: Rodion Pavliuchik.Director: Stas Mareev.Script: Kamil Zakirov.Cast: Yevgeniy Sidikhin, Igor No-voselov, Anatoliy Kotenev, Nina Kurpiakova.number of episodes: 4.Genre: Action.

VIKInG 2

On the 31st of August Russian company Green film started shooting the second season of 4-episode action Viking. The movie premiere will take place this year.

Synopsis: A state of emergency is set in a frontier marine unit – a corpse of the Russian Fleet captain is found there. 30-year-old investigator Denis Shevelkov is sent to investigate this case. While he is doing his job one more death of an officer-seaman occurs and another… Denis investigates further and gets to know about the “additional” business of the perished seamen – they supervised the smuggling and let pass through them the barges with illegal goods. The investigators have some baize about some Viking – a fearless fighter with corruption and be-trayal.

series

GrEEn fIlM

Producers: Olesya Gasanova, Ilham Jalilov.Directors: Dmitry Korobkin, Rashid Sulejmenov.Script: Rashid Sulejmenov, Albina Akhmetova.Cast: Zhuldiz Makhanova, Ajgerim Aidar, Kalampyr Aysangaliev.Genre: Romance.

SyrGAlyM 2

Kazakh production company Korkem film finished shooting the second season of multi-episode romance Syrgalym. The series premiere will take place this autumn. The project is commis-sioned by Kazakhstan TV channel.

Synopsis: The story tells about young girl Syrgalym who moves to the family of her father’s old friend after her parents’ death. The girl was getting on well with her new family in the first sea-son and in the second season she makes a career in the bank. Thanks to her strong personal skills she overcomes all the dif-ficulties related to her career, namely in the banking activity.

series

KOrKEM fIlM

Aleksandr Dulerayn

Rodion Pavliuchik

Zhuldiz Makhanova

№20, October 2014



Producers: Ruben Dishdishyan, Olga Tretyakova.Director: Igor Sternberg.Script: Natalia Glasenko, Daria Aleshina.Cast: Elvira Bolgova, Oleg Maslennikov-Voitov.number of episodes: 4.Genre: Romance.

MIDDlE-AGED GIrl

Russian production company Mars Media Entertainment started shooting 4-episode romance Middle-Aged Girl. Film-ing takes place in Kazan.

Synopsis: Ksyusha is almost 40 and all her life she is used to put aside her personal life. She cannot dare adopt Pavlik whom she comes to see in an orphan asylum, oust impudent everlasting bridegroom Vadik, bring down her friends who unceremoniously interfere into her life and call to order bandit Vakha whose res-taurant plagues life out around. But when she got to know about her fatal diagnosis Ksyusha understands that she has no “later” and starts living another life…

series

MArS MEDIA EnTErTAInMEnT

Producers: Aleksandr Kushayev, Vladimir Ignatiev.Director: Robert Manukyan.Script: Marina Shihaleeva Alla Guseva.Cast: Anna Proskurina, Artem Fedotov, Maxim Radugin, Irina Shevchuk, Anatoly Guriev, Martha Golubeva.number of episodes: 4.Genre: Romance.

THE SnOW WIll THAW In SEPTEMbEr

Russian production company Mediaprofsoyuz started shoot-ing 4-episode television romance The Snow Will Thaw in Sep-tember. The project production is commissioned by russia 1 TV Channel.

Synopsis: Masha is influential official Fedor Vishnevsky’s only daughter. She lives in a luxurious flat with the father and aunt who just worship her. Ivan is a simple guy from the village. He runs a little mobile shop and helps his parents. Once those two – Masha and Ivan – accidentally meet and fall in love with each other. They will have to overcome a lot of obstacles.

series

MEDIAPrOfSOyuz

Director: Michislav Yuzovsky. Cast: Vladimir Yaglych, Leonid Kulagin, Yulia Galkina, Roman Madyanov. number of episodes: 20. Genre: Detective.

SASHA GOOD, SASHA EVIl

Russian filmmaker Michislav yuzovsky is shooting 20-episode detective Sasha Good, Sasha Evil. Filming takes place in Sev-astopol and it is going to last till the end of November. The proj-ect is commissioned by russia 1 TV channel. The series pre-miere will take place next summer.

Synopsis: The movie is about some major from Moscow. He was sent to assist the Crimean colleagues to investigate a crime. The major possesses nice deduction skills, intellect and acumen. He will uncover the swindlers’ business. The episodes of the series have a common thread of the scenes of criminal investigation.

series

MICHISlAV yuzOVSKy PrOjECT

Producers: Lyubov Kalinskaya, Igor Lebedev, Bob Van Ronkel.Director: Oksana Sidorenko.Cast: Andrey Chadov, Armand Assante, Igor Zhizhikin, Dmitry Ra-tomsky, Kristina Kazinskaya, Ly-ubov Tolkalina, Evgeny Volovenkonumber of episodes: 8.Genre: Action.

bATAGAMI CASE

Russian production company Orthodox finished shooting 8-episode action batagami Case. The series production is commissioned by russia 2 TV channel. The movie premiere is planned in October.

Synopsis: The day when his bride dies bodyguard Ilia makes a decision to quit his job. His former colleague and friend Yura could hardly relieve the guy from his depressive syndrome and recruit him in new Department of Witness Protection. Ilia dives into the job astonishing the colleagues with his unconventional thinking and flash-like proactive moves. Soon Ilia understands that his bride’s death was related to the sophisticated, devilishly inventive revenge of some foreign businessman in respect to a Moscow merchant whose business is hardly clean.

series

OrTHODOx

Michislav Yuzovsky

№20, October 2014



Producer: Igor Tolstunov.Director: Leonid Plyaskin.Script: Anna Suvorova.Cast: Nikita Tezin, Ekaterina Shpitsa, Yuri Chursin, Alexei Vertkov, Yuri Borisov, Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, Polina Pushkaruk, Vitaly Kishchenko.number of episodes: 12.Genre: War drama.

THE yOunG GuArD

Russian production company PrOfIT started shooting 12-epi-sode war drama The young Guard. Filming process will last till December in Rostov region near the Don and in Moscow. The project is commissioned by Russian Channel One.

Synopsis: July 1942. The Great Patriotic War. The units of the Soviet Army left the mining town Krasnodon. The fascist army occupied the town. In response to the Nazi acts of atrocity the young Komsomol members, former school children form the underground organization with title The Young Guard. This orga-nization conducts the covert war against the Nazis: young guys distribute the leaflets, free the Red Army prisoners of war, burn down the German stock market and rescue their compatriots from the fascist slavery.

series

PrOfIT

Producers: Aleksandr Kushayev, Irina Smirnova. Director: Igor Ketchaev. Script: Vadim Avloshenko. Cast: Maria Kulikova, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Petr Barancheev, Anna Bashenkova, Alina Kiziyaro-va, Petr Nesterov. number of episodes: 4. Genre: Romance.

lATE blOOMEr

Russian production company russkoye started shooting 4-epi-sode romance late bloomer. The project is commissioned by russia 1 TV channel.

Synopsis: Vera’s happiness is ruined in a blink – when her be-loved husband after long years of marriage leaves for a young mistress. But soon the fate gives Vera an unexpected present: Sergey appears in her life – a widower and quite pleasant man in every respect. However, there are lots of obstacles in front of their relationship. Sergey’s risky job presents some evil sur-prises. And Sergey’s old friend will go all lengths to be happy…

series

ruSSKOyE

Producers: Aleksandr Kushayev, Irina Smirnova.Director: Vsevolod Aravin.Script: Oksana Youzhanina.Cast: Darya Egorova, Ivan Zhid-kov, Alexei Yanin, Yulia Yurchenko, Anna Yakunin, Vladimir Lysenko.number of episodes: 20.Genre: Romance.

lOVE blOSSOMS In SPrInG

Russian production company russkoye started shooting 20-episode romance love blossoms in Spring. The project is commissioned by russia 1 TV channel.

Synopsis: The beautiful woman with rare name Spring is a hap-py wife and mother. Her husband Igor runs some business and takes care of family (his wife and their son Serezha) well-being. After a horrible assault the woman loses memory and disappears in an alien country. Soon she is declared dead and the relatives stop searching for her. Two years after that coming back home Spring literally is like in hell. The ex-husband and best friend do not recognize her, declare her crazy and drive her away…

series

ruSSKOyE

Producers: Aleksandr Kushayev, Irina Smirnova.Director: Julia Krasnova.Script: Yekaterina Tirdatova.Cast: Maxim Averin, Maria Kuliko-va, Dmitry Miller, Olga Pavlovets.number of episodes: 24.Genre: Romance.

SKlIfOSOVSKy 4

Russian production company russkoye started shooting the fourth season the multi-episode romance Sklifosovsky. The project production is commissioned by russia 1 TV channel. The series premiere is planned in spring 2015.

series

ruSSKOyE

Aleksandr Kushayev

№20, October 2014



Synopsis: A new family life is waiting for Bragin – with beloved woman Marina Narochinskaya. It will be quite difficult for them to achieve peace and happiness. Bragin’s bastard daughter Veroni-ka, a teenager with difficult disposition, is a serious ordeal of their relationship. Bragin’s colleague Polina’s dream of “beautiful life” has come true – now she has everything she had lacked before. However, will it bring her happiness and hasn’t she lost something important in pursuit of life comfort?

Producer: Aleksandr Tsekalo.Director: Aleksandr Kott.Cast: Pavel Derevyanko, Svetlana Martsinkevich, Maxim Vitorgan.number of episodes: 17.format: Life on Mars.Genre: Drama, fantasy.

THE OTHEr SIDE Of THE MOOn 2

Russian production center Sreda started shooting the sec-ond season of fantastic scripted movie The Other Side of the Moon. Filming started in Minsk. The project is Russian adapta-tion of the BBC original series Life on Mars and is commissioned by Russian Channel One.

Synopsis: In the first season the main character operative officer Mikhail Soloviev was chasing a serial killer. During the arrest the maniac tried to escape from Soloviev on a car and knocked him down. Thus, the policeman is in coma and at the same time in some mystical manner in 1979 he found himself in his father’s body – senior lieutenant of the Soviet police Mikhail Soloviev. In the second season Soloviev woke up in the moment where “the brain exploded”.

series

SrEDA

Producers: Daria Lavrova, Vlad Riashyn.Director: Dmitry Brusnikin.Script: Vladimir Arkusha, Denis Cherviakov, Sergey Stepanov.Cast: Anna Banshchikova, An-drei Kazakov, Dmitry Kulichkov, Vladislav Pavlov, Vladimir Nikolen-ko, Eduard Chekmazov, Aleksandr Makogon, Denis Burgazliev.number of episodes: 16.format: The Closer.Genre: Detective.

SnOOPEr

Russian-Ukrainian production company Star Media started shooting 16-episode detective Snooper. Filming takes place in Gelendzhik. The series is commissioned by Russian Channel One.

Synopsis: Police lieutenant-colonel Aleksandra Kushnir is trans-ferred from the Internal Affairs Directorate in a big city to a little seaside town where she was appointed as a chief of criminal in-vestigation section. The men’s police team meets the new wom-an leader cautiously. But due to her logic Aleksandra success-fully solves some bad crimes. She quickly earns great reputation among her new colleagues.

series

STAr MEDIA

Producers: Larisa Zhuravskaya, Vlad Riashyn.Director: Alina Chebotareva.Script: Irina Kashnitskaya, Ksenia Osadchenko.Cast: Pter Krasilov, Natalia Luke-icheva, Anastasia Zadorozhnaja, Mikhail Khimichev, Elena Droby-sheva, Andrei Fedinchik.number of episodes: 4.Genre: Romance.

WE’ll TAlK WHEn yOu rETurn

Russian-Ukrainian production company Star Media started shooting new 4-episode romance We’ll Talk When you re-turn. Filming takes place in Kiev. The series is commissioned by russia 1 TV channel. The project premiere is planned for 2015.

Synopsis: The air crash resulted in death of all the present aboard. Nadia and Alena’s husbands were also among them. They are complete namesakes, both are Ivans Tikhonovs. The women are mourning over their close people but suddenly it is figured out that only one of them was aboard. Nobody knows why but another man left the aircraft at the very last minute. Na-dia and Alena start searching for him. Henceforth they are con-nected with common misfortune and hope. Both of them with sinking hearts are waiting for the messages from each other: after all finding one Ivan means another Ivan’s death.

series

STAr MEDIA

Vlad Riashyn

Irina Smirnova

Aleksandr Tsekalo

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Producers: Artem Dollezhal, Vlad Riashyn.Director: Eduard Parry.Script: Maxim Belozor.Cast: Leonid Telezhinsky, Nikolai Shatohin, Anna Vorkueva, Antoni-na Divina, Stanislav Boklan, Andrei Nazimov.number of episodes: 12.Genre: Adventure drama.

MAESTrO

Russian-Ukrainian production company Star Media started shooting 12-episode adventure drama Maestro. Filming pro-cess takes place in Odessa. The series is commissioned by Rus-sian Channel One. The movie premiere is set for 2015.

Synopsis: Year 1986. After eight months of sailing on a merchant ship as a motorist Pasha returns to Odessa. He is a young and handsome guy who started travelling for the sake of his girlfriend Lily. He had to earn money to buy a cooperative apartment – such was the provision of Lily’s father – a man of prosperity and celebrity in Odessa. Otherwise Pasha could not even dream of marrying Lily…

series

STAr MEDIA

Director: Maxim Papernik.Cast: Maria Aronova, Mikhail Politseymako, Valeria Khodos, Yuri Dyak, Olga Lukyanenko.number of episodes: 4.Genre: Comedy.

ICE SKATES fOr THE CHAMPIOnESS

ukraine TV channel finished shooting 4-episode comedy Ice Skates for the Championess. Filming took place in Kiev. The premiere will be on the New Year’s Eve.

Synopsis: The events take place in Solnechniy town during the figure skating competition. The major sponsor was Valeria Volkova sporting goods store. All the sportsmen compete in her skates but Anna. She decided to support the domestic producer and enter the ice in the skates from the local shop. The girl’s performance was successful. She managed to capture gold. However, this had some consequences for the sportswoman…

series

uKrAInE

Producers: Maxim Filatov, Mikhail Tkachenko.Director: Mark Gorobetc.Script: Mikhail Bobrovnik, Denis Utochkin, Denis Karnaukhov, Ma-ria Krasheninnikova, Olga Havzhu, Vladimir Koukoviakin, Roman Rozengurt.Cast: Dmitry Pevtsov, Ilya Lyu-bimov, Roman Kurtsyn, Irina An-tonenko.number of episodes: 26.format: El Barco.Genre: Romance.

THE SHIP 2

Russian production company yellow, black and White in co-production with Mainstream film and u TV Channel started shooting the second season of science fiction adventure ro-mance The Ship. The project is a local adaptation of the Spanish series El Barco. Shooting started in late August in Moscow and thereafter will continue in Greece. The series is commissioned by CTC TV channel.

Synopsis: Step by step it is clear that all the crew members of “Running…” were selected with purpose, each of them has his own little secret. So, not only the safety instructor and medical observer have something to hide. All the secrets stem from the past...

series

yEllOW, blACK AnD WHITE

Artem Dollezhal

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Hurry uP TO lOVE

Russian boomerang production studio started working on new TV romance Hurry up to love. The project is commis-sioned by Telefilm Production. Shooting is underway.

Synopsis: Aviator Anton is grounded – he’s got neurasthe-nia because of the divorce. As his wife doesn’t want to leave daughter with the father, Anton kidnaps her and moves in a communal apartment. There he meets Asya, spoiled woman who used to live high, and quarrels start to break one after an-other. But it is well-known fact – there is a thin line between hatred and love…

tV MoVies

Producers: Rodion Pavlyuchyk, Pavel Babin.Director: Maxim Demchenko.Script: Alexei Kolmogorov.Cast: Pavel Trubiner, Svetlana Ivanova, Yuliya Mel’nikova, Kyrill Pletnyov, Vladimir Sterzhakov.Genre: Romance.

bOOMErAnG

lET ME KISS yOu. brIDE`S fATHEr

Russian production company Green film finished shooting new television comedy let Me Kiss you. bride`s father. It will be the fourth part of the TV cycle let Me Kiss you. The project is commissioned by Russian Telefilm Production and is currently in the postproduction period. Shooting took place in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area. The film premiere is expected this year.

Synopsis: Grigoriy Vlasov is now an exemplary family guy and father. Natasha and Grigoriy live in his apartment in St. Peters-burg where they raise their wonderful three year old son Ro-dion. Grigoriy`s daughter from his first marriage Masha arrives home from London where she studied for the past few years. But she comes with her boyfriend and Vlasov decides to test the strength of a young man.

tV MoVies Producers: Rodion Pavlyuchik, Pavel Babin, Mikhail Churbanov.Script: Vadim Golovanov.Cast: Igor Lifanov, Maria Kulikova, Boris Shcherbakov, Mikhail Try-asorukov.Genre: Comedy.

GrEEn fIlM

POISOn

Russian prodco Progress started working on new TV detec-tive Poison. Movie production is commissioned by Peretz TV channel. Principal photography takes place in St. Petersburg.

Synopsis: The only son of Alexander and Olga becomes a drug taker. Father tries everything to detox him, but fails. Once he comes home and finds his wife dead. Obviously, Alexander Jr. is a prime suspect. But was it really him?

tV MoVies

Director: Vadim Saetgaliev.Script: Rauf Kubayev.Cast: Roman Gribkov, Yuliya Ru-dina, Sergey Volkov, Peter Zhurav-lyov, Alexandra Mamkaeva, Andrey Babenko, Vadim Volkov, Sergey Stukalov, Sergey Sintsov.Genre: Detective.

PrOGrESS

VETErAn

Russian film company Triiks Media started shooting new TV action Veteran. The project is commissioned by nTV channel.

Synopsis: Novikov is a lonely military veteran. He visits psychi-atrist from time to time, and one day he finds out that he’s got a new doctor in charge, Lena. The same day he notices someone spying upon him. Is it just a coincidence?

tV MoVies Producers: Inessa Yurchenko, Sergey Shcheglov.Director: Denis Skvortsov.Script: Andrey Tumarkin, Alexan-der Kachan.Genre: Action.

TrIIKS MEDIA

Rodion Pavliuchik

Rauf Kubayev

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THE SPAnISH

Russian film company Triiks Media started working on new TV adventure drama The Spanish commissioned by nTV chan-nel. Shooting is underway.

Synopsis: Two homeless boys Sasha and Kostya are best friends, who genuinely believe in justice. Until they find them-selves in an orphanage. Everyone there is against them – di-rector, staff, charity-boys. One Spanish family decides to adopt Sasha, and Kostya persuades him to agree…

tV MoVies Producers: Inessa Yurchenko, Sergey Shcheglov.Director: Anatoliy Artamonov.Cast: Alexey Nilov, Vera Shpak, Alexey Krasnotsvetov, Artem Kara-syov and others.Genre: Drama.

TrIIKS MEDIA


Inessa Yurchenko

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1+1

tV shows

Hosts: Dmitry Khrustalyov, Viktor Vasiliev.

bEAuTy SAlOnS’ bATTlE

Ukrainian broadcaster 1+1 announced a casting call seeking beauty salons’ owners and workers for the new reality-make-over show beauty Salons’ battle.

Beauty Salons’ Battle is a contest for the best beauty shop due to staff professionalism, range of services and their prices. There is no jury – ordinary customers are those who decide.

CHAnnEl OnE

tV showsVArIETy THEATrE

Russian Channel One is preparing a new musical enter-taining show Variety Theatre. The show premiere is set for October 12.

The show challenges ten celebrities to perform as different icon-ic Russian music artists every week. Judged by the panel they will split in pairs and compete in the same genre receiving points in the end of every performance. All points are summed up in the finale and who has got the most – becomes the winner.

СТС

tV showsEVEryTHInG WIll bE OK!

Russian broadcaster СТС is preparing new female-oriented daytime show Everything Will be OK! Premiere date has not been set yet. The show is a local adaptation of Ukrainian STB channel format.

It is a variety talk show related to cooking, crafting, gardening, decorating, healthy life, sports and fashion etc.

jury: Larisa Latynina, Igor’ Zhyzhykin, Klara Novikova.format: I Can Do That.

ruSSIA 1

tV showsI CAn DO THAT!

Russian broadcaster russia 1 is working on entertaining show I Can Do That! - the local adaptation of Israeli format of the same name. Sold by Israeli company Armoza formats it is pro-duced by WeiT Media. The show premiere is set for October 12.

Viewers will see celebrities pushed to their limit: They will have to master a new skill in just one week, choosing from live acts by walking (or running, skipping and jumping) down the interac-tive studio steps and decide if they can do that. The categories are the following – Strength, Skill, Humour, Dancing, Music and Secret.

SAVIK SHuSTEr STuDIO

tV shows THE GuIlD

Ukrainian prodco Savik Shuster Studio is working on the in-tellectual quiz show The Guild. Currently the pilot episode is ready. It is still unknown what channel will air the programme.

During four rounds of the show three millionaires answer the questions on what to do in different tangled situations with a his-torical basis – all these challenges had been previously faced by the Greats like Churchill or Napoleon. Also contestants have

Duration: 45 min.

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special tasks for which they get ‘staff’ points, points from real ‘followers’, people who support them. The winner is the one who made the right decisions and has the most followers.

By the way, in the beginning, all the three contestants make an equal money stakes, and viewers who guessed the winner get the money from the other two losers.

jury: Ksenia Sobchak, Vladislav Lisovets, Denis Simachov.Host: Natalya Stefanenko.format: America’s Next Top Model.

u

tV showsruSSIA’S TOP MODEl 5

Russian u channel is preparing the fifth season of russia’s Top Model 5 reality-show after two years of hiatus. It is a local ad-aptation of US format America’s Next Top Model. Shooting will take place in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It sees several women compete for the title of ‘russia’s Top Model’, providing them with an opportunity to begin their career in the modeling industry. This time the show will be international – with Russian expatriates from all over the world – USA, Israel, UK, Canada, Estonia etc.

Host: Evelina Blyodans.DOMASHnIy

tV showsbEAuTy jury

Russian Domashniy channel started shooting new makeover-show beauty jury.

Nine experts will help several female contestants to become better, finally to believe in themselves and change the fashion style. But there will be only one winner…

TET

tV shows lOVE OnlInE

Ukrainian TET TV channel announced a casting call for the origi-nal romantic reality-show love Online.

Our heroes live in different countries. They are intimately close, but in the Internet only! They send hundreds of messages to each other, but never had a real date. Love Online will give them three days to turn their virtual love into a real one.

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ArT PICTurES, WEIT MEDIA

THE bArMAn

Russian production company Art Pictures in coproduction with WeiT Media started shooting new feature-length comedy The barman. The movie budget is $2.6 million. The film premiere is planned in 2015.

Synopsis: Vadik is an ordinary office worker without any per-spectives. Desperate at least somehow to change his boring life Vadik once visits an empty bar where mysterious Barman of-fers a cocktail to a young man. The character drinks a strange cocktail and in a moment Vadik’s world transforms beyond rec-ognition: now people find him interesting and attractive. How-ever, Vadik is going to get to know whether he would be able to change his life only by means of magic cocktails.

Producers: Fyodor Bondarchuk, Dmitry Rudovskiy, Timur Wein-stein.Director: Dina Shturmanova.Script: Denis Kaymanov.Cast: Vitaly Gogunsky, Ivan Ohlobystin, Julia Parshuta, Yuri Stoyanov, Zhanna Epple, Alek-sandr Lymarev.Genre: Comedy.

feature filMs

ArTlITE

A DOCTOr

Russian production company Artlite prepares for shooting new feature-length tragicomedy A Doctor. Currently the project is in preproduction stage. The movie is produced with the financial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture.

Synopsis: The story tells about everyday work of the main char-acter Yuri Melnikov, a neurosurgeon. All his life he makes disap-pointing diagnoses to his patients… Therefore he has a phobia: he is afraid that some illness may evolve inside him and make him helpless.

Director, script: Yuri Kutsenko.Cast: Yuri Kutsenko, Oksana Akin’shina, Maria Poroshina.Genre: Tragicomedy.

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bAzElEVS

DrAGOnS

Russian film company bazelevs started shooting new feature-length fantasy romance Dragons after the novel by fantasts Sergey and Marina Dyachenko. Filming takes place in Bulgaria and will continue in Moscow in December. The movie premiere is planned in autumn 2015.

Synopsis: In the midst of a wedding the dragon abducted prin-cess Miroslava and took her to his castle on the island. Her rela-tives, bridegroom are in the past. Now she has only stone im-prisonment in a strange party of exotic Handy-Leggy and mys-terious young man… However, who is he and how did he get to the island? She will disclose this secret too late: her love to the dragon-man will turn a torture for both of them…

Producer: Timur Bekmambetov.Director: Indar Dzhendubaev.Cast: Matvei Lykov, Maria Poez-zhaeva, Vyacheslav Chepurch-enko.Genre: Fantasy.

feature filMs

COSMOPOlIS fIlMSEnlIGHTEnMEnT Armenian filmmaker Hovhannes Galstyan in coproduction with French Cosmopolis films started preproduction period of works over new feature-length drama Enlightenment. Filming process will start this autumn in Yerevan. In summer 2015 shoot-ing will continue in the Mediterranean.

Synopsis: The picture tells us about the life of a childless couple – 44-year-old writer Gabriel and 42-year-old oncologist Mari. The fear of loneliness makes ageing Mari to use the final possi-bility to have a child – assisted reproduction. This decision is the beginning of the biggest ordeal of her married life.

Director: Hovhannes Galstyan.Cast: Artashes Kazanchyan, Vivi-enne Bastadzhyan, Nanor Petro-syan.Genre: Drama.

Oksana Akin’shina

Hovhannes Galstyan

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CTV

WITHOuT WEEKEnDS

In the end of September, Russian production company CTV finished shooting new feature-length mystic comedy Without Weekends that took place in Yaroslavl region. The movie bud-get is RUB50 million ($1.25 million).

Synopsis: The plot tells about 25-year-old provincial guy Kolia who arrives at Moscow to his uncle. He is ready to work every day. And the uncle arranges him the position of a guard… on the cemetery. The new guard starts the first duty but he is not ready to the events that occur at the cemetery after dark. Moreover, many more nights are ahead and Kolia has to choose: to settle the situation with the mysterious guests or run away.

Producer: Sergey Selyanov.Directors: Ilya Chizhikov, Anton Chizhikov.Script: Vladimir Seryshev.Cast: Aleksandr Pal, Igor Zhizhikin, Vladimir Sychev, Alek-sandr Ilyin, Kristina Kazinskaya.Genre: Mystical comedy.

feature filMs

GrAffITI fIlM PrODuCTIOn, МРМ

nObODy nOWHErE

Russian production company Graffiti film Production in co-production with French company MPM films started prepro-duction period of works over new feature-length drama nobody nowhere. Russian P.O.V. Film Fund supported this Russian-French project with €15 thousand for development.

Synopsis: This story took place in tundra where the exploration geologists and reindeer herders have got along well for de-cades. In fact, such people have absolutely different viewpoints and information about the world around.

Producers: Julia Sobolevskaya, Marie-Pierre Macia. Director: Andrei Redkin. Genre: Drama.

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IlIA MurOMETS

A CHAIrMAn

Russian production studio of children and teenage movies Ilia Muromets started working on new feature war drama A Chair-man. The project is currently in the preproduction stage. The movie is produced with the financial support of the Russian Min-istry of Culture.

Synopsis: The story tells us about battlefront veteran Nikolai Skorik. In 1942 he returned to his native kolkhoz. He will not go to the front anymore – he is a disabled person now – but it is crit-ical to raise the economy. Before going to the front, he went to loggerheads with the villagers and now he has to come to terms with everyone, otherwise it is hardly possible to achieve good functional working process.

Director: Aleksei Muradov. Genre: Drama.

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KAlIlAfIlM

MArS – THE fIrST COnTACT

Kazakh production company Kalilafilm started shooting new feature-length science fiction Mars – the first Contact. Film-ing process takes place in Almaty and Almaty region. The picture budget is about $300-500 thousand.

Synopsis: The movie action starts in 2114 in Almaty. The expedi-tion consisting of ten people departs to Mars in spaceship NAN 2100 named after the first President of Kazakhstan. They find the remnants of the American astronaut who got lost many years ago.

Director: Mukhtar Umarov. Genre: Science fiction.

Aleksei Muradov

Mukhtar Umarov

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KAzAKHfIlM

PArTy COMMITTEE SECrETAry

Kazakh production company Kazakhfilm finished shooting new feature-length biography drama Party Committee Secretary, the 4th part of the epic movie The Way of leader. Filming took place in Kazakhstan and Russia. Producers plan to finish post-production this December.

Synopsis: The fourth part of the story tells about the 70-ies of the last century. At that time the future Kazakh leader held the position of the party committee secretary of Karaganda metal-lurgical combine. Three geologists, former Karlag prisoners, set out in the geological exploration expedition. Later they discov-ered Kultibin minefield. Party committee secretary Nursultan Nazarbaev helped develop that minefield.

Director: Rustem Abdrashev.Cast: Valentin Gaft, Vladimir Stek-lov, Aleksandr Rapoport, Yevgeny Sidikhin, Yevgeny Stychkin.Genre: Biopic.

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lEnfIlM

A TrACK

Russian production center lenfilm finished shooting new fea-ture-length romantic comedy A Track. Filming took place in St. Petersburg. The movie budget totals $1.2 million. The project is produced with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia.

Synopsis: Sergei and Lena have been happily married more than 20 years. A long-expected day for them approaches – their only son obtains Diploma of Higher Education. As it turns out their son left the institute long ago and the diploma was bought in a passage. The family is in scandal. The quarrel between the husband and wife makes Sergei leave his home. Elena rushes to search him but without result. They both try to start a new life but nothing goes well. The characters experience funny and some-times perilous situations to understand in the end that they love each other very much.

Producers: Vyacheslav Tel’nov, Alexander Kotelevsky, Eduard Pichugin.Director: Ilya Severov.Script: Sergei Snezhkin.Cast: Andrei Smolyakov, Natalia Surkova, Anna Mikhalkova.Genre: Romantic comedy.

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MArS MEDIA EnTErTAInMEnT

THE OnE

Russian production company Mars Media Entertainment started shooting new feature-length war drama The One. Film-ing takes place in Kaluga region. The film premiere is planned in 2015.

Synopsis: August 1944. The Soviet army advances in Eastern Poland. Senior lieutenant Yegorov’s unit got a task to keep the bridge that is the only chance for the Soviet Army units to cross a river. Having arrived at the position, the soldiers reveal a de-stroyed monastery and a group of deaf-and-dumb orphans with nursery governess Eva. Having lost faith she found the purpose of life to rescue the weak and helpless children. Lieutenant Yegorov is caught between difficult choices – if he obeys the or-der of higher command he would imperil the lives of little Poles.

Producers: Vyacheslav Tel’nov, Alexander Kotelevsky, Eduard Pichugin.Director: Ilya Severov.Script: Sergei Snezhkin.Cast: Andrei Smolyakov, Natalia Surkova, Anna Mikhalkova.Genre: Romantic comedy.

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MIrAbEl

MEETInG On THE ElbE

Russian studio Mirabel started shooting new feature-length drama Meeting of the Elbe. Filming takes place in Poland. The project approximate budget is RUB70 million (near $1.7 million). The movie release is set for May 2015.

Producer: Mira Todorovskaya.Director: Janusz Petelski.Script: Petr Todorovski.Cast: Irina Pegova.Genre: Drama.


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Synopsis: The main character is young lieutenant Yuri Nikitin who was appointed as superintendent of Ierikhov town on the Elbe where he has to tune up normal life. Lieutenant works in the garrison headquarters. Once his subordinates bring a young German woman who was hiding in one of the basements. The girl was in Hitlerjugend and declared that she is Field-Mar-shal Paulus’ niece. However, Nikitin instead of sending her to the “right place” leaves her nearby. They become friends and as the plot goes on Yuri likes her more and more…

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nOnSTOP MEDIA MInSK

WE ArE brOTHErS

Belarussian production company nonstop MEDIA Minsk finished shooting new feature-length thrilling drama We Are brothers (working title Abel). Filming took place in the USA and in Belarus. The project is financially supported by the Belarusian Ministry of Culture. The film budget is about $2.5 million. The picture premiere will be in autumn 2014.

Synopsis: The movie tells the story of two brothers who have to make a difficult moral choice. One of them, young officer Pavel, lost his family, love and career and without knowledge finds him-self in the center of the secret society intrigues where the initia-tion may cost millions of human lives in the world.

Producers: Sergey Zhdanovich, Yuri Igrusha.Director: William De Vital.Script: Roman Makushev.Cast: Yevgeny Shmarlovsky, Rus-lan Chernetzky, Olesya Gribok, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Eric Roberts, Alexei Serebryakov, Igor Savoch-kin, Monte Rex Perlin, Anthony De Longis.Genre: Drama.

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PrOfIT

THE CAnTErVIllE GHOST

Russian production company PrOfIT starts working over new feature-length family comedy The Canterville Ghost based on the same name novella by Oscar Wilde. The project is in the pre-production stage. The picture budget is RUB227 million (near $7.5 million). The filmmakers have already achieved partner-ship prearrangement with Czech studio Barrandov and Russian Channel One.

Synopsis: The movie will tell us about the contemporary Mos-cow family that by a twist of fate was trapped for unknown period in the medieval castle where as per the legend the ghost of sir Canterville resides.

Producers: Ekaterina Filippova, Igor Tolstunov.Director: Aleksandr Kott.Genre: Comedy.

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rAKurS

VIllAIn

Russian production company rakurs started preproduction pe-riod of works over new feature drama Villain. Shooting will take place in the Crimea. The picture budget is RUB76 million (near $1.9 million).

Synopsis: The story is focused on 16-year-old teenager Viktor. He has lost father recently, the problems have started at school and against the background of the complicated relation with mother everything seems an absolute disaster…

Director: Aleksandr Muratov.Script: Eduard Volodarsky.Cast: Evgeniya Dobrovol’skaya.Genre: Drama.

Mira Todorovskaya

Sergey Zhdanovich

http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=4933941_1_2&s1=%C3%E8%F2%EB%E5%F0%FE%E3%E5%ED%E4

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rOSfIlM, WEGA-fIlM-PrODuKTIOnSGESEll-

SCHAfT

WHITE nIGHTS

Russian production company rosfilm in coproduction with Austrian Wega-filmproduktionsgesellschaft started pre-production period of works over new feature-length drama White nights, screen adaptation of the same name novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Filming will take place in Russia and post-production and animation – in Austria. The project budget is RUB88 million ($2.2 million). The movie is produced with the fi-nancial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture.

Synopsis: The plot is focused on a lonely dreamer who meets tender Nastenka during one of the Petersburg white nights. The girl is looking for her sweetheart that went to the city and prom-ised to come back but did not. The dreamer falls in love with Nastenka and she responds his feelings in the end but here her former sweetheart appears and the girl goes with him. The main character is left in -frustrating solitude.

Producers: Tatiana Voronets-kaya, Fait Khaydushka.Director: Tatyana Voronetskaya.Script: Vyacheslav Durnenkov.Genre: Drama.

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SAlAMAT MOHAMMED AlI PrOjECT

SlAVES

Kazakh filmmaker Salamat Mohammed Ali started prepro-duction period of works over new feature-length action Slaves. Filming will take place in the United States and Kazakhstan. The project has already found the American co-producer.

Synopsis: The movie tells the story of a young singer from the provincial Kazakh town that arrives in the USA to win the world pop stage. However, the girl will have to overcome many ob-stacles to make her dream come true because she’s eager to become a “slave” of a famous producer. The girl does not want to become another artistic slave and declares her producer war.

Producers: Gray Frederickson, Armand Assante, Salamat Mo-hammed Ali. Directors: Salamat Muhammad Ali, Petr Zhmutsky. Cast: Patricia Kaas, Armand As-sante. Genre: Action.

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SEA

KEKECH

Kyrgyz studio SEA finished shooting new feature-length musical comedy Kekech. Filming took place in Bishkek. The picture will take part in the international film festivals in Germany.

Synopsis: Bakyt and Nurak are brothers-orphans. Elder brother Bakyt works in a taxi, does various jobbing to take care of young-er Nurak. In addition, Nurak studies in conservatory to become a saxophonist. He has a strong stutter. Once on a concert Nurak meets girl Ayana who deals with choreography. A mutual affec-tion arises between the young people. The barrier in their rela-tionship is the boy’s stutter. Every time his excitement makes him foolish because he starts stuttering and spoils the whole situation. Nevertheless, thankfully this story occurs to him only in his dreaming…

Producer: Suyumkan Sulaim-anova.Director, script: Ernest Abdy-japarov.Cast: Nurak Omurbekov, Zhan-ish Mairambek, Kairat Musayev Altynbek Shatenov, Elina Abay, Aynura Chancharbaeva, Rakhat Bozhokoeva.Genre: Comedy.

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STArTfIlM GrOuP, ruSSIAn fIlM GrOuP

A SCHOOlMArM

Russian production company Startfilm Group in coproduction with russian film Group started working over new feature-length social drama A Schoolmarm. Filming will start in October 2014. The movie premiere will take place next year.

Synopsis: A sudden shot stuns the silence of the school corri-dors. The teacher of history pushed over the edge takes hos-tages the whole classroom. But soon the situation drastically changes and she finds herself as a hostage…

Producers: Petr Cherenkov, Alexei Petruhin.Director: Alexei Petruhin.Script: Ekaterina Asmus.Cast: Olga Lapshina, Anna Churi-na, Mikhail Mukhin, Olga Egorova.Genre: Drama.

Tatiana Voronetskaya

Salamat Mohammed Ali

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STArT-Т

AWArD OrDEr

Russian production company Start-T started shooting new feature-length military drama Award Order. Filming takes place in Lytkarino and at Mosfilm stages. After the film release in cinemas, the 4-episode version of the movie will premiere on russia 1 TV Channel.

Synopsis: The Soviet troops are deployed to liberate Manchuria from the Japanese aggressors. On the ninth of May 1945 they were informed that the war was over and they won. An endless joy, they go home, they arrive to Moscow. And suddenly they have to fight again…

Director: Alexei Bystritskii.Cast: Roman Polanski.Genre: War drama.

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THE ArT Of CInEMA PrOMOTIOn

nIKITA KHOTTAbICH

Russian producer center The Art of Cinema Promotion start-ed preproduction period of works over new feature-length fam-ily comedy nikita Khottabich. Shooting will take place in Kalin-ingrad region (Russia) and in Kerch (Crimea, Ukraine). The proj-ect is produced with the financial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture. The film budget is RUB80 million (near $2 million).

Synopsis: Nikita wanted to go to the football camp in summer but his parents send him to the scientific camp titled Pythago-ras. Nearby a genius scientist lives who invents a miraculous stuff that may delay time. Some incredible way this stuff got in the hands of humble sixth-grader Nikita who keeps it a secret even from his best friend.

Director: Sergey Rusakov. Genre: Comedy.

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THE fIrST fIlM STuDIO

GAMES Of TIME. ExIlE

Russian production company The first film Studio started shooting new feature-length children fantasy Games of Time. Exile. Filming is planned in 3D format. The picture budget is RUB90 million (near $2.3 million).

Synopsis: The movie will tell about the teenagers’ journeys in the parallel magic dimensions. This story has three worlds: World of Wizards, Middle World and World of People. 10-year-old girl Keya under the threat of death has to escape from the World of Wizards to the Middle World and she does not even suspect that she has become a tool in the hands of the supreme forces of her world. There she meets a boy named Lekha from the World of People where they set out together.

Producer: Yuri Kuznetsov-Tayozhny.Director: Aleksandr Olkov.Genre: Fantasy.

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uzbEKfIlM

Er TAfTI

Uzbek production company uzbekfilm started shooting new feature-length drama Er Tafti (aka Heat of the Land). The film premiere is planned in 2015.

Synopsis: In the late 80-ies of the last century the main female character’s father Dilorom is imprisoned on a false charge. After Uzbekistan independence, the father is released from the jail. The government initiated the farmer movement in the village. In spite of all the hardships Dilorom decided to be a farmer but this job requires a real commitment and hard labor. Nevertheless, Dilorom overcomes those trials with success…

Director: Akbar Bekturdiev. Genre: Drama.

Roman Polanski

Sergey Rusakov

Aleksandr Olkov

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feature filMs

yEllOW, blACK AnD WHITE, CEnTrAl PArTnErSHIP

STAKE On lOVE

Russian group of companies yellow, black and White in co-production with Central Partnership started shooting new feature-length teen comedy Stake on love. Filming is going to take place in Russia and USA. The movie premiere is planned in February 2015.

Synopsis: The plot is focused on love, friendship and poker. Kostia and David are the childhood friends and already grown-up they have to test their friendship. David is going to propose marriage to his beloved girl Anna and Kostia want to qualify for the final of the international poker championship. Two seem-ingly absolutely unrelated occurrences become decisive in the friends’ lives as far as David has to play poker and Kostia has to rescue the friend’s wedding. Will they be able to remain them-selves and save the situation changing their places?

Producers: Eduard Iloyan Denis Zhalinsky, Rezo Gigineishvili, Ar-tyom Mikhalkov, Irakli Rodonaya.Director: Artyom Mikhalkov.Cast: Andrei Burkovsky, Ekaterina Shpitsa, Hovhannes Azoyan, Alex-ei Gorbunov, Aleksandr Revva, Alla Mikheyeva, Nikita Tarasov.Genre: Comedy.

feature filMs

zOrI fIlM, luCErE fIlM

1000-MIlE rACE

Russian production company zori film in coproduction with Italian company lucere film started shooting new feature-length adventure romance 1000-Mile race. Filming started on the 20th of August and takes place in Italy. The movie premiere is planned in May 2015.

Synopsis: The movie tells about the contemporary events. Young journalist Maria after a long absence comes back to her native town Brescia to make a story about retro-car rally “1000 Miles”. Maria persuades her new friend mechanic Marco to par-ticipate in the rally: he would be a driver and she’s going to be his navigator.

Producers: Roberto Bessie, Uly-ana Kovaleva.Director: Claudio Uberti.Script: Marianna Cappy, Claudio Uberti.Cast: Martina Stella, Fabio Troia-no, Remo Girone.Genre: Adventure romance.

Claudio Uberti

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DIsTRIBuTIoN1+1 MEDIAUkrainian 1+1 Media group has picked up rights to drama Hostages (Bnei Aruba, 2013) from Israeli format-developer and distributor Ar-moza formats, part of Armoza International Media. It was produced by Israeli Yetzira Ivrit company for Channel 10 and first aired in Octo-ber 2013. It will start airing in Ukraine this fall on 1+1 channel.

Hostages story follows a surgeon, who is thrown into a political con-spiracy when she is ordered to sabotage a routine operation on the president under the threat that her family will die.

Also 1+1 Media group acquired rights for local adaptation of rising Star format distributed by Israeli Keshet International, the produc-tion and distribution arm of Israel’s Keshet Media Group. The for-mat has already aired in Brazil (RedeGlobo), Portugal (TVI) and the US (ABC), and further versions are set to be broadcast in more than 20 other territories, including China (CCTV) and the UK (ITV).

rising Star is a trailblazing interactive talent format that hails a new era in home entertainment. Its launch marked the first real-time vot-ing by viewers via an innovative free app which is fully integrated into the show. Home audiences decide who advances via the voting app, while their individual pictures appear on the large screen facing the contestant and judges vote simultaneously by hitting their buttons in the studio. When the performer reaches the designated voting per-centage the screen rises and the new star is revealed. Just as they were, at the very first minute of the very first episode, viewers continue to play an integral role in every decision made on the show throughout the entire season.

360TVThe Russian broadcaster 360TV has licensed the factual format The Package from Israeli distributor Armoza formats. The Russian pro-duction will have 23 episodes and will be hosted by the actress Yana Poplavskaya.

A surprise gift always sparks interest, excitement and suspense! This format centers on a package, which is passed on from one person to another, forming a chain of givers and receivers. As the package makes its journey across the country, stories are told, friendships are rekindled, and confessions are made.

The contents of the package vary from one person to another, with each person sending a package to someone who has made a differ-ence to their life. Depending on the different stories, the sender will choose what to put in the package and what story this item will tell.

DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION

Director: Rotem Shamir, Omri Givon.Cast: Ayelet Zurer, Jonah Lo-tan, Micha Celektar, Yoav Rot-man, Mickey Leon, Hilla Vidor, Tomer Kapon, Nevo Kimchi.Duration: 10х60 min.Genre: Thriller, drama.

format: Rising Star.

Duration: 30 min.format: The Package.

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AnTIPODE SAlES & DISTrIbuTIOn Russian distribution company Antipode Sales & Distribution has picked up worldwide sales rights to The Postman’s White nights by Andrei Konchalovsky. It was selected for the In Competition section at the 71st Venice International Film Festival and won the Silver Lion. Antipode has already sealed deals with Leopardo Filmes for Portugal and ASC Distribution for France.

The Postman’s White Nights tells the story of the people of a remote Russian village, whose main contact with the outside world is a post-man Aleksey Tryapitsyn. He drives his motorboat to and from the near-est mainland post office. Until someone steals his outboard motor…

AzErbAIjAn fIlMInternational distribution company Dreamlab films with the head-quarters in Le Cannet (France) has picked up worldwide sales rights to Elchin Musaoglu’s Venice Orizzonti title nabat, an Azerbaijan-set family drama. Produced by Azerbaijan film it has already been sold to Trigon in Switzerland.

Nabat and her husband Iskender, an old and sick ex-forestry worker, live in a small isolated house far from the village. War has been rag-ing for some time and their son has been killed at the front. Their sole means of survival is the sale of milk from their only cow that Nabat takes to the village every couple of days. As the shadow of war enve-lopes the region the village is slowly deserted by its inhabitants. Fol-lowing Iskender’s death Nabat has to survive in a now abandoned vil-lage under the regard of a she-wolf.

CHAnnEl SEVEnKazakhstan’s Channel Seven becomes the first among CIS states’ broadcasters to produce a local adaptation of the boom! game show distributed by Israeli distributor Keshet International. It has also been picked up by FOX in the U.S., Atresmedia in Spain, TV2 in Hun-gary, VTM in Belgium and TF1 in France.

A squad of four players must defuse eight (replica) ‘bombs’ by an-swering trivia questions correctly within a strict time limit. In nail-biting scenes, the nominated player must defuse one ‘bomb’ per question by cutting through colored wires representing multiple choice answers…which the ticking clock counts down. If the player answers correctly, the prize money builds and he/she moves to the next ‘bomb’. If wrong – loses 25% of all the money. Boom! delivers fierce tension and light-hearted humor in quick succession, extending the experience not only to those in the studio, but also to viewers at home who can play along.

CTC MEDIAGlobal Agency’s Turkish daily cooking format rivals in law has been licensed by Russian CTC Media to air on Domashny Channel. Since the format’s launch, channels in Kazakhstan (Channel 7), Macedonia (Alfa TV Dooel), Ukraine (1+1) and Middle East (Abu Dhabi TV) have all signed up for license deals.


Director: Andrei Konchal-ovsky.Cast: Aleksey Tryapitsyn, Irina Ermolova, Timur Bond-arenko.Duration: 90 min.Genre: Drama.

Director: Elchin Musaoglu.Producer: Mushfiq Hatamov.Cast: Fatemeh Motamed Arya, Vidadi Aliyev, Sabir Mamadov, Farhad Israfilov.Duration: 105 min.Genre: Drama.

format: Boom!

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DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION

Show’s appeal lies in combining the relationship that drama viewers want from a reality entertainment show, with the practical take-home skills they’d expect from a cooking format. Every episode, a young wife, her mother-in-law and husband/son are introduced. The son must choose a favorite dish for them to prepare. Both women get to work in the studio kitchen under the watchful eye of a chef host, and age-old tensions are brought to boiling point in the process. The son must ultimately decide who cooked it best, and his dilemma is relat-able for many audiences.

DIrECT SIGHTParis-based distributor PGS Entertainment has sold Method Ani-mation and DQ Entertainment’s CGI-animated series robin Hood: Mischief in Sherwood to Ukrainian Direct Sight, which specializes in acquiring content for Inter group of companies. It was also previ-ously picked up by RTBF (Francophone Belgium), NRK (Norway), RTS (Switzerland), RTL Telekids (Netherlands, Luxembourg), Direct Sight (Ukraine) and BBC ALBA (Scotland).

Robin Hood: Mischief in Sherwood tells the unknown story about young Robin of Locksley. Being 10-years old he is full of energy, cour-age and humor, and together with friends he lives more adventures than most adults do, without missing an opportunity to have fun.

InTrA COMMunICATIOnS Russian distribution company Intra Communications has sold 8-epi-sode crime drama Strangely familiar produced by Intra-film and Ukrainian FILM.UA Group.

Nastya and her son, Vanya, leave their Old Believer village and come to an unfamiliar and unwelcoming metropolis. During their stay Vanya becomes an involuntary witness of a murder of a prominent journal-ist. Captain Alexander Leshchev will have to crack this case but the investigation leads him to believe that the murder of the journalist is connected to the corruption case he’s been recently probing. Vanya claims the killer is a high profile authority, the Chief of Police. Now that not only the witness’ but his own life hangs in balance, Captain Lesh-chev takes the family to a safe place. However, the hired goons have already sniffed out the location of the hideout. There’s no turning back for Alexander, he’ll have to stand his ground for the sake of protecting innocent lives.

Intra Communications has also sold a package of animated TV se-ries to belarus 2 channel. Penguins of Madagascar (USA, 2008-) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (USA, 2005-2008) are among them.

Penguins of Madagascar tells about the daily adventures of pen-guins living in New York’s Central Park Zoo.

format: Rivals in Law.

Director: Sandra Derval.Duration: 52х11 min.

Director: Andrey Chernykh.Producers: Victor Mirsky, Vladimir Issat, Sergey Kara-taev, Mikhail Barkan, Victor Umnov.Cast: Ivan Oganesyan, Kat-erina Reshetnikova, Victoria Litvinenko, Vladimir Mashuk, Alexander Fisenko, Vitaly Saliy, Maxim Vazhov, Victor Aldoshin, Mikhail Dosenko, Vlad Zadni-provsky.Genre: Crime drama.

Director: Bret Haaland.Producers: Bret Haaland, Mark McCorkle, Robert Schooley.Cast: John DiMaggio, Tom Mc-Grath, Jeff Bennett, James Pat-rick Stuart, Andy Richter, Kevin Michael Richardson, Danny Jacobs, Nicole Sullivan.Duration: 11 min.Genre: Animated series.

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Avatar: The last Airbender. In a war-torn world of elemental magic, a young boy reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfil his destiny as the Avatar.

MK-DISTrIbuTIOnUkrainian independent distributor MK-Distribution has sold exclu-sive TV rights on several Ukrainian titles to Canadian Gusto TV, which airs in HD and belongs to Knight Enterprises media group. These are cooking programme fun food and educational cycle Encyclopedia Channel, previously aired on the territory of USA, Great Britain, Tur-key, France, UAE, Spain etc.

fun food – extraordinary culinary show for all those who want to make something tasty, having spent thus a minimum of time and efforts. Re-laxing music and colourful shots turn a cooking into interesting and enjoyable process.

Encyclopedia Channel is a collection of short films about historical events, artworks and famous personalities: artists and writers, com-posers and scientists, travellers and philosophers, and enlighteners and reformers. They all left their mark on human history, and they be-came history themselves. The first part is devoted to those who made an outstanding contribution to science, history and culture – Charles Darwin, Galileo Galilei, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln among others.

The second part of Encyclopedia Channel tells about art masterpieces – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, Rafael Santi’s Sistine Madonna, Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and others.

The third part of Encyclopedia Channel tells about dogs’ breeds, their history and characteristics: Chow-chow, French bulldog, Dalmatian, Badger-dog, Poodle, Collie etc.

MK-Distribution has sold non-exclusive TV rights on fishing show fishing Happiness with Alexander Kochubey (in HD) to Bulgarian Hobby TV. Also MK-Distribution sold Ukrainian cooking show Gour-met with Alexey nilov to Russian Kuhnya TV (part of Red Media hold-ing). It will air on the territory of Russia, CIS countries, Georgia, Abkha-zia, South Ossetia and Baltic states.

At the same time Ukrainian Tonis channel has acquired from MK-Distribution a package of Ukrainian factual and documentary ti-tles including The Greats, A Portrait of Nations, Events That Changed the World, Crisis. And bought several documentary films, such as Mi-chael Jackson: Devotion (1х60 min.), Kylie Minogue: No One is Born a Princess (1х60 min.), J. F. Kennedy (1х30 min.), Van Cliburn (1х59 min.), Nikola Tesla (1х52 min.) and Castro: Man and Myth (1х60 min).

Directors: Giancarlo Volpe, Ethan Spaulding, Lauren Mac-Mullan, Dave Filoni.Producers: Michael Dante DiMartino, Aaron Ehasz, Bryan Konietzko, Miken Wong, Eric Coleman.Cast: Zach Tyler, Mae Whitman, Jack De Sena, Dee Bradley Baker, Dante Basco, Jessie Flower, Mako, Grey DeLisle.Duration: 22 min.Genre: Animated series.

Duration: 100х3 min.




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The Greats – program about the great adventurers, scientists and en-trepreneurs, who changed the world and wrote new pages of history.

A Portrait of nations – a look at the modern society through the biog-raphies of politicians, historians, inventors, artists, scientists etc.

Events That Changed the World – the name speaks for oneself. The most tragic to amazing events in the history – from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the first human on the Moon, from atomic bomb-ings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the discovery of Penicillin.

Crisis – docudrama about the causes of different revolutions, wars, epidemics and natural disasters.

fishing Happiness with Alexander Kochubey was filmed in 2012 as a guide to one of the fishing regions of Russia. The project describes how to do underwater hunting, where and how to catch a predatory fish on rod and spinning. It shows rare underwater footage about lure capture by predator (redfish, pike, chub, catfish) and beautiful under-water world of the Volga’s delta from the underwater hunters’ point of view.

Gourmet with Alexey nilov. The show where amateur chef Alexey Nilov shares his experience in choosing right ingredients and cook-ing different dishes. His stories interweave with professional chefs’ master-classes and trips to several regions of Ukraine in order to visit restaurants, farms and wineries.

STuDIO KVArTAl 95 Eccho rights, Sparks Network group’s sales division, has closed deals on Ukrainian format Crack Them up with companies and broad-casters in France, Belgium and Germany. It has been previously sold to Essential media in Australia, dien Quan in Vietnam, Russia-1 in Rus-sia, NTK in Kazakhstan, ONT in Belarus, Baltijos TV in Lithuania and Jiangxi in China. Ukrainian Inter TV channel already airs the seventh season of the original show produced by Ukrainian Studio Kvartal 95.

In this heart warming and hilarious show regular people have to make two comedians laugh. If they succeed they can walk away with a cash prize. Crack Them Up gives people an arena to entertain the coun-try and to discover new comedy talent. And a good laugh makes life easier!







Duration: 40 min.

Duration: 40 min.Genre: Entertainment.format: Crack Them Up.

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Cinema releases overview Cinema releases overview

UKRAINIAN THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION MARKET OVERVIEW

(JANUARY 1, 2014 – SEPTEMBER 28, 2014)Theatrical releases of 232 films took place in Ukraine starting from January 1, 2014. The gross box-office of these films totaled $63.59 million. About 14.34 million tickets were sold for the premieres of the 2014 theatrical year. TOP-20 releases collected $40.16 million – 63.16% of the total amount. 60.57% of the cinema-goers – near 8.69 million – bought tickets to watch the films you see in the table below.

№ Movie Distributor Premier Date Premier Box-office, $ Total Box-office (01.01 - 28.09.2014), $

Tickets Sold (01.01 - 28.09.2014)

1 Viy (Rus) UFD 30.01.2014 1 620 416 4 638 645 850 3562 Transformers: Age of Extinction B&H 26.06.2014 1 395 808 3 274 316 695 096

3 Love In Big City 3 / Lyubov v bolshom gorode 3 (Rus) UFD 02.01.2014 944 049 3 138 371 590 656

4 Noah B&H 27.03.2014 1 163 127 2 692 621 584 2015 47 Ronin B&H 01.01.2014 842 237 2 680 457 419 1546 Maleficent B&H 29.05.2014 895 300 2 382 281 587 2537 Lucy B&H 21.08.2014 770 773 2 204 719 624 2488 Guardians of The Galaxy B&H 31.07.2014 686 248 2 078 141 503 9239 300: Rise of an Empire KNM 06.03.2014 913 770 2 068 391 352 56310 Rio 2 UFD 20.03.2014 602 532 1 787 531 478 06611 How to Train Your Dragon 2 UFD 12.06.2014 530 187 1 713 594 466 79612 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles B&H 14.08.2014 911 642 1 538 092 415 74013 Hercules B&H 24.07.2014 748 237 1 525 473 344 46614 Edge of Tomorrow KNM 05.06.2014 447 563 1 408 139 295 57615 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 B&H 24.04.2014 571 862 1 298 622 291 464

16 Some Like It Cold / V sporte tolko devushki (Rus) UFD 06.02.2014 518 001 1 261 484 286 871

17 Need for Speed IF 13.03.2014 529 719 1 182 867 236 91018 RoboCop B&H 13.02.2014 671 026 1 117 044 230 48319 I, Frankenstein UFD 23.01.2014 504 896 1 112 238 171 90520 X-Men: Days of Future Past UFD 22.05.2014 429 804 1 057 975 260 080

TOTAL ТОP-10: 26 945 473 5 685 516TOTAL ТОP-20: 40 161 001 8 685 807

Sources: Ukrainian Film Distribution, kino-teatr.ua

Distributors:B&H – B&H DistributionIF – Inter-FilmKNM – KinomaniaUFD – Ukrainian Film Distribution

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The 4th international media forum KIEV MEDIA WEEK under slogan ‘Make Content Not War’ was opened on the 15th of September 2014 by the leading Ukrainian media-business experts at press-conference Me-dia-business in Times of Changes and unrest.

International Investment and Consulting Group EastOne Executive Officer Mikhail Tsarev, National Council of Ukraine on the Issues of Television and Radiobroadcasting Executive Secretary Katerina Kotenko, UMH Publishing Sales House Marketing Director Natalia Boyko, FILM.UA Group cofounder Sergey Sozanovsky and Volia Company President Sergey Boyko discussed the main problems of the industry and tried to find answers to the most burning challenges that the marketers have encountered lately. The confer-ence participants concurred that content now is the cornerstone and media industry’s main tasks are the search for the most efficient ways to adapt the content to the contemporary socio-political, economic and technological realities as well as common efforts mobilization of all sectors of media-business and state to create the equal conditions for all the marketers and lay down common rules of play based on the global experience.

TV fOrMATS In fOCuS

The first day of KIEV MEDIA WEEK was continued with the international conference and screening of new television formats format Show.

When Viktoria Yarmoshchuk, Media Resources Management (MRM) company CEO, was opening the event she told about the trends of format business in Ukraine. The MRM researches evidence that the format adaptations boom at Ukrainian market is behind. If in 2011 six main Ukrainian channels had 41 new shows based on the foreign formats, in 2012 there were 17 such shows and in the first half 2014 – only 6. This testifies that a lot of channels have already found the brand forming product and reduced the pur-chasing activity. At the same time the broadcasters and format TV programs producers’ interest switched to the formats of scripted content which had special place within the Format Show screening program.

Presenting at Format Show the report “World of Formats, Formats in the World: The International Seduc-tion Campaign” Eurodata TV Worldwide (France) expert Nassima Boudi noted that the global brands of the format producers continue to influence TV industry greatly; talent shows, TV novellas and sitcoms are still popular and commercially successful; the whole world continues to search the ways to attract the Internet-audience to the TV-set and vise versa – to make the television more interactive; international co-production encourages the reduction of risks and increase of probability to achieve international success.

Swedish company Eccho Rights managing partner Nicola Söderlund in his report “The Scripted Format Boom” provided some statistics evidencing that currently global top producers of scripted formats are Great Britain, Israel, Australia, Spain, Germany. Meanwhile the broadcasters and production companies from the USA, Russia and France are the most active in adapting them. Among the reasons that small countries produce a lot of original formats the Swedish expert designated the need to find good ideas that may be released with limited budget provided by a small market of the aforementioned countries. Scripted dramas now show the biggest success in the world, however, format rights to comedies are acquired less often because of the difficulties with their adaptation.

For the first time ever on the Format Show day the complete catalogue of Ukrainian TV formats - UA For-mats - was presented by Iryna Kostyuk (Producer, FILM.UA Group) to the wide audience. UA Formats proj-ect is meant to be fundamental for Ukrainian format business and aims to introduce unique developments of local market on the international level. The UA Formats catalogue includes original formats (currently 14 titles) created by the leading Ukrainian prodcos, TV channels and producers: Downtown Karaoke, The Chance, Crossing Europe, Freedom of Speech, The Auditor, Championship Striptease, Daddy’s House, Save Our Family, Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, Jail Birds, School of Parenting, Let’s Splurge!, Wardrobe and UFO (Unknown Favorite Object). The catalogue will debut internationally at the upcoming MIPCOM (October 13-16).

Format Show 2014 was honored to have Michel Rodrigue (USA) as a keynote speaker. Being CEO & Part-ner of The Format People Inc., FRAPA cofounder and having over 35 years of experience, knowledge and connections in international TV business, Michel shared with the conference audience some key tips in order to facilitate local market development and build successful TV formats industry. During his keynote “The International Formats Business Is All About “The Transfer Of Expertise” From The Original To The Adapting Producer” Michel has emphasized, that selling a format is not only about selling a concept or an idea, but your own expertise as the original producer, which is the most important element in licensing the format. Also he explained the importance of the “Transfer of Expertise: through the format bible and the the use of a consultant/flying producer”.

KIEV MEDIA WEEK 2014: HOW IT WAS

fOCuS

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In the course of Format Show screening sessions above 20 distributors from all over the world presented 60 formats, 30 of which were international premieres.

CO-PrODuCTIOn POSSIbIlITIES

On the 16th of September at the forum of television coproduction KIEV CoProduction Meetings held in the framework of KIEV MEDIA WEEK the organizers provided evidence that international television content coproduction has already become or will no doubt become one of the tendencies of the global TV industry development. This statement is proved by the examples of successful joint projects by TV channels and production companies from various countries that grow into sustainable mutually beneficial cooperation.

FILM.UA Group Producer Elena Malkova and FILM.UA Distribution Director Igor Storchak presented case-study of television project Mystical Tales which six seasons’ international success (115 episodes) have been shown by Ukrainian STB, Russian TV3 and Kazakh NTK. Besides, in Hungary LifeNetwork TV Channel aired four seasons of the Ukrainian version synchronized in Hungarian. The seventh season of the project is underway now in coproduction with TV3, in the meanwhile Ukrainian STB TV Channel, which actually was one of the initiators of the programme, is currently considered to become the third coproducer of the show’s new season.

If in case with Mystical Tales the language was the main element that required adaptation to broadcast in various countries, in the other project considered by experts at KIEV CoProduction Meetings the pos-sibility to use several languages without damage to the final product was foreseen beforehand. The case in hand is detective drama Hinterland coproduced by Wales represented by production company Fiction Factory, public broadcaster S4C and a local unit of BBC Company and England represented by ALL3ME-DIA International Ltd. The Welsh S4C TV Channel producer Gwawr Martha Lloyd regards that the fact the characters speak Welsh and English did not hinder the series from becoming very popular not only in Wales but also in other parts of Great Britain. Besides, the rights for the drama were sold to the broadcast-ers from above 20 territories. According to Gwawr Martha Lloyd, who is responsible at S4C for original dramas and comedies commission and deals with ideas search for the new projects, the main thing is to tell an interesting story and the language issue is secondary.

The significance of the story regardless of the language was also noted by the next speaker at KIEV CoPro-duction Meetings Alex Shiriaieff – director-documentarian and producer at Swedish Dixit International. To develop cooperation among the documentary content producers from the countries of North Europe, Bal-tics and the CIS region Alex Shiriaieff and Malcolm Dixelius, Dixit International CEO founded international platform Baltic to Black Sea Documentary Network (B2B DOC) – an open forum for the documentarians to unite the creative, technical, financial and distribution resources from the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine and Caucasus. The initiative was supported by Swedish Institute. Thanks to B2B DOC the authors of four Ukrainian documentary projects had the opportunity to present their works in Sweden at the pitching of documentary projects co-financing Nordisk Forum that was held on the 21-23 of September during film festival Nordisk Panorama in Malmo.

During the pitching session at KIEV CoProduction Meetings there were presented 8 projects selected by the experts in the area of television content production out of 20 applications from Ukraine, Russia, Be-larus and Germany.

The pitching was opened by Ukrainian company Signal Red producer Tatiana Kiryan and creative director Yevgeniy Sannikov who presented docudrama Assassinations that Changed the World.

Ukrainian Good Morning Film director and producer Aleksey Shaparev and his colleague Yanina Sulima demonstrated the materials of detective drama Price of Freedom (the project has already involved Geor-gian co-producer).

FILM.UA creative director Olesya Lukyanenko told that the company managed to attract a partner from Poland who will participate in the war drama September production.

Next project was presented by Ukrainian production W Media director Andrei Tanabash: the company produces detective series Forest’s Captives.

The only TV show that reached the pitching was reality-show Careerists (Boss of Your Dream) produced by Ukrainian production company Ideafilm represented by producer Aleksey Komarovsky.

Ukrainian 3D Planet producer Aleksey Kashin presented TV comedy project Basilisk.

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Elena Malkova

Alex Shiriaieff

№20, October 2014


German Mimesi’S Culture producer Alberto Dandolo and director Sieva Diamantakos presented docu-mentary movie Behind Maidan at the pitching.

The pitching session was closed by the mystery drama The Diary of Her Loneliness produced by studio Zolotoye Runo represented by director Dmitri Ovechkin.

PAy TV PrOblEMS

Another occasion of the second day of KIEV MEDIA WEEK was conference retaining Investments in the Industry — a Way of Meeting Customer Expectations and Market Growth Catalyst arranged by Telecommunication Chamber of Ukraine Association with support of Volia Company.

During his speech Volia President Sergey Boyko underlined the ‘pain points’ of the Ukrainian television market: Euromaidan, Crimea annexation, information warfare, combat operations in Eastern Ukraine, na-tional currency depreciation etc. The situation is worsened with content rising cost as well as obsolete legislation and lack of transparency in regulation – so it happened that in Ukraine IPTV is licensed and OTT is not. This leads to inequality and discrimination as to the operators. It violates the competition and does not enable to launch legally the video-platforms that do not use the controlled networks. Meanwhile, nobody combats the piracy.

Overall during 2014 the number of pay TV users in Ukraine has diminished 500-700 thousand or about 20-28% according to official data. The subscription TV market volume has shortened also in money terms – about 5%.

The issue concerning the necessity to reduce the number of obligatory broadcasting in “cable” of free terrestrial channels included into “must carry” offer was raised in the debate. The experts have jointly articulated the necessary steps to provide more favorable terms for the development of subscription TV market in Ukraine. Among them – the amendments to the legislation in the area of TV and radio broad-casting, in particular, adoption till the end of this year of the project to annul the licensing for all types of activity in television area (full title – “On amendments to some laws concerning deregulation of activity of software services provision and improvement of state regulation of software service providers”). Next is the introduction and adoption in 2015 of the law “On audiovisual services”. That would enable to license all the providers rendering services at any platform or device.

Besides, it is necessary to speed up the process of transition from analogue to digital terrestrial broad-casting (planned by July 2015). That step is going to free partially the radiofrequency resource and re-duce the expenses of channels that broadcast both in analogue and digital. Apparently, the terrestrial digitization would also result in subscriber base growth of the cable and satellite providers. It would have positive effect at the subscription TV market amid the legal content use. In this case the operators should refuse from “underreporting” (id est to decrease the official data on the number of real subscribers) and in cooperation with the regulatory authorities start developing the ways to fight the piracy in the Internet and card sharing. Likewise, the debate participants concurred that first of all it is necessary to change the viewer’s consumption habits.

PrInTED PrESS PrOSPECTIVES

For the first time the media forum organizers came forward with the initiative to host an event for the print-ed media market. On the 16th of September round table Printed Press Market in ukraine was held. The leading representatives of the publishing business and advertising agencies discussed the main problems of the market and tried to find answers to the main challenges of the industry. Aleksey Pogorelov, Direc-tor General of Ukrainian Association of Periodic Press Publishers, opened the event and stated that the glossy press is the most solid segment of the printed advertising market. In his opinion the market in real-ity does not fall but transforms due to the technologies and consumer habits changes. And it is expressed in the Internet-segment growth of Ukrainian advertising market.

Irina Ranenko, PR-agency PLEON Talan representative, focused attention on the fact that the customers want the content first of all and the audience of the print gloss was out of risk at the moment. She is sure that a printed publication is still valued more than 10 publications online. The issues of “classical gloss” rebranding and gradual integration of social component on the pages of periodicals and web-portals were also touched upon. The publishers acknowledged the decline of printed media as a result of the situation in Crimea and east of Ukraine within 15-18%. In general the experts concurred that the publishing industry is on the verge of great changes. Thus, all the marketers should unite their efforts and offer the customer some interesting non-routine solutions.

Sergey Boyko

Aleksey Pogorelov

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uKrAInIAn COnTEnT MArKET

The international audiovisual content market ukrainian Content Market was held in Radisson Blu Hotel in Kiev on September 16-18. Traditionally all distributors such as Eccho Rights (Sweden), Endemol World-wide Distribution (UK), Global Agency (Turkey), Small World IFT (USA), FILM.UA Distribution (Ukraine), In-tra Communications (Russia), PRIOR Distribution (Russia), Star Media Group (Ukraine/Russia), AGENRY (Russia), Top Film Distribution (Ukraine) and others had their exhibition suites on the floors of the hotel.

During all the market days all UCM participants had an opportunity to hold their meetings at the Partici-pants Club and Participants Lounge (courtyard of Radisson Blu Hotel). Also a new service - Screening Room was launched, it gave content sellers a unique opportunity to present their projects to UCM buyers through a virtual online catalogue, which included titles from Telemundo Internacional (USA), Televisa Internacional (USA), Armoza Formats (Israel), Studio U7 (Russia), Video Production (Russia), Sreda (Rus-sia), All Media (Russia), Bazelevs (Russia) and others.

fIlM buSInESS

The third day of media forum KIEV MEDIA WEEK (the 17th of September) was devoted to conference film business: Challenges, features, Opportunities including the workshops – financial, producers’, legal and animation one – where the experts and attendees communicated and shared their experience sitting at the one table.

Before discussing “challenges, features, opportunities” of film business in Ukraine and CIS region the organizers offered the conference participants to get acquainted with the European cinematographers’ progress – Head of analytics at Media Resources Management Company Artem Vakalyuk presented a report “National Cinema in Europe. The results of European Films Distribution at Home”.

The success of the movie is measured not only with box-office and number of sold tickets. This is proved by Anna Katchko’s experience. Anna presented feature drama case Harmony Lessons (Kazakhstan, Ger-many, France) – debut feature-length movie by Kazakh director Emir Baigazin – Berlin Film Festival award winner (2013) for outstanding artistic achievements, and from henceforth took part in 40 film festivals (out of 120 festivals that invited the Kazakh filmmakers) and won many grand prix and other awards.

Anna Katchko acted as Producers’ Workshop moderator and shared her experience concerning partici-pation in the various content markets which attracted the European co-producers to her own project. She also told about the terms of financing from the European funds, in particular Eurimages and Creative Europe programme.

Regional fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg advisor Brigitta Manthey told at the conference more details about the system of film production support, in particular international coproduction, in Germany. The German expert noted that the fund had already supported a joint project with Ukraine My Joy by Ser-gey Loznitsa. Next project should have been movie Rhino by director Oleg Sentsov, however, the author did not finish his work due to political reasons. Among the peculiarities of the German support system Brigitta Manthey specified that out of all the conditions the producers have the biggest difficulty in fulfilling only one – finding the distributor for their movies in the country.

Israeli Cinema Fund CEO Katriel Schori contacted the conference participants through the Skype. He noted that during 16 years that he leads the fund with limited financing and huge number of applications from the producers he managed to deliver an effective project selection system. Israeli Cinema Fund pays special attention to the support of the international promotion for the national movies. The producers re-ceive some special funds for that.

Next Russian Film Company CTV producer Natalia Drozd had the floor to share her experience of five-party coproduction I Won’t Come Back (Russia, Estonia, Finland, Belarus and Kazakhstan). Besides, the movie found sales agent from New York resulting in premiere at Tribeca Festival in April 2014. The rights sales began after Cannes Film Festival and now the movie is a desired guest at other festivals.

The discussion moved from films festivals, public fund financing and support to more “commercial” direc-tion after Russian Enjoy Movies Producer Georgiy Malkov joined the conference. He shared his experi-ence of comedy production that has been profitably distributed at the territory of the CIS region. The pro-ducer noted that comedy is one of few genres where the local producer may compete with the Hollywood

Anna Katchko

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majors. As a result, the film distribution is saturated with such product and that motivated the company leadership to bring to the market the other genres. Along with the comedies the studio portfolio already includes youth action with the social message which also may have as opposed to the local comedy the international distribution potential. Georgiy Malkov noted the importance of film marketing that producer should try to hold in his hands until the final moment.

After that Ukrainian State Film Agency Head Philipp Illyenko told about the government support of the fes-tival and commercial film producers. The State Film budget in 2014 is $4.5 million, $1.5 million has been spent already to meet the agency commitments on the contracts concluded earlier. The financing will be enough to finish the launched projects, there will not be new contracts in 2014 and concerning 2015 – everything depends on the next year budget. According to Philipp Illyenko different selection criteria will function as to art-house and mainstream directions. The authors and producers will have to present in the first case the prospects of participation in the international festivals, and in the second – prearrangements with Ukrainian distributors and channels. Also State Film Agency is going to initiate the amendments to the legislation in the field of cinematography and to renovate the process of Ukrainian accession to Eurim-ages.

The Financial Workshop proceeded with the speech of Elliot Grove, founder of independent movie film festival Raindance in Great Britain. He told that a good film may be produced even for €60 thousand. The expert provided an example of the screen story that launched Quentin Tarantino’s career. It summaries to taking 10-12 people, place them in a house and kill as brutally as possible. It is the cheapest movie that is titled containment-movie or home invasion. A lot of movies were shot in such style. Another budget choice, according to Elliot Grove, can be cinema adaptation of the stage play. From cheap to produce genres the speaker moved to budget forming and special attention was paid to crowdfunding as a means accessible to the independent and young cinematographers. The authors do not have to ask to collect the money for film production, it is necessary to show the interest of the thing they are doing and offer the volunteers to participate in that process.

Irina Solovei, cofounder of crowdfunding platform Big Idea, continued this topic giving an example of TV project Gromadske TV (Public TV) that managed to collect around $100 thousand. Herein she noted that the main thing is that the directors and producers were aware that crowdfunding is only an addition but not substitution of the traditional sources of finance.

After the Financial Workshop the conference Film Business participants had the possibility to choose the most interesting topic to discuss and join the Producers’ or Animation workshops.

The Producers’ Workshop gathered at one table such speakers as Aleksey Trotsyuk (Yellow, Black & White, Russia), Elena Yershova (Tato Film, Ukraine), Anna Kachko (independent producer Russia, Ka-zakhstan, Germany) and Natalia Drozd (CTV, Russia), OMKF executive producer Yulia Sinkevich, Stepan Grebenko and Valeriy Kozlitinov (Shorts, Ukraine). The debate was moderated by producer and director of Ukrainian film distribution company Arthouse Traffic Denis Ivanov. Georgiy Malkov communicated with the colleagues through Skype. The workshop members defined the producer’s function at various stages of production both festival and mainstream movie. They discussed the success stories of the auteur cin-ema in distribution, possibilities of TV channels attracting to cinema project production, quality criteria of distributed film and scripted product for TV as well as corresponding peculiarities of producer’s work. There also were raised the topics of international coproduction, cinema distribution and film festival pro-motion as an alternative means of distribution.

The Animation and then Legal Workshops were conducted in parallel with each other. Producer and chief of Ukrainian Animation Studio Animagrad Yegor Olesov, art-director of French studio Ankama Tomas Di-gard and international sales manager FILM.UA Distribution Evgeniy Drachov talked about the peculiari-ties of animated content production. The speakers discussed the architecture of animation brand that includes the target audience definition, distribution territories and marketing-strategy elaboration and further distribution, licensing and merchandising activities. Before the production process beginning it is desirable that the product was presold to somebody. Concerning the animation production in Ukraine Tomas Digard noted that while working in French company Millimages/Bacfilms for eight years he super-vised the animated content production by Borisfen-Lutece company that had three studios in Ukraine: in Kiev, Kharkiv and Mykolayiv. In his opinion Ukraine has very powerful human resource, history of ani-mation, multitude of talented artists. Animation created by Ukrainians was sold at 120-160 territories, translated into 80 languages. Nowadays the French intends to renew the cooperation with the Ukrainian animators.

Philipp Illyenko

Elliot Grove

Tomas Digard

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The Legal Workshop that was opened after the animation one was chaired by legal advisor FILM.UA Group Yevgeniya Derbal and partner of British legal firm Muirhead Simons & Burton Razwana Akram. Natalia Drozd joined the experts. The top-priority topic to discuss was the possibility to implement the additional tax exemptions for Ukrainian producers of national film and television content in addition to existing VAT remission. Currently two drafts are under consideration directed to develop the national cinematograph. However, the state is going to impose a tax on TV and radio organizations that “have income from the film and TV content public announcement”. It is quite a broad concept that in experts’ opinion is difficult to interpret.

Another gap in the Ukrainian legislation is impossibility of presales – it is forbidden to enter the agree-ments for unproduced content. As a result the producers have to use “non-resident” patterns, in other words to agree the pre-sales through the foreign companies or conclude preliminary license agreement to purchase the license for content. Also the allocation of rights for Ukrainian national film and television product is a problem. The matter is that the State Film Agency receives 50% of all rights for the content produced with its support and other 50% is allocated among the co-producers. In other European territo-ries, for example in Russia or in Great Britain, such thing is out of practice.

OTHEr ACTIVITIES

On the 17th of September at KIEV MEDIA WEEK a new educational project fIlM.uA.faculty (common initiative of MRM company and FILM.UA Group) was presented. It started with keynote by one of the most successful businessmen in the field of media, cofounder of FILM.UA Group, Sergey Sozanovsky, which gathered more than 200 people. The expert uncovered the plans for the future of FILM.UA and prospects of film production industry and noted that the Ukrainian companies should unite efforts in product place-ment, and all the possible stages of production.

On the 18th of September conference Television as business gathered the television industry experts, leading media managers, TV channel representatives, productions and sales-houses. The conference raised the issues of information space protection, television and radio broadcasting regulation in the nearest future and resisting the crisis. There were announced the trends and prospects of the global advertising market development and other issues. The agenda of the conference included several panel discussions: Media Leader’s Summit, Monetization of Television Content in Internet, Life of Kids Channels and News Programming on TV: Modern Challenges.

On the 19th of September new event in the course of media forum took place – lIOnS Creativity Days Case Studies. The professional Section of LIONS Creativity Days range of events was arranged by the of-ficial representative of International creativity festival Cannes Lions. The event was devoted to the analysis of the fresh tendencies in advertising. There were a lot of examples of certain cases as well as answers on the questions like “how is it done?” and “may we achieve this level?”. For five hours the attendees could listen to the competent speeches by the leaders of the advertising and communication market of Ukraine, representatives of the leading advertising companies. Each of the experts chose one of the Cannes Lions categories for analysis. In the evening the video commercials screening – winners of Cannes Lions Fes-tival – was held.

The finale of KIEV MEDIA WEEK was master class by the guru of comedy genre Steve Kaplan The Char-acter and Storytelling by Animated Character. The Hidden Tools of Comedy that was held on the 21st of September during animation and media-art festival LINOLEUM. Steve Kaplan in Skype-conference mode shared his experience of writing for TV and told about the principal tools to create a comedy.

Yevgeniya Derbal

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In the light of recent political events the television market of Ukraine was forced to change a bit the genre of the content aired. The entertaining content loses its relevance and may seem quite defiant against the tragic events. Content Report editorial team held a discourse with Ukrainian 1+1 TV Channel program-ming director Andrei Koval who told how the broadcasting schedule is formed today.

What is your channel’s target audience?

Our channel is nationwide, with its core - 30-45 year old female audience. In terms of ad selling history it means the whole Ukraine, 18-54, and we understand that it is really interesting sought-after audience for most of the brands that function at our market.

What is the most widespread content (social projects, reality-show, talk-show, or drama series) on your channel air? How is the air time split in terms of the content genres (what is in prime-time and what in off-prime)?

We may outline three pillars we take into account when we form our viewing grid. The first pillar is news. The news takes a great portion of our broadcast time and its input in general is quite tangible.

The second pillar is TV series. In access prime we usually give the Turkish series. In prime it is locally pro-duced series - either Ukrainian or Russian one.

The third pillar is entertaining and comedy shows produced by Studio Kvartal 95. Those are three great sections with the highest influence.

Concerning the genres – we are not planning in the area of genres. We show the most watchable content in every single time slot. In prime we allocate the news and series and on weekends – comedy shows. The series are usually of Russian or Ukrainian origin, primarily of romance genre or light comedies. Cur-rently in prime-time we broadcast popular sitcom Svaty. Turkish dramas remain in access prime-time. We started proactive work with the Turkish series two years ago.

Was it an experiment?

It was not an experiment. Everything began from The Magnificent Century. The series raised good ratings on different territories. Besides, this was one the most qualitative products from the Turkish producers. We started with that and it worked, so we continued this trend with other stories. And they work quite well too judging by the ratio “acquired content price – acquired ratings”. In the context of programming solu-tions the Turkish series are profitable products.

Do you create your own programs by your inhouse prodco or entrust them to the contractors? What production companies does TV Channel cooperate with?

Predominantly we try to load our own production division 1+1 Production. It has large number of employ-ees that produce our own content. We have a prolific cooperation with Studio Kvartal 95 that has been producing a lot of shows for us lately. We also commission some projects to Sister’s Production. From time to time we cooperate with Friends Production owned by Aleksey Goncharenko who worked at show No Prejudice, and now we negotiate about a new show, but its specifics we are going to uncover closer to the premiere.

1+1 was distinguished by a high number of foreign formats adaptations, however, this year 1+1 TV Channel tends to increase the number of shows produced within the TV Channel’s original ideas. What is the reason for that?

The reason is that all the formats are primarily entertaining. We feel at this very moment of the country his-tory our audience is not eager to use such entertainments in their pure form. Consequently, our interest to such projects decreased because we understand that we have to reflect the public sentiments.

AnDrEI KOVAl: “If we succeed to receive for production the same budget as we used to

spend for russian content acquisitions, I think we will be able to establish an efficient production

process”

InTErVIEW

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It would be absolutely inappropriate to show dances and songs with bright glitters when, unfortunately, hundreds of people perish. Besides, the very market of formats in the West is in the crunch now. I do not know any new big format to be offered today which potential may be compared for instance with The X-Factor, Hell’s Kitchen, Master Chef or The Voice. That is why we have been actively developing our own production.

Could you tell us about the experience of creating your own formats? Have you ever sold them abroad?

Thanks to the fact that the political regime changed in the country a part of bans for lots of topics was relieved, so we may make for the omitted. We can pursue journalistic investigations that inter-est the people. We may do it to maximum effect, sharply and we will neither operate under pressure. We declared ideas pitching for several times. Out of that our format The Family was developed with pilot episode gathering quite good ratings. We have decided to produce the whole season. 6 or 7 episodes have been produced and Red Arrow International company got interested with the project. We developed Battle for Home; however, as a result of the events in the country we postponed the premiere for better times.

What are the countries of origin of acquired content prevailing in 1+1 broadcasting schedule ?

If we talk about the acquired content in general - the Ukrainian content dominates. Next, taking into ac-count the autumn season, is the Western content – three large packages from FOX, Disney and Sony. Lots of hours of foreign programming come from Turkey.

Now we’ve suspended a bit our cooperation with the Russian partners. At least this autumn season we work with the minimum of Russian content on our air (about 4-6 hours per week). We are going to open up new territories. Recently we launched the Israeli drama series. We have also launched a Greek series. Every week we have two Turkish series. These products run with different success but we are constantly in the searching process.

It is possible to depart from the Russian scripted product dictate if you have a wish and a will. The same way as we did it with non-scripted content – Ukraine simply started producing high-quality entertaining programs and we got rid of the necessity to buy this kind of content from Russia. I’m sure the same way will be with the scripted product. We just have to determine this goal and systematically move to that.

1+1 Media Group refused to broadcast the Russian TV content that glorifies Russian Federation Special Forces and Armed Forces. What do you substitute the free slots with?

True. We refused and replaced it with Ukrainian non-scripted product. We substituted one scripted epi-sode in prime with TSN chronometry expansion (TSN – the main news programme of the channel), politi-cal reviews and light news programme such as Chisto News (Purely News). Such way we have shortened the scripted product volume and tried to find a solution with our sitcom Svaty. Naturally, it will be enough only for three-four months but we have been searching actively for ideas, loaded our production house targeting it to produce the scripted stories. I think that by next summer-autumn we will have produced our own new scripted projects.

Do the production budgets of your own series exceed the former budgets used to acquire the Russian series?

We try to do it cheaper. The production budget of one Ukrainian scripted episode should cost either the same or less than the Russian series acquired. As a matter of our colleagues’ experience from other areas they manage to produce an episode for €30-45 thousand. It’s not a bad price.

If we succeed to receive for production the same budget as we used to spend for Russian content acqui-sitions, I think we will be able to establish an efficient production process. Of course, it will be the series without Mashkov, Bezrukov (famous Russian actors) and other guys that “eat up” the huge portion of the budget but it is the right way and we have to start it as soon as possible. We have no task to create the national movie stars in Ukraine. Our task is to produce the ratings generating product.


Andrei Koval

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How many hours of foreign content are acquired by the channel per year? What is the dynamics for the future?

We broadcast about 8 hours of foreign content every week, produced and distributed mainly by the Ma-jors. Basically we have long-term contracts with them and there is no tendency to decrease or increase the amount of acquired content in the nearest several years. The Majors contracts cover almost all the needs of such type of content. The foreign content makes approximately 2/3 of all acquisitions. Next six months there will hardly be any break-up in the dynamics but, probably, by next autumn we will be able to make up half of our programming based on the Ukrainian product. Unfortunately, we are too far from the European or US viewer yet that is why I guess that our scripted product in the nearest future will not be able to compete with the scripted versions from the countries that have absolutely different culture of the TV-products consumption.

What is the ratio of your own content with the acquired one?

In time slot “7 a.m.-1 a.m.” this ratio is about 40% of our own and 60% of acquired.

What are the projects that your channel is working now at?

Currently we launched new political talk-show Right for Power – some peculiar response to request from the audience to watch more political programs. We also prepared the premiere of The Brave Hearts – the project about people that demonstrated the best merits during the difficult period of our country on the frontline. We are producing several series and one of them is our new sitcom A Relative from Moscow. We also picked up the rights to adapt the Latin American series La Patrona that is being worked out at the moment. We are also launching new seasons of The Voice and The Voice. Children. We hold out a hope to finish project Battle for Home. Our channel also plans to produce a new political sitcom.

What is the strategy of development for the foreseeable future?

For the foreseeable future we plan to extend our own product volume in the air of our channel. We stake on the scripted product. We will also deepen cooperation with Studio Kvartal 95 that has proved many times that it is the best producer of comedy content.

We are going to study other areas. As I have already mentioned Turkey is actively developing. We will try to work with the Balkans, Poland and Israel. In other words with the stuff that is close to us in mental per-ception. We try Western Europe but understand that it is another Universe. The product is too cold, too complicated and it has too distant problems and topics for our audience. We tried their entertaining shows with the social context outplaying but understood that it is difficult to work with them at the moment. After all our people do not understand well the social relations, social statuses, horizontal and vertical social bonds and stereotypes. It makes sense to do that for younger audience that does not compose our core. In foreign projects search we are going to focus on the topics the interest for which had been checked in practice – it is romance and comedies.

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The work of European producers can’t even be compared to the one we have to do. While they may con-centrate on the definite market segment we actually have no other way out than to produce TV content and mass market movies and to be engaged in coproduction at the same time. In Europe only a large holding can afford production of such a wide range of projects. And we are forced to do it by the situation on the local market.

European film industry support also includes the support of projects promotion. Is this experi -ence implemented in Russia? Are there any results?

way that produced films are presented to maximum audience and get chance to become profitable. The understanding of this fact came to Russian filmmakers and developed into a strong tendency.

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festival in Moscow. At the presentations some ten selected film projects were screened to film profes-sionals every year. Among these was drama Silent Souls

film Chapiteau-Show stival jury’s special prize.

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over the previous two years. We also created on-line resources providing sales agents, distributors, festi-val programmers and producers with the information on the projects and their producers as well as video materials. So we did one more step on our way to the international market.

CIS: Content report is a trademark of Media Resources Management, Ltd. Copyright belongs to MRM Company. In case of use of any materials or

information from Cis: Content report interactive link to http://mrm.ua/en/project/regular/ciscr/subscribe is a MUST.Editorial team: Artem Vakalyuk, Alexandr Zakhlyupany, Maria Chuprina, Boris Sydorenko, Dmitry Rubin, Victoria Yarmoschyk.

In case of any questions please contact us: Media Resources Management. 22 Zakrevsky St., Kiev 02660, Ukraine www.mrm.ua Tel.: +380 (44) 459-4610; e-mail: [email protected]

CONTENT REPORTCIS:

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW INTERVIEW №9 31 October, 2012

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ploring some specific issue. Russian projects can’t afford it. For example, Russian producers may ask me to make the ocean like they saw it in The Perfect Storm (2000). And I have to explain them that a group of 100 programmers described the behavior of physical phenomenon during a year. Then the results of their work were set into the interface of the program that created such a storming ocean. And the funds spent for the researches are equal to the whole budget of Russian project.

CGF closely cooperates with Timur Bekmambetov who invested heavily in the FilmLanguage (Kinoyazyk) technology. Do you take part in the researches of his company Bazelevs?

We do cooperate with Bazelevs in some researches. But this cooperation is rather sketchy. Actually we do not delve into the study. As for the FilmLanguage I know that Bazelevs have some results that are different from the declared objectives but still…

There is information in the Web that you are going to launch your own projects as a producer. Is that true?

I have some ideas. I have knowledge and skills that would be sufficient to launch a project. And the com-pany is strong enough to realize it. We just need to try and move on if it works.

In the nearest future we’ll decide on the range of projects that would be interesting to work on. At the same time we are going to separate company’s activity as a producer from providing postproduction services which is our core business. Most likely postproduction department will accomplish orders for our projects otherwise there will be a risk of failing in both areas.

CIS: Content Report is a trademark of Media Resources Management, Ltd. Copyright belongs to MRM Company. In case of use of any materials or information from Cis: Content Report interactive link to http://mrm.ua/en/project/regular/ciscr/subscribe is a MUST.

Editorial team: Artem Vakalyuk, Alexandr Zakhlyupany Boris Sydorenko, Dmitry Rubin, Victoria Yarmoshchuk.In case of any questions please contact us: Media Resources Management. 22 Zakrevsky St., Kiev 02660, Ukraine

www.mrm.ua Tel.: +380 (44) 459-4610; e-mail: [email protected]

CONTENT REPORTCIS:

INTERVIEWEE INTERVIEWEE INTERVIEWEE

Alexander Gorokhov

Yevgeny Gindilis

,

Andrei Koval


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