Cinema Valli, 17.7. at 12:00
The first international workshop and pitching programme, Make the Scene!, is aimed at developing TV series screenplays. TV series from Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, and Austria can compete in this programme, with no limitations in terms of form, number of episodes, and genre, but under the conditions that the projects have not been financed or awarded at public calls or similar competitions. The six selected finalists will take part in two workshop models. The first will be held online, under the mentorship of Greek screenwriter Nicos Panayotopoulos, while the second will take place in person during the Festival and will be followed by the pitching to the jury. The best project will receive a 10,000 EUR prize and an opportunity to develop the project further with United Media, the partner company of this programme.
MENTOR: Nicos Panayotopoulos
(1963) is a Greek journalist, screenwriter, and novelist. He started his career writing for newspapers, articles, and TV, but turned to writing novels and screenplays in the early 1990s. He wrote a number of screenplays for short films, TV series, and feature films. In 1996, he won the Best Screenplay Award for the film Traunts at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. In 2000, he won the first prize in a screenwriting competition with False Alarm, which was made into a film of the same name six years later. He co-wrote the films The King (Golden Pyramid at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2003), The Wake (Best Screenplay at the Golden Nights International Film Festival in Moscow in 2006), My Brother and I (1998), and Totally Married (Best Screenplay at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2003). He wrote a collection of short stories, The Guilt of Materials (1997), and four novels: Ziggy from Marfan – The Diary of an Alien (1998), The Gene of Doubt (1999), Icon (2003), and The Children of Cain (2011), which have been translated into a number of languages.
JURY:
Goran Bogdan
Goran Bogdan is a theatre, TV, and film actor born in 1980 in Široki Brijeg. He graduated in acting from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb in 2012. From 2010 to 2018 he worked at the Zagreb Youth Theatre, and saw his first success in the films Sonja and the Bull and Some Other Stories. He was a part of a number of domestic and regional projects, with the most recent ones being Forever Hold Your Peace and The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, which has just won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. Goran Bogdan is a significant name in the world of TV as well, and his more important roles were in the most successful domestic series such as Silence and The Last Socialist Artefact. He also had a role in the popular American series Fargo. He won a number of awards, and was nominated for Best Actor by the European Film Academy for his role in Father directed by Srdan Golubović, which makes him the first Croatian actor to receive a nomination for this award.
Nataša Buljan
Nataša Buljan is Group Fiction Development Director at United Media and Head of the Content Development Department at Nova TV, Croatia. She started her carrier in advertising as a copywriter before becoming a creative director of many successful advertising campaigns. In 2013 she collaborated on the script of the critically acclaimed crime drama series Rest in Peace for Croatian National Television and worked as a writer on the Nova TV hit drama series Stella. After the hit telenovela for Nova TV in 2017-2018, The Pure Love, where she was the author and the head writer, Nataša joined Nova TV to lead the Content Development Department. From January 2024 she holds the position of Group Fiction Development Director at United Media.
Miroslav Mogorović
Miroslav Mogorović was born in 1972. in Zemun, Serbia. Since 1998, he has been the programme director of the European Film Festival Palić. In 2004, he founded the Art & Popcorn Motion Picture Company and produced more than 30 feature films awarded at many renowned international festivals. In 2015, he restored and has been managing the oldest active cinema in the Balkans – “Abazija” in Palić, which will celebrate its 100th year of operation next year. He is a voting member of the European Film Academy and a member of the production networks EAVE and ACE.
PROJECTS
DERT
After being released from prison, Ahmed tries to regain the trust of his wife and children through Roma tradition and music, encouraging them to accept their identity and achieve a shared dream through sincere love. By building the first traditional Roma Taverna, he sends a message of genuine emotion to his family that breaks down prejudice and hatred while spreading the beauty of life, freedom, and love. What chains deprive us of the freedom to love? The TV series Dert, a drama with elements of musical, brings us a real-life story of the breakdown of a modern mixed Roma-Serbian family, aiming to bring light and hope to the universal drama of family disintegration through music. It speaks loudly about the human need for freedom, the longing for love, emotions that are trapped, repentance, sincerity, unity, and the struggle for the resurrection of the family.
Katarina Krstić is a director and master film and TV producer. She directed short films like Circles, Abyss, The Chain, and the musical From Nirvana to Silvana, winning over 15 awards. Her film The Lark premiered in Belgrade and London, and was screened at more than 20 international festivals. She is developing her first feature film, The Sky Has No Colours. Andrijana Zukić, master Film and TV producer, worked on Heavens Above, TV series Awake (Cannes Series), A Cross in the Desert, and The Visit. She is currently preparing the feature film Biće novih leta by Gvozden Đurić.
RAINBOW
Set in the mid-70s Cold War, Duga follows Srki, an adrenaline junkie drawn into criminal world on international scale. Yugoslavia, with help from West Germany, thrives economically but hides a dark secret: its ruthless secret service targets political exiles. Srki’s quest to crash the infamous disco club “Duga” leads to his involvement with Inspector Buda and gangster Johnny. As he transforms into a reluctant assassin, Srki grapples with ambition, love for Tamara, and the harsh realities of political intrigue. The story culminates in Yugoslavia’s fall and the dawn of a new, uncertain era.
In the dynamic Serbian media landscape, few have left as impactful a mark as Srđa Anđelić over three decades. In the 1990s, as a co-founder of B92, he became the “voice” of rebellion and social engagement. As a screenwriter of regional film hits, and director, he created iconic works and continues to innovate, setting high standards and driving positive change.
TO THE MOVIES!
To The Movies is a sitcom set in a movie theater that’s on the brink of closing, centering on Marty, an inexperienced rookie manager striving to save the business. Through the lens of a fictional documentary crew, viewers meet Marty and his eccentric staff. Saving the theater seems impossible, especially with Valery – a senior employee determined to take Marty’s job at all costs. The show blends humor and heart, showcasing Marty’s efforts to keep the cinema open while dealing with his charming but often unhelpful team.
Have you heard this one? A software developer who works in a bank, a video editor who works in advertising, and a pro athlete who works as a flight attendant walk into a bar. What’s the punchline, you ask? That’s actually the story of Boris Rachev, Kristian Stoichev and Boris Krastin – three vastly different individuals united by a common passion that draws them to Pula: the passion for comedy.
YOU HAVE TO LIVE SOMEWHERE
Over the course of six episodes, the viewer is plunged into the mayhem of urban housing in Croatias capital, Zagreb. Situated in one apartment building, these stories intertwine the comic, tense and dramatic situations of flat owners and tenants caught up in unregulated and chaotic rental market. Since the situation is getting more chaotic day by day and since desperate times call for desperate measures, people are starting to crack and doing things that they would never do before simply beacuse they all have to live somewhere.
Sanja Milardović is a Croatian actress, screenwritter and director in film, television and theatre. As an actress she performed in over fifty theatre plays, short films, television series and feature films. As a screenwritter and director she made three short films which won several international and national awards, and created three plays in theatre that won several national theatrical awards.
DECONSTRUCTION
Based on true events in the late 80s, the series follow a group of ordinary women trying to save their hometown Rousse from the poisonous gassing of the Romanian chemical factory across the Danube river. In times when protesting is considered a treason, Tsonka, Dora and Albena fight their way to organize the very first ecological demonstration in the authoritarian country, deconstructing their own lives and famillies in the process. The battle for the environment turns into a death penalty for the communist regime in Bulgaria.
Plamena Velkovsky has more than ten years of experience as a tv scriptwriter for comedy, crime and drama series. She’s also known for the children’s feature film The Curie case (2018). Stanislav Todorov-Rogi is a director and scriptwriter. Since 1998 he has directed various shows, series, documentaries and tv commercials. His 2017 debut film Bubblegum has received critical acclaim.
WONDERFUL
Unsatisfied with how her life has turned out, a forty-year-old Divna magically starts waking up each morning to a new existence. Changing key life decisions, she takes alternate paths towards different lives that could have been. The engine of Wonderful is fuelled by the idea of second chances and opportunities for ‘’new selves’’. New self always brings some improvements, but also new problems and dilemmas. So is for Divna, as well as for her close ones.
Katarina Mitrović – co-creator and writer. Katarina’s screen credits include the hit drama series Children Of Evil (2023), that premiered at HBO MAX and is sold worldwide by Beta Film, The Group (2019), which was broadcasted on RTS (Radio-Television Serbia) and is sold worldwide by Keshet. Both shows were awarded the Best Screenplay Award at FEDIS, the national Dramas and series festival. Her most famous book so far is a NIN short list, Not All Houses Have a Yard.
