C CIS: CONTENT CONTENT REPORT - mrm.ua€¦ · C Media Resources Management. 22 Zakrevsky St., Kiev 02660, Ukraine Tel.: +380 (44) 459-4610; e-mail: [email protected] C CONTENT REPORT Обзор

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

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

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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)

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PRODUCTION PRODUCTION PRODUCTION

director: Milena Fadeeva.cast: Daniil Strakhov, Sergey Romanovich, Olesya Fattakhova, Evgeniy Nikitin, Egor Dolgopolov.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: Drama.

Producer: Armen Davityan.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: Biopic.

Producer: Armen Davityan.director: Vladimir Kott.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: Drama.

Producers: Aleksey Moiseyev, Da-vid Dishdishyan, Oleg Piganov.director: Eldar Salavatov.scriPt: Aleksey Poyarkov.cast: Aleksey Gorbunov, Elena YakovlevaAndrei Merzlikin Dmitry Marjanov.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: Romance.

EMBRACING THE SKY

Russian Aleksandr Litvinov Production Company started shooting 8-episode drama Embracing the Sky. The project is commissioned by Channel One Russia. Filming is taking place in several Russian cities including Boris & Gleb Cadet Corps in Voronezh.

Synopsis: 1980s. A dramatic story about the relationship be-tween two test pilots’ families living in a small military town.

THESE EYES OPPOSITE ME

Russian film company Central Partnership started working on 8-episode biopic These Eyes Opposite Me, about Valeriy Obodzinskiy, one of the most talented and popular Soviet sing-ers of 1970s. The project is currently in preproduction, at the stage of script development. Shooting will start in the end of this year.

Synopsis: Valeriy’s voice made him a real superstar in USSR. All his songs were about love, not for Komsomol or socialism or the bright future – for women. And it was not so easy to do in a ‘no sex’ country. Obodzinskiy couldn’t be controlled and that is why he became some kind of a political undesirable. Government does not want him to sing…

POLAR EXPLORERS

Russian film company Central Partnership started working on 8-episode drama Polar Explorers. It is in a preproduction stage now. Shooting will start this autumn and will take place in Antarc-tica and Murmansk.

Synopsis: Series is based on four novels of a Russian traveler and writer Vladimir Sanin – ‘Old Friends’, ‘Antarctica is difficult to let go’, ‘72 degrees below zero’ and ‘Trapped’ – with two epi-sodes for each of them.

THE YOUNG LIONS

Russian film company DT Production in co-production with Solofilm company started shooting 8-episode romance The Young Lions. Filming takes place in Moscow. Series premiere is set for this autumn.

Synopsis: Ivan Sviridov spent several years in a military service. Now he is back and meets his childhood friends – Ravil’, Markin, Pasha and Rita. They try to persuade Ivan to work together in a car repair shop, but he has a far more ambitious plan – com-plete the development of a unique technology he wrote of in his graduation work. It can make Ivan rich and famous in a moment, but soon he will lose everything except friends…

SERIES

SERIES

SERIES

SERIES

ALEKSANDR LITVINOV PRODUCTION COMPANY

CENTRAL PARTNERSHIP

CENTRAL PARTNERSHIP

DT PRODUCTION, SOLOFILM

Milena Fadeeva

Vladimir Kott

Aleksey Moiseyev

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Producers: Aleksei Moiseyev, Da-vid Dishdishyan.director: Felix Gerchikov.scriPt: Aleksei Poyarkov.cast: Vladimir Yaglych, Mikhail Trukhin.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: Detective.

THE LEGIONNAIRE

Russian film company DT Production has 8-episode detec-tive The Legionnaire in preproduction. The project is commis-sioned by Channel One Russia.

Synopsis: Lead character was a legionnaire in The French For-eign Legion. Now he returns to his homeland to find his missing mother.

SERIES

DT PRODUCTION

Producer: Alexandr Dulerayn.director: Fedor Stuckov.cast: Dmitry Nagiyev.Genre: Sitcom.

Producers: Ruben Dishdishyan, Aram Movsesian, Andrei Radko, Ekaterina Gordetskaya, Sergey Shushanyants.director: Evgeniy Lavrentiev.scriPt: Vladimir Semyonov.cast: Pavel Derevianko, Anatoliy Beliy, Marina Konyashkina, Olga Lomonosova, Evgeniy Sidikhin, Timofei Tribuntsev.number of ePisodes: 12.Genre: Spy Drama.

director: Andrei Afrin.scriPt: Feruza Turahodzhaeva.cast: Nigora Karimbaeva, Dono Bobohanova, Maryam Ihtiyarova, Rano Shomirzaeva, Bahodyr Mu-sayev, Nargiza Rustamova.number of ePisodes: 15.Genre: Children’s Fiction.

P.E. TEACHER

Russian prodco Good Story Media started working on sitcom series P.E. Teacher. The project is commissioned by Russian CTC channel. Pilot shooting took place in Moscow in November 2012.

Synopsis: The lead character – a former head of security of a well-known businessman – was fired for old methods of work. He decides to go to school as a P.E. Teacher, because in that case he will teach the son of his boss – the best opportunity to repair the relationship and get back the previous job.

BLACK CATS

Russian prodco Mars Media Entertainment in co-production with Russian Production Center GORAD and Pantokrator studio started shooting new 12-episode spy drama Black Cats. Filming takes place in Odessa (Ukraine).

Synopsis: 1947. Rostov-on-Don. Trying not to draw the attention of the Intelligence service former Wehrmacht members act as ordinary criminals. But still, their true goal is to capture a well-known German scientist, held in a local POW camp. He wanted to create an A-bomb and if Nazi manage to take him to Argentina, a new war can be started – the nuclear one…

VIRIBUS UNITIS

Uzbek prodco Kinoprom started shooting new 15-episode chil-dren’s sci-fi series Viribus Unitis. The project was initiated by Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan and is financially supported by UNICEF in Tashkent. Filming takes place in Tash-kent and its region.

Synopsis: Seven teenagers from different parts of the country are enjoying their vacation, but suddenly they receive strange mails with tasks of such kind as if they were special agents. From now on, they are the members of the secret service…

SERIES

SERIES

SERIES

GOOD STORY MEDIA

MARS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT

KINOPROM

Alexandr Dulerayn

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Producer: Igor Tolstunov.director: Yuri Moroz.cast: Konstantin Lavronenko, An-drei Smolyakov.number of ePisodes: 12.Genre: Thriller.

Producer: Igor Tolstunov.director: Leonid Plyaskin.cast: Anna Kamenkova, Aleksandr Zelsky, Aglaia Shilovskaya.number of ePisodes: 16.Genre: Crime Drama.

director: Yuriy Kuzmenko.Genre: Drama.

director, scriPt: Alexandr Kal-ugin.cast: Konstantin Kryukov, Sergei Nikonenko, Ekaterina Strizhenova, Viktoriya Maslova, Maria Lugo-vaya, Vladimir Epifantsev.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: Crime Romance.

director: Georgiy Negashev.number of ePisodes: 12.

INQUISITOR

Russian prodco PROFIT in co-production with Kinotelefilm company started shooting 12-episode thriller Inquisitor. The project is commissioned by Channel One Russia.

Synopsis: A maniac nicknamed Inquisitor keeps in fear a small bohunk town. The number of murders rises day by day but the local police can do nothing…

ENEMY WITHIN

Russian prodco PROFIT started shooting 16-episode crime drama Enemy Within. The project is commissioned by Channel One Russia.

Synopsis: The lead character takes the blame for the son of a well-known businessman upon himself and is put behind the bars. Seven years later he goes at large and wants to change

IN GOOD HANDS

Russian prodco Russian Project Studio started working on multi-episode drama In Good Hands for Channel One Russia. The project is currently in preproduction stage. Shooting will start this summer.

Synopsis: Sometimes the only way to help troubled families is to give their children up for adoption…

MEN’S WORK

Russian film company Russian World Studios is producing 8-episode crime romance Men’s Work. Shooting currently takes place in Moscow.

Synopsis: Ministry of the Interior set up a special department dealing with the crimes committed by women. Therefore, due to political correctness, only women work in it – Olga and Elena. They are real professionals and do their job well, but many of their male colleagues think different…

THE FAMILY

Russian prodco Snega has been licensed rights to shoot 12-ep-isode series with a tentative title The Family based on a novel of the same name written by Nina Fedorova.

Synopsis: This is the story of life of the Russian emigrants in a Chinese city of Tianjin in the 1930s.

SERIES

SERIES

SERIES

SERIES

SERIES

PROFIT

PROFIT

RUSSIAN PROJECT STUDIO

RUSSIAN WORLD STUDIOS

SNEGA

Igor Tolstunov

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STAR MEDIA

STAR MEDIA

Producers: Vlad Riashyn, Galina Balan-Timkina.director: Vladimir Yanoschuk.scriPt: Alina Semeryakova.cast: Shamil Khamatov, Ada Rogovtseva, Olga Arntgolts, Alina Sergeeva, Pavel Barshak, Roma Macedoniskiy, Vitaly Linetskiy, Irina Melnik, Natalia Vasko.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: Romance.

Producers: Vlad Riashyn, Natalia Bilan, Natalia Korotkova.director: Sergei Krasnov.scriPt: Anna AnosovaEkaterina Brezgunova.cast: Natalia Lukeicheva, Ivan Shabaltas, Oleg Maslennikov-Voitov, Danieil Belykh, Evgeniy Morozov, Anna Taratorkina, Alex-andra Kimayeva, Victoriya Fisher, etc.number of ePisodes: 12.Genre: Romance.

I’M BY YOUR SIDE

Russian-Ukrainian group of companies Star Media started shooting 4-episode romance I’m by Your Side. Filming takes place in Ukraine at the moment.

Synopsis: It is said that old Seraphima was mighty rich and the chest with all her gold is hidden somewhere in her house. A boy named Sasha finds it, but to his surprise, there is no gold, but the strange collection of rings instead. Each ring box has a date on it. Sasha tries to solve the puzzle…

LEGAL DOPING DRUGS

Russian-Ukrainian group of companies Star Media started shooting 12-episode romance Legal Doping Drugs. The proj-ect is commissioned by Russian Domashniy TV channel. Filming takes place in Moscow and its region and also in Tyumen.

Synopsis: Dreaming about Olympic gold biathlete is ready to take the only legal drugs in sports – to get pregnant. But hormones play a low-down trick – a sportswoman turns into a mother who loves and wants to be loved. This is the story of a difficult choice, which, of course, will be made in favor of women happiness.

SERIES

SERIES

Producers: Yusup Bakhshiyev, Aleksey Ageyev, Sergey Gribkov.director: Yusup Bakhshiyev.cast: Artyom Krylov, Ilya Shaku-nov, Alisa Zolotkova, Romuald Makarenko, Ernst Romanov, Konstantin Murzenko, Igor Chern-evich, etc.number of ePisodes: 20.Genre: Science Fiction.

Producers: Inessa Yurchenko, Sergei Scheglov.director: Victor Tatarsky.scriPt: Murat Tyuleev.cast: Igor Petrenko, Arthur Vaha, Yevgenia Igumnova, Andrei Teren-tyev, Mikhail Morozov.Genre: Detective.

MEDIATOR

Russian prodco Story First Production in co-production with Life Box company is working on 20-episode sci-fi series with a tentative title Mediator. The project is commissioned by CTC channel. Shooting takes place in Saint Petersburg. Series is due to be premiered in 2013 already.

Synopsis: Classmates Alyosha and Styopa suddenly find out that some citizens of their town started to behave in a strange manner. The number of such ‘transformed’ people is constantly rising, so teenagers decide to carry out their own investigation. To their unspeakable horror it appears that the city had been in-vaded by aliens, who steal human bodies with the help of device named ‘mediator’.

DARLING

Russian film company Triiks Media started shooting multi-ep-isode thrilling detective Darling commissioned by Russian NTV channel. Filming takes place in Saint Petersburg.

Synopsis: Captain Moiseev nicknamed Breeze has a jewelry store robbery case under investigation. Main suspect is a certain Chaus. Picking up the trail of one of his associates Breeze meets a woman, Polina. He falls in love with her, but does not know she is Chaus’s ex-wife…

SERIES

SERIES

STORY FIRST PRODUCTION, LIFE BOX

TRIIKS MEDIA

Vlad Riashyn

Yusup Bakhshiyev

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Producer: Vyacheslav Murugov.director: Radda Novikova.cast: Fyodor Dobronravov, Victor DobronravovGenre: Sitcom.

director: Talgat Temenov.Genre: Drama.

TWO FATHERS, TWO SONS

Russian prodco YBW Group is producing new sitcom Two Fa-thers, Two Sons. The project is commissioned by Russian CTC channel. Premiere is planned for this fall.

Synopsis: The story about the conflict of the three generations – grandfather Pavel, his son Victor and grandson Vlad. When Vic-tor was ten Pavel left his mother, and they haven’t seen each other for 20 years. But now Victor has nowhere to go and asks Pavel for help.

RINGS IN THE WATER

Kazakh filmmaker Talgat Temenov started working on multi-episode drama with a tentative title Rings in the Water. The project is currently in preproduction period, with shooting due to begin in May 2013.

Synopsis: 1990s. USSR. Mukan, Rolan and Kasymjan are look-ing for their place in the world. They are all different: first one is a typical positive character from an ordinary poor family, who works out his own salvation, the second is a representative of a golden youth, who gets whatever he wants, and the third – a promising sportsmen who will cross the crooked step…

SERIES

SERIES

YBW GROUP

TALGAT TEMENOV’S PROJECT

Talgat Temenov

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FIREWORKS

Mid April Russian group of companies Gamma started shoot-ing TV action movie Fireworks produced as a part of the cycle Marine Devils. Smerch. Destinies. The project is commis-sioned by Russian NTV channel.

Synopsis: Prigov was assigned to one of the regional KTC di-rectorates: large acts of terrorism have been prevented in different cities of the country. The explosive analysis showed that the factory environment of this very region was implicated into this case. During the pyrotechnic factory inspection Lyud-mila approaches Prigov and informs him that some suspicious things take place at the factory. Prigov and Lyudmila start the investigation. The factory owners cannot stay away from what is happening…

THE LETHAL EXPERIMENTS

Mid April Russian group of companies Gamma finished shoot-ing 2-episode TV action movie The Lethal Experiments pro-duced as a part of the cycle Marine Devils. Smerch. Desti-nies. The project is commissioned by Russian NTV channel.

Synopsis: The storyline about the destiny of rear admiral Ivan Bulatov nicknamed Batya (Gaffer). Batya visits his old friend’s birthday party. He comes just in time – from Research Insti-tute where Batya’s friend works the development prototypes of Charoniy have disappeared. Olga, the Research Institute chief security officer volunteers to help Batya find Charoniy. More-over, it is found out that by means of the stolen lethal prototype the criminals plan to carry out the act of terrorism.

MOSCOW TWILIGHT

Russian prodco Mars Media Entertainment finished produc-tion of 2-episode romance Moscow Twilight. Shooting took place in Moscow.

Synopsis: Where should the restless apparition go if he is ad-mitted neither to hell nor to paradise? Certainly, he goes to the family bosom. However, there is a problem – it is impossible to contact the beloved wife. Nonetheless, the apparition once meets other ghosts and this leads to totally unexpected con-sequences…

FOR YOUR SAKE

Early April Russian prodco Mediaprofsoyuz finished shoot-ing 2-episode romance For Your Sake. Filming took place in Minsk (Belarus). The project is commissioned by Russia 1 TV channel.

Synopsis: Dasha lives in a little town somewhere between Mos-cow and Samara. She lost her parents early and grew in a little house under supervision of her aunt. And once the destiny gives her a chance – Dasha meets a passenger at the railway station who missed his train – cute young man Valera. The cir-cumstances make him stay in the town for several days and

TV MOVIES

TV MOVIES

TV MOVIES

TV MOVIES

Producer: Victor Budilov.director: Yevgeny Malkov.cast: Igor Grigoriev, Tatiana Cher-kasova, Aleksandr Gobov, Alek-sandr Klemantovich.Genre: Action.

Producer: Victor Budilov.director: Natalia Buchneva.cast: Oleg Chernov, Jaroslav Vo-rontsov, Yevgenia Ahremenko, Ivan Shvedov, Natalia Vysochanskaya.number of ePisodes: 2.Genre: Action.

Producer: Ruben Dishdishyan.director, scriPt: Aliona Zvantsova.cast: Igor Gordin, Ksenia Kataly-mova, Yana Gladkikh, Timur Badal-beyli, Konstantin Gatsalov, Arina Nesterova, Anna Bashenkova.Genre: Romance.

Producers: Alexander Kushaev, Vladimir Ignatiev.director: Dmitry Smirnov.scriPt: Lyubov Novikova.cast: Ivan Zhidkov, Natalia Bardo, Aleksandr Tsurkan, Boris Abarov etc.number of ePisodes: 2.Genre: Romance.

GAMMA

GAMMA

MARS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT

MEDIAPROFSOYUZ

Oleg Chernov

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these days will be fateful for both of them. Dasha got to know that the passenger is a swindler being searched for by the po-lice. Valera in his turn understands that he is ready to change for Dasha’s sake…

KINDRED BLOOD

Late March Russian prodco Mediaprofsoyuz finished shoot-ing 2-episode romance Kindred Blood. Filming took place in Minsk. The project is commissioned by Russia 1 TV channel.

Synopsis: Alevtina lives in a small provincial town. She quar-reled with her adult daughter many years ago and the latter ran away to another town. All of a sudden Alevtina receives a tele-gram which tells that her daughter died. The woman goes to the funeral ceremony and there gets to know that her daughter with her husband died in the car accident, they had an exem-plary family and their little son Pavlik is in the orphanage now.

EVERYTHING WILL BE OK

Russian World Studios prodco started shooting 2-episode TV romance Everything Will Be OK. Filming is currently taking place in Moscow.

Synopsis: Through accident concurrence of circumstances two total strangers have to see the New Year in together. Lisa suffers the husband’s adultery and Igor is at loggerheads with his girlfriend. They understand that they have no mutual future and they have only one night. But it is the New Year’s Eve and it is the time of miracles!

TV MOVIES

TV MOVIES

Producers: Alexander Kushaev, Vladimir Ignatiev.director: Andrei Krasavin.scriPt: Elena Balandina, Andrei Krasavin.cast: Aleksandr Mikhailov, Darya Mikhailova, Makar Kravchenko, Veronica Plyashkevich, Olga Kle-banovich, Alla Prolich, Anzhela Korableva, Andrei Drobysh.Genre: Romance.

director: Vano Burduli.scriPt: Suzanna Moisen.cast: Anastasia ZadorozhnajaKirill Kyaro, Aleksandr Ratnikov.number of ePisodes: 2.Genre: Romance.

MEDIAPROFSOYUZ

RUSSIAN WORLD STUDIOS

Alexander Kushaev

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1+1

CHANNEL 31

TV SHOWS

TV SHOWS

Project leader: Vitaliy Dokalenko.format: The Taste.

Hosts: Anna Sedokova, Zhan Al-ibekov, Aliya Telebarisova.format: Britain’s Psychic Chal-lenge.

THE TASTE

Ukrainian 1+1 TV channel announced casting for new cooking show The Taste. The project is a local adaptation of Red Arrow International company format. Their show premiere is planned for this fall.

In this cooking competition show, 4 superstar mentors pick the team of 4 cooks they will coachthrough the show’s episodes. Their decisions will be based on taste alone. Each episode features a culinary “Theme of the Week” with a famous guest, a culinary expert whose own specialty is related to this week’s theme. The mentors prepare their teams for the other show’s challenge: “The Team Taste” – where all team members cook the same dish and afterwards decide which plate to present to the jury. The winner of “The Team Taste” has an advantage – the help of the guest expert in the next challenge: “The Solo Taste”. In “The Solo Taste” each cook prepares a dish judged by the mentors. Since the mentors are “blind tasting” the food, they will not know if they are eliminating one of their own protégées. Only three cooks to be left to compete in the tasty finale.

PSYCHIC CHALLENGE

Kazakh Channel 31 started producing new TV show based on the British Zodiak company format Britain’s Psychic Chal-lenge. The project will premiere this autumn.

In this show, the most powerful psychics meet to fight for the coveted title “Top Psychic”. These magnetic mediums face up to three tasks per show to prove they have real powers. Each test is designed to probe our psychics’ abilities as objectively as possible. Can they describe events they could not possibly know about? Can they locate a terrorist on an aircraft? Can they win a stack of cash at a casino? This ultimate psychic competition is compelling viewing, whether you believe or not.

INTER

CTC

TV SHOWS

TV SHOWS

HEADS AND TAILS 2

Ukrainian Inter TV channel is working on the second season of travelogue show Heads and Tails. The first one premiered in February 2011.

Each episode tells about one country or city from the point of view of two travelers. Every time they flip a coin to decide who will receive a golden credit card with a lot of money. The other one will have to travel with only $100 in his pocket. Different bud-gets – different experience…

CREATIVE CLASS

Russian CTC channel announced casting for new TV show Cre-ative Class. It is likely to be premiered this fall.

During five rounds, 60 talented graduates from 12 Russian cities will be challenged to an intellectual battle: maths, logic, atten-tion, literacy, history and geography knowledge etc. The jury will select only ten of them.

Producer: Vyacheslav Murugov.

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FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

ТЕТ

TVI

TV 3

TV SHOWS

TV SHOWS

TV SHOWS

TET GOT A MATCH

Ukrainian TET TV channel announced casting for new original dating show TET Got a Match. Produced by 1+1 Production it will premiere this summer.

Show guest meets three contestant on his friends’ and col-leagues’ advice. Then, after choosing the one he wants to know better, he has to guess who has recommended this contestant.

7 WONDERS OF UKRAINE

Early May Ukrainian TVi channel will start shooting the cycle of TV programs 7 Wonders of Ukraine about the most famous and beautiful historical places of interest of this country. There will be not seven, but ten ‘wonders’ actually, including Kiev Pe-chersk Lavra and Saint Sophia Cathedral.

INVISIBLE MAN 2

Russian TV 3 channel is working on the second season of enter-tainment show Invisible Man 2. Premiere date is still unknown.

Criminal lawyer, magician, psychologist, shaman, chiromancer and fortune-teller try to guess who is the person – the Invisible Man – sitting in a secret room.

director: Olga Kraynik.writer: Lukjan Sel’skyi.Host: Nikolay Tomenko.

director: Yuriy Frolovskyi.Host: Evelina Bledans.

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ALTI FILMS

ART CINEMA GROUP

BAZELEVS

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

NOVEL WITH COCAINE

Russian film company Alti Films finishes production of the fea-ture arthouse drama Novel With Cocaine based on the novel of Russian writer Mark Ageyev. Postproduction of the film is currently taking place in Saint Petersburg. The project premiere is planned for this autumn.

Synopsis: The protagonist of the movie Vadim Maslennikov is our contemporary. He is the same as we are or more exactly most of us. Somebody’s son, friend, enemy and beloved… But does he live right? And how is it necessary to live? So that to leave the trace for your ancestors? Though is it necessary at all? And the main thing is who needs that? A chain of permanent questions: important, vital and very simple – are tormenting his thoughts, seductions are tearing his heart apart. He tries to find the answers but finds himself surrounded by incomprehension, cruelty, indifference, disappointment and violence.

DELUSORY LOVE

This March Russian film company Art Cinema Group finished shooting new feature comedy Delusory Love. Principal pho-tography took place in Russia and Montenegro. Russian Cen-tral Partnership company is responsible for the film release.

Synopsis: A strict directress fires teacher Mila from school for writing a naughty novel about love. She meets her classmate Olga who is involved in hunting for the wealthy bachelors. This is where the journeys and adventures of two girls begin. They have to change the hotels, countries and engagements. As a result Olga fails to impose upon Mila her life-style of a real ad-venturess. As well as it often happens in real life - love wins. Mila finds her “prince charming”…

THE GAME OF TRUTH

Russian Bazelevs group of companies currently has in post-production new feature comedy The Game of Truth. Shooting took place in Moscow and wrapped up this winter. Bazelevs Distribution is responsible for the film release that is planned for this summer.

Synopsis: The lives of three fellow-students shape up in dif-ferent ways. After the collapse of the Soviet Union they actu-ally turned out to be another “lost generation” and each of them chooses his own way, the one which they are able to deal with. Mark starts his business, Gena toils in a car service, and looser Tolia works as a teacher, somehow to make ends meet. They almost do not understand one another anymore; they almost have nothing to speak about when suddenly out of nowhere Maya appears (all three friends used to be in love with her). The life as if challenges the friends with her emergence, offers a “game of truth” to get understanding what each of them is worth… Neither winners nor losers can be decided in this com-plicated and cruel game...

Producer: Igor Trif.director: Gennady Sidorov.cast: Igor Trif, Kirill Pletnev, Ga-lina Zvyagintseva, Ksenia Sob-chak, Vladimir Yaglych, Natalia Kolyakanova, Janis Politov, Val-entina Berezutskaya, Gennady Sidorov, Daler Madjidov.Genre: Arthouse Drama.

director: Arman Gevorgyan.scriPt: Gleb Shprigov.cast: Marina Aleksandrova, Ravshana Kurkova, Victoria Malektorovich, Yegor Beroev, Gosha Kutsenko, Oskar Kuch-era, Igor Wernick.Genre: Comedy.

Producer Timur Bekmambetov.director: Victor Shamirov.scriPt: Victor Shamirov, Gosha Kutsenko, Dmitry Marjanov, Konstantin Yushkevich.cast: Irina Apeksimova, Gosha Kutsenko, Dmitry Marjanov, Konstantin Yushkevich.Genre: Comedy.

Igor Trif

Gosha Kutsenko

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ENJOYMOVIES

PASSENGER

PRESIDENT FILM UKRAINE

KINO

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

LUCKY ISLAND

Russian film company EnjoyMovies finished shooting new fea-ture comedy Lucky Island. Principal photography took place in Thailand and in Moscow. The project is currently in postproduc-tion. Film production budget totals 2 million. The movie release is planned for December 2013.

Synopsis: The liner in the Pacific. The semi-naked beauties par-ticipate in the beauty contest. Champagne and Blue Ocean… The former star of the television and now the master of cheap weddings could not even dream about this. However, the cruise of the dream suddenly is broken by a succession of incred-ible events. The main character finds himself on an uninhab-ited island surrounded by three finalists of the contest – the fundamental bitch, the alarmist and the classical blonde. The hero decides to continue the contest. Pretending that it is so intended Roman begins the show. He convinces the girls that the island is full of concealed cameras and microphones and the show is broadcast to one of the main channels. The whole country is observing the beauty contest final now!

THE QUARTERS

Russian film company Passenger recently started shooting new feature drama The Quarters. The project is supported by Rus-sian Cinema Fund and the Ministry of Culture. Production budget of the movie totals $1.3 million. Film release is planned for 2014.

Synopsis: The main character of the story, a young journalist Ser-gey, loses his favorite job because of his aspiration to justice and difficult temper. In this critical time of his life he meets his love. However, Sergey’s sister paradoxically jeopardizes his happiness. This is the story how to deal with the circumstances and specifi-cally how to overcome oneself. It is a dramatic story about a real though belated birth of a man and acquisition of his own identity.

ALIN

Ukrainian prodco President Film Ukraine started pre-produc-tion of new feature social drama Alin. The project will be pro-duced in 3D format. Film production budget totals 1 million, half of the sum will be granted by Ukrainian Ministry of culture. Cur-rently casting and location scouting are underway. Producers plan to release the film beyond Ukraine as well.

THE HUMAN TRUST

Japanese filmmaker Junji Sakamoto is currently producing his new film— feature suspense drama The Human Trust. The team has already shot scenes in Russia, Thailand, and New York City, and is finally back in Japan for the final stage of the shoot. Filming in Russia (in Khabarovsk) was organized in coproduc-tion with Russian prodco KINO. Russian premiere of the film is planned for September 2014.

Synopsis: The movie will transfer the audience into the times of World War II. As a result of so called “black capital” belonging to Japan a lot of people got hurt. The movie will follow the fate of the black wealth hidden by the Japanese army, the hunting for which still continues nowadays.

Producers: Georgiy Malkov, Sarik Andreasyan, Ghevond An-dreasyan, Vladimir Polyakov.director: Kirill Kozlov.scriPt: Konstantin Trofimov, Svyatoslav Savchenko.cast: Roman Yunusov, Svetlana Hodchenkova, Anna Khilkevich, Agne Ditkovskyte.Genre: Comedy.

Producers: Aleksandr Mindadze, Lisa Antonova.director, scriPt: Ekaterina Shagalova.budGet: $1.3 millionGenre: Drama.

Producer: Oleg Fialko.director: Anna Akulevich.Genre: Drama.

Producer: Yukiko Shiii.director: Junji Sakamoto.cast: Koichi Sato, Shingo Katori, Jo Odagiri, Moriyama Mirai, Yu Ji Tae, Vadim Zamaraev Alexander Zaporozhets.Genre: Historical Drama.

Junji Sakamoto

Ekaterina Shagalova

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Synopsis: This is the movie about a ruthless love that kills. The social relations are in thespotlight of the story. Sometimes we do not notice how the family collisions lead to quite unhappy and even sad events. We love our children so much and they love us that the destructive force of such love appears all of a sudden. The plot is about the family that is considered in dif-ferent perspectives. One of them is the aspect of the real-life situation of the indigo girl. The people of different generations’ observations supplement her thoughts.

ROCK

SREDA

STANITSA

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

THE FOOL

Russian film company Rock entered into pre-production period of work under new feature social drama The Fool. Currently the script editing process is underway. Filming is planned for the second half of this year and will take place in Novomichurinsk vicinities.

Synopsis: This is a story of a young man, the foreman-plumber. The story is topical: the protagonist gets to know that the hos-tel on the skirts of the town is going to collapse and bury 800 people. This young guy in spite of risking his job and family – everything turns against him – is trying to stir the wasps’ nest which is ruled by the town’s mayor – an elderly woman. She also has a family: husband, several children. She is also risking. This is the conflict of a young man with maximalist world view and an elderly quite good-looking but exhausted woman that cannot see any other choice but to leave everything as it is.

ONLY THE GIRLS IN SPORTS

Russian producing centre Sreda on the 15th of April started shooting new feature comedy Only the Girls in Sports. Film-ing is currently taking place in Sochi. Producers plan to release the film abroad (in 60 countries of the world) under the title Some Like It Cold. Russian company Walt Disney Studios Sony Pictures Releasing will be responsible for the project distribu-tion. The film production budget totals 15 million. Premiere is planned for late December 2013.

Synopsis: The plot develops around the preparation to the Win-ter Olympics – 2014 of the Russian snowboard national team. Three snowboarder-freeriders running from the pursuit dis-guise themselves as the girls and go to Sochi within the wom-en’s national team to the test competition before the Games where they meet the snowboarder ladies from the US national team.

COSSACK’S FAIRY TALE

Russian film company Stanitsa is at the final stage of work on new feature fantasy Cossack’s Fairy Tale. Filming tool place last summer in Astrakhan and its vicinities. Currently CG and VFX production process is underway.

Synopsis: Once upon a time there lived the Cossacks on the Russian land’s borders. They lived in comfort, brought up the children, loved the wives and defended their motherland from the enemies but the tale is not about this… The Moslem czar de-cided to refresh his harem. And he sent to the Russian lands his

Producers: Aleksei Uchitel, Yuriy Bykov.director: Yuriy Bykov.Genre: Drama.

Producers: Aleksandr Tsekalo, Petr Sorokin, Gleb Fetisov, Oleg Teterin.director: Evgeniy Nevskiy.scriPt: Aleksandr Karpov.cast: Ilya Glinnikov, Aleksandr Golovin, Aleksandr Vedmensky, Ekaterina Vilkova, Anna Khilkev-ich, Mikhail Trukhin, etc.Genre: Comedy.

Producers: Sergey Zhelezniak, Andrei Belyanin.director: Irena Gregor.scriPt: Andrei Belyanin.cast: Andrei Belyanin, Irena Gregor, Karen Avanesyan, Igor Kasilov, Elena Kolomina, Anna Karysheva.Genre: Fantasy.

Oleg Fialko

Aleksei Uchitel

Aleksandr Tsekalo

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best warriors to bring him the best girls. So, the Moslems went at once to Astrakhan but there were the Cossacks. The villains got beaten hard and started to think – if they cannot overcome the Cossacks with force they have to do it with cunning…

STUDIO QUARTER-95

ZORI FILM, CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI

CINEMATOGRAFIA, RAI CINEMA, SHARONCINEMA

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

THE FIRST 8 DIVORCES

Ukrainian prodco Studio Quarter-95 in coproduction with Russian producing centre Gorad started working on new fea-ture comedy The First 8 Divorces – the sequel of The First 8 Dates movie (this comedy box-office totaled $9.1 million, while its production budget was $2.3 million). The project is currently in pre-production, script development process is underway. Shooting will be held in August-September 2013. Film release is planned for the spring 2014.

Synopsis: According to the plot of new comedy, already known to us characters Vera and Nikita are going to get divorced but some unusual situations start happening to them. What will pre-vent the main characters from final parting?

AMORI ELEMENTARI

Russian prodco Zori Film in coproduction with Italian Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rai Cinema and Sharon-cinema wrapped up shooting new feature romantic comedy Amori Elementari (Elementary Love). Principal photography commenced this January and took place in Rome, Italian Alps and Moscow. The production budget of the movie totals €2 mil-lion.

Synopsis: A romantic comedy that has as its protagonists ten years old children who play hockey and are fond of figure skat-ing. Film about first love and first “adult problems” of the kids…

Producers: Vladimir Zelensky, Marius Weisberg.director: Marius Weisberg.scriPt: Dmitriy Grigorenko, Yuriy Kostyuk, Mikhail Savin.cast: Oksana Akinshina, Vladimir Zelensky.Genre: Romantic Comedy.

director: Sergio Basso.cast: Cristiana Capotondi, Anita Kravos, Edoardo Pesce, Rach-ele Cremona, Andrea Pittorino, Laura Gaia Piacentile, Bonny Mappilamattel, Anya Potebnya, Maxim Bichkov, Andrey Cher-nishov, Olga Pogodina.Genre: Romantic Comedy.

ALEXANDR ADABASHYAN’S FILM

JULIA KURBATOVA’S FILM

FEATURE FILMS

FEATURE FILMS

THE CRYSTAL KEY

Russian film director Alexandr Adabashyan starts working on his new feature children’s film The Crystal Key. Film script was written by Adabashyan together with Anna Chernakova. Shoot-ing is going to start in the nearest future.

Synopsis: The main character, twelve-year-old boy Tema, acci-dentally crashes the crystal key from the family trunk. After that he goes for a trip into the past of his family, further and further into the past to find the craftsman capable to make a new key. The boy is going to visit the epochs of Peter the Great and Italy of Renaissance.

DO YOU LOVE ME?

Russian film director Julia Kurbatova started shooting her new feature romantic comedy entitled Do You Love Me? Filming is currently taking place in Odesa (Ukraine) and will last till the end of this summer. Project premiere is planned for late 2013 - 2014.

Synopsis: This is a fairy story of love. However, it is the story of adult people: 35-year-old women and 45-year-old men. Some-times it is worth thinking properly before breaking off the rela-tions.

director: Aleksandr Adabashy-an.scriPt: Alexander Adabashyan, Anna Chernakova.Genre: Children’s Film.

director, scriPt: Julia Kurba-tova.cast: Nadezhda Meyher, Artyom Mikhalkov, Sergey Astakhov, Ju-lia Kurbatova.Genre: Romantic Comedy.

Nadezhda Meyher

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VICTOR TRETYAKOV’S FILM

FEATURE FILMS

KATUN DISOBEDIENT

Russian film director Victor Tretyakov started working on his new feature historical drama Katun Disobedient based on his own novel. Currently casting and location scouting are under-way. Shooting will start this May in Biysk (Russian town in Altai Krai).

Synopsis: The film is about tragic destiny of the insurgent group’s leader in the Altai, the White Movement participant Cossack captain Alexander Kaygorodov. The movie will bring to life the legends of Altai Cossacks of the civil troubled years when the noble officers from Admiral Kolchak’s Headquarters were fighting against the Red units… Meanwhile Altai Cossack Kaygorodov cannot choose between the love to his beloved Eu-phrosinya and call of duty to his Motherland.

director: Victor Tretyakov.cast: Sergei Kuranov, Andrei Ryabkov, Aleksandr Kaygorodov.Genre: Historical Drama.

Victor Tretyakov

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DISTRIBUTION1+1At MIPTV 2013 Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 agreed with Israeli format developer Armoza Formats on production of Ukrainian version of the entertainment format The Gran Plan. It was originally produced by Artza Productions for Israeli Channel 10. Armoza Formats also man-aged to sell it to Scandinavian region (Nordisk), Germany (Prosieben-sat.1) and Greece (Alpha TV) as well as Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Australia.

The Gran Plan is a comic reality format which sees three aged women, the ‘new generation’ of coachers, solving the life problems of younger participants with both hilarious and poignant results. They may not own a facebook account, but with 230 years of life experience, they know what really counts. Each episode is dedicated to different situ-ation from break up to love triangle, from first date to last date, from hating work to unhealthy addiction. Grannies help the younger crowd with their problems and force them to move on with their lives… with a few laughs along the way!

FILM.UA DISTRIBUTIONAt the international TV market MIPTV 2013 Ukrainian company FILM.UA Distribution affiliated to FILM.UA.Group signed a deal with the distribution branch of American company Starz Entertainment op-erating US cable networks Starz and Encore. Starz acquired FILM.UA mini-series Angels of War (Angely voiny, Ukraine, 2012), Kasym (Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, 2012) and Inseparable (Motylki, Ukraine, 2013) for the territory of Great Britain.

Earlier this year at Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART) FILM.UA Distribution sold broadcasting and DVD-rights for some FILM.UA projects to Thailand. The slate includes war series Angels of War, Kasym, The Bomber (Balada o bombere, Ukraine, 2011), Black Sheep (Parshyvie ovtsy, Ukraine, 2010), The Special Dispatch (Dostavit lyuboy tsenoy, Ukraine, 2010), The Werewolf Hunt (Okhota na verwolfa, Ukraine, 2009), detective Werewolf’s Ju-risdiction (Oboroten v pogonakh, Ukraine, 2012) and new romance Inseparable. Moreover home video rights for Angels of War and Black Sheep were sold to Japan. Ukrainian distributor also negoti-ates for selling titles from its catalog to China, Taiwan, Australia, Ma-laysia and Singapore.

Angels of War. During the World War II Nazi set up a camp called “Hope”, a site of medical experiments on children. Twins are des-ignated as experimental subjects. So when one of the twins, Petya, escapes from the camp, the Nazi raise an alarm, trying to find the runaway. The life of the entire village turns to hell: partisans need to consider their hide-outs with extreme prudence, locals are suffering from inspections and local police are doing their best to find the es-capee. Under the constant threat of death, deceived and desperate, the characters will display an immense capacity for resistance.

Genre: Reality Show.

DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION

Producers: Victor Mirsky, Oresta Kompanets.executive Producer: Maksim Asa-dchy.director: Tatiana Khodakovs-kaya.scriPt: Alla Krynitsyna.cast: Bogdan Benyuk, Matvey Zubolevich, Aleksandr Tyuftey, Natalia Buzko, Kirill Polukhin, Aleksey Shemes and others.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: War Drama.

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The Bomber. Soviet aircraft crashes on Nazi-occupied territory in time of World War II. The pilot Grivtsov and his beloved radio opera-tor Katya survive. Another survivor is flight navigator Linko, who left the board of the plane before the crash. Each of them has to find his way and accomplish mission, and simply to stay alive. The situation becomes more complicated because of an act of sabotage at the aerodrome before Grivtsov take-off. The colonel of SMERSH suspects the pilot who is trying to defend his friends. Instead of being granted a medal “Star” for his 100th flight, Grivtsov is declared a traitor and is to be executed.

Black Sheep. In time of World War II seven prisoners manage to es-cape from the Soviet penal colony and hide in a small village. Soon af-ter they respire, they face a new challenge — a Nazi subversive group accomplishing mission in that area. The act of fate, former ‘enemies’ of the Motherland turn into its defenders. War perverts lives of millions of people, but sometimes it is the war that makes even the most thor-ough scoundrel to remember that he is also a MAN.

The Special Dispatch. The action takes place in USSR in October, 1941. German forces have penetrated deep into the country and are lay waste villages and cities. The Soviet high command takes every chance to rescue every item of historic importance. Asya was given a special task - to deliver artifact cherished by Josef Stalin from a muse-um to the safe house. However, it seems that the Germans want to get the artifact to their ‘collection’. And so Asya sets off on a life-threat-ening journey full of challenges. Soon a stranger joins the girl on her adventure. His help and protection turns to be indispensable although his past and the motives that predetermine his actions are mysterious.

Kasym. Heroic deeds of World War II hero talented saboteur Kasym Kaysenov put the record in Ukrainian history. The warrior’s glory lives on in memories of those survived. The plot concentrates on Kasym’s mission to destroy Nazi warehouse. His subversive group was wiped out. Trapped on the enemy territory Kasym had to accomplish the mis-sion on his own.

The Werewolf Hunt. In time of World War II the Soviet high com-mand receives intelligence report according to which Nazi plan to set up a command center called Werewolf somewhere on the territory of Ukraine. The information on Werewolf is of an exceptional strategic importance. Soviet reconnaissance unit headed by major Sedov gets the mission to deliver information on the location of the enemy base and forces concentrated in the area. But actually Sedov’s group plays another role in Soviet high command’s plan. Major Sedov realizes that his people are nothing but pawns in a game of strategy. The pawns, however, do sometimes become queens.

Producers: Victor Mirsky, Max-im Ukhanov.executive Producer: Maksim Asadchy.director: Vitaliy Vorobyov.scriPt: Arkadiy Tigay.cast: Nikita Efremov, Ekateri-na Astakhova, Nina Usatova, Victoriya Tolstoganova, Boris Karmozin, Timofey Tribuncev, Egor Barinob, Vladislav Abash-in and others.number of ePisodes: 8.Genre: War Drama.

Producers: Victor Mirsky, Sergey Antonov.executive Producer: Andrey Riz-vanyuk.director: Serhey Chekalov.scriPt: Igor Shvetsov.cast: Kiril Rubtsov, Victor So-lovyev, Mikhail Tarabukin, Andrey Frolov, Alexey Longin, Mukhtar Gusengadzhiyev, Aleksey Dmitri-yev and others.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: War Drama.

Producer: Victor Mirsky.director: Aleksandr Beresan.scriPt: Maryana Bek, Elena Boyko.cast: Evgenia Brik, Dmitriy Orlov, Miroslav Bilonogiy, Aleksandr Kob-zar, Viktoria Malektorovich, Sergei Kalantai, Dirk Martens, Evgeniy Er-makov, Yuriy Shulgan, Mikhail Jo-nin and others.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: War Drama.

director: Leonid Belozorovich.scriPt: Andrey Kureychik.cast: Kuandyk Kystykbaev, Al-exander Petrov, Mikhail Evla-nov, Maria Lugovaya, Alexan-der Lykov, Vladimir Gostyukhin and others.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: War Drama.

Producers: Victor Mirsky, Maxim Asadchy, Sergey Nedzelsky.director: Evgeny Mitrofanov.cast: Vladimir Litvinov, Boris Galkin, Vyacheslav Razbegajev, Pavel Trubiner, Michail Yefremov, Yevgeniya Glady, Vladimir Gory-ansky and others.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: War Drama.

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Werewolf’s Jurisdiction. The main hero – police captain Rykov – investigates the most complex dead-end cases. His reputation pre-cedes him; his cast-iron logic, cynicism and experience contribute to his success. He’s so good at what he does, some colleagues say he’s supernaturally gifted. Well, let’s just say that his success keeps him howling at the moon…

Inseparable. April, 1986. Town of Pripyat, Ukraine. A core meltdown occurred at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Power Plant. Over thirty peo-ple died in the blast but the estimated death toll mounted a four-digit figure as a result of the radioactive exposure. This accident is con-sidered the world’s largest ecological disaster. This film set at ground zero of the catastrophe, reveals the details of the Chernobyl event. The shocking news of the explosion at the nuclear plant has spread, as the world watched the tragedy in fear and confusion. At the same time some were too busy to notice what had just happened in nearby Chernobyl being in love with each other. The disaster has faded into the background...

GEORGIAN PUBLIC BROADCASTERGeorgian Public Broadcaster signed a deal with international TV content distributor BBC Worldwide at MIPTV earlier this month. The agreement concerns local adaptation of entertainment format Show Me the Funny – Stand-up Showdown in Georgia. The original show produced by Big Talk Productions aired on British cannel ITV1.

The format is a contest for the comedians. Competing for the cash prize the participants perform sketches and tell jokes in front of the audience and the jury.

KAZAKHSTAN TV CHANNELKazakh state owned broadcaster Kazakhstan TV Channel acquired animation series Mia and Me (Germany, Italy, Canada, 2011) pro-duced by German studio Lucky Punch GmbH in co-production with Rainbow S.r.l. from Italy, and Canada’s March Entertainment, as well as by the ZDF German Television Network. The German TV premiere was in August 2012, on the KiKA children’s channel. The series has al-ready been sold internationally in more than 50 territories and received the Licensing Challenge Award 2011 at MIPCOM in Cannes.

The series is about a 12-year-old girl who is presented with a portal into a magical world called Centopia inhabited with elves, fairies and dragons. Transformed into an elf, Mia makes friends with Centopia’s royalty and discovers she possesses a unique skill. However, when she clashes with the ruthless general Gargona and her unicorn-hunt-ing army, she soon finds this world is no less difficult or dangerous than the one she left behind.

OFF THE FENCEInternational TV content distributor Off the Fence head-quartered in Amsterdam added to its catalog documentary series Great Dream-ers produced by Ukrainian companies FILM.UA and Signal RED.

Producer: Victor Mirsky.director: Alexander Budyonni.scriPt: Yuliya Opaterna, Alexander Budyonniy.cast: Vyacheslav Razbegayev, An-astasiya Makeyeva, Mikhail Zhiga-lov, Dmitriy Surzhikov, Victor Sa-raykin, Oleg Primogenov and oth-ers.Genre: Detective.

Producer: Victor Mirsky.director: Vitaliy Vorobyov.scriPt: Valeriy Mukharyamov.cast: Mariya Poezhaeva, Yuriy Borisov, Andrey Kazakov, Yuliya Rytberg, Yuriy Nazarov and oth-ers.number of ePisodes: 4.Genre: Drama, Romance.

Genre: Talent Show.

duration: 26 x 23 min.

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Each program of the series is devoted to an outstanding thinker, pio-neer and path breaker in science and the arts, whose daring ideas and inventions would become landmarks in our history. Off the Fence’s catalog includes three one-hour episodes of Great Dreamers:

Jules Verne. The traveler who never leaves his cabinet – that’s what Jules Verne’s contemporaries used to call him. He was a person with an extraordinary lust for life whose fantasy had no limits – often hailed as the father of science fiction, he literally taught us how to dream. Us-ing CGI and special effects, this films recounts Jules Verne’s own story whilst bringing to life his most beloved characters: Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout on their journey around the world in 80 days, Captain Nemo travelling twenty thousand leagues under the sea and Professor Lidenbrock with his nephew Axel descending to the centre of the earth.

Nikola Tesla. Tesla was considered a genius by many, a lunatic by some and an unfathomable enigma by everyone. This man single-handedly brought about the technological revolution, he is the invisible genius behind radio, television, AC electricity – things we all take for granted and can’t live without. It is due to his profound and firm beliefs and passionate enthusiasm that Tesla managed to do what appeared to be implausible at the time – electrify the world. From his early life in the Austrian Empire, to his move to America and great rivalry with Edi-son, the secret life of Tesla will finally be revealed in this documentary. This is an extraordinary encounter with the scientist who changed the fate of the world.

Da Vinci. The film tells the story of a man whose genius epitomized the Renaissance era and the subsequent development of science and art. The hand of this prodigy sketched the first prototype of a helicopter, painted the most mysterious painting of all time and illustrated human anatomy. Young Leonardo was obsessed with the idea of finding an-swers to the mysteries of nature. He went through the innumerable twists and turns on the path to enlightenment and fame. The story, told by Leonardo’s friend will uplift the veil to reveal da Vinci’s life in Flor-ence and Milan at the time of political instability, his numerous scien-tific and artistic escapades as well as the creation of masterpieces, which stir awe and reverence in the hearts of men up to this day. The feature will lead the viewer to the Master’s final days when his agoniz-ing solitude will be his only faithful companion - the price da Vinci had to pay to fulfill an almost god-like role in the fate of humanity.

MIR REALITYRussian television production company Mir Reality (Dutch company Talpa is one of its stock holders) inked a deal with British TV content distributor All3Media that granted Russian partner exclusive rights for local adaptation of its constructed reality formats.

Titles covered by the pact include X Diaries, Day and Night, Only Way is Essex. Moreover according to the agreement Mir Reality gets access to All3Media factual entertainment formats including more than 60 titles.

X Diaries - a stripped constructed reality series using amateur actors. The relaxed party, holiday atmosphere and all the incidents and re-lationships that happen when young people go on holiday in places such as a Ibiza are brought to the screen. 4 storylines run across 5 days – with the story arcs all ending with revelation and resolve on day 5 – then it’s onto the next location and set of characters, to watch more romance and collisions.

Producers: Sergey Sozanovsky, Igor Storchak.director: Misha Kostrov.duration: 52 min.Genre: Docudrama.

Producers: Victor Mirsky, Sergey Sozanovsky.director: Misha Kostrov.scriPt: Nataliya Doilnitsyna.duration: 52 min.Genre: Docudrama.

Producers: Sergey Sozanovsky, Igor Storchak.director: Mikhail Khersonsky.duration: 52 min.Genre: Docudrama.

Genre: Constructed Reality.

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Day and Night. The action centres around a trendy apartment in the heart of a vibrant metropolis. It is home to eight young diverse charac-ters who are all united in their love of the city and the desire to make their mark in it… Each episode spans 24 hours in the turbulent lives of this group of flatmates. Heroes fall in and out of love with each other, argue over living arrangements, struggle to pay the rent, frequent night clubs and bars, and face their own personal dilemmas as they experience the best and worst that the city has to offer.

Only Way is Essex. A glossy series full of young, rich beautiful people, proud of their plastic surgery and waxed within an inch of their lives – for real. Their mesmerising antics are under the multi-media micro-scope in this real life drama. Big characters - the ‘love rat’, the ’bitch’, the ‘tart with a heart’, the ‘camp’ gossip – but all of them are playing themselves.

It should be mentioned that Mir Reality has a great experience of All-3Media formats adaptation. It produced Russian versions of Cases of Doubt (Ne vri mne), Families at the Crossroads (Semeinie dramy) и Just Sue Me (Zasudi menya) for Russian channel Ren TV.

REN TVRussian TV channel Ren TV signed a deal with the international TV content and formats distributor Red Arrow International (HQ in Mu-nich, Germany) on the format The Taste. The original show is aired on American channel ABC. It should be mentioned that international premier of the format took place at Format Show screening held in the framework of KIEV MEDIA WEEK 2012. Ukrainian version is in produc-tion and is to debut on 1+1 channel by the end of 2013.

In this cooking competition show, 4 superstar mentors pick the team of 4 cooks they will coach through the show’s episodes. Their deci-sions will be based on taste alone. Each episode features a culinary “Theme of the Week” with a famous guest, a culinary expert whose own specialty is related to this week’s theme. The mentors prepare their teams for the other show’s challenge: “The Team Taste” – where all team members cook the same dish and afterwards decide which plate to present to the jury. The winner of “The Team Taste” has an advantage – the help of the guest expert in the next challenge: “The Solo Taste”. In “The Solo Taste” each cook prepares a dish judged by the mentors. Since the mentors are “blind tasting” the food, they will not know if they are eliminating one of their own protégées. Only three cooks to be left to compete in the tasty finale.

REXMEDIALos Angeles based film production and distribution company Rex-Media acquired international rights for Russian zombie comedy hor-ror Zombie Fever (Zombie Kanikuly, Russia, 2013) produced by film company New Wave Production. Russian theatrical rights belong to Top Film Distribution that plans to release the film in 400-500 theaters at the beginning of June. It should be mentioned that RexMedia was engaged in coproduction with Georgian filmmakers 5 Days of War (USA, Georgia, 2011) that gained $17.5 thousand in six US theatres in 2011. By the way the catalog of RexMedia includes such Russian films as Antikiller trilogy, The Interceptor (Zapreshchennaya Realnost, Russia 2009), Show Me the Money (Bablo, Russia, 2011).



Genre: Cooking Show.

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The new Zombie Fever starts when a meteor crashes ruining a wild beach party infecting everyone with the virus - the dead start walking the Earth. A special-forces veteran joins a group of misfits in an apoc-alyptic fight for liberty, justice and the “Mother of all Zombie Wars”. Based on almost true events, this epic saga will prove that Love is more powerful than Fear and the game of Killing Zombies is awesome!

SHANT TVAt the content market MIPTV 2013 in Cannes Armenian TV chan-nel Shant TV acquired talent format Just the Two of Us from BBC Worldwide company. Shant TV as well as Macedonian broadcaster MRT will produce 12 episodes of the series in-house. Premiere dates are still to be confirmed. The original show debuted on BBC One in 2006.

The show is a singing contest participated by celebrities performing a duet with a professional singer. The judges then give comments on each performance and scores to each couple. The scores create a leaderboard which forms 50% of the final result, the other half comes from the public vote via telephone and text entries. The two couples at the bottom compete in a final ‘Sing Off’, where they perform their duet again. Once both couples have performed their song for the judging panel, the four judges decide on who deserves to stay and cast their votes.

TOP FILM DISTRIBUTIONRussian film distributing company Top Film Distribution signed a multi-year output deal with film financing, production, sales and dis-tribution company IM Global (offices in Los Angeles, London and Mumbai). The deal covers the mainstream films with budgets over $20 million that IM Global finances or co-finances. Top Film is granted rights for the territory of Russia and other countries of the CIS region, the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Re-public and ex-Yugoslavia. It should be mentioned that the agreement excludes projects acquired by Top Film’s rivals West (Blood Sisters), Central Partnership (Paranoia) and Caravella.

IM Global similar output deals with Sun Distribution for most of the Lat-in and South America, as well as eOne for the U.K., Canada and Spain, and German Universum Film, the theatrical distribution subsidiary of broadcaster RTL.

director: Kirill Kemnits.scriPt: Sergey Torchilin, Kirill Kemnits.cast: Julia Volkova, Mikhail Efremov, Anton Zinnoviev, Al-exander Efremov, Daria Tor-chilina and others.Genre: Comedy, Horror.

Genre: Talent Show.


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CINEMA RELEASES OVERVIEW CINEMA RELEASES OVERVIEW

UKRAINIAN THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION MARKET OVERVIEW

(NOVEMBER 29, 2012 – APRIL 14, 2013)

Theatrical releases of 127 films took place in Ukraine in the period of November 29, 2012 – April 14, 2013. The gross box-office of these films totaled $39.5 million. 7.2 million tickets were sold for the premieres of the new theatrical year. At the same time films released be-fore November 29, 2012 starting from December collected $2.8 million with almost one million admissions. So the total Ukrainian theatri-cal box-office amounts to $42.3 million. 8.2 million people visited cinemas during four and a half months of this year. TOP-20 releases collected $30.8 million – 78.1% of the total amount. 75.9% of the cinema-goers – nearly 5.5 million – bought tickets to watch the films you see in the table below.

№ Title Distributor Release date Premier weekend Box Office, $

Total Box Office 29.11.2012 - 14.04.2013, $ Tickets sold

1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey KNM 19.12.2012 1 388 677 4 048 630 563 403

2 Oz the Great and Powerful B&H 07.03.2013 1 591 875 2 985 691 483 139

3 Three Warriors on Far Shores / Tri bogatyria na dalnikh beregakh (Rus) GK 27.12.2012 507 697 2 629 071 531 774

4 Life of Pi UFD 01.01.2013 822 160 2 571 046 382 638

5 Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters B&H 31.01.2013 922 501 2 423 512 394 177

6 The Croods UFD 21.03.2013 467 235 1 907 415 368 702

7 Jungle / Dzhungli (Rus) GK 29.11.2012 698 186 1 473 419 254 894

8 A Good Day To Die Hard UFD 14.02.2013 759 693 1 386 735 273 969

9 Anna Karenina B&H 01.01.2013 535 537 1 286 377 265 426

10 G.I. Joe: Retaliation B&H 28.03.2013 665 077 1 280 282 225 441

11 Rise of the Guardians* B&H 22.11.2012 631 611 1 133 143* 229 635*

12 Django Unchained B&H 17.01.2013 403 835 1 129 290 215 053

13 Men’s Deeds / Chto tvoryat muzhchiny! (Rus) GK 28.02.2013 465 217 1 083 402 212 888

14 Jack The Giant Slayer KNM 21.03.2013 339 470 1 026 573 168 179

15 Mommies / S Novym godom, mamy! (Rus) GK 27.12.2012 193 900 824 924 164 556

16 Gentlemen Of Fortune / Dzhentelmeny, udachi! (Rus) AVR 27.12.2012 174 929 803 908 152 137

17 Oblivion B&H 11.04.2013 778 544 799 747 138 834

18 Jack Reacher B&H 10.01.2013 337 941 699 921 148 614

19 Backer-up / Dubler (Rus) GK 10.01.2013 328 196 682 086 137 651

20 Metro (Rus) GK 21.02.2013 227 763 663 990 142 943

TOTAL ТОP-20: 30 839 162 5 454 053

Sources: BOOKER’S BULLETIN, boxofficemojo.com, Ukrainian Film Distribution* films released before November 29, 2012, box-office and admissions over a period of November 29, 2012 – April 14, 2013

Distributors:AVR – Aurora FilmB&H – B&H DistributionGK – Galeon KinoKNM – KinomaniaUFD – Ukrainian Film Distribution

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We continue the cycle of articles dedicated to the current situation on TV markets of the post-Soviet coun-tries. The region is developing rapidly both in terms of its TV market volume and the number of players on it led by such states as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In previous edition we focused on TV markets of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and this time we’ll provide a short analysis of such territories as Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova.

Ukraine

Ukraine is the second largest TV market in the CIS region after Russia. The territory of the state is 603,628 km² and its population amounts 45.6 million people. There are a total of 16. 2 million television households and approximately 24 million television sets in use. Ukraine is a kind of unique country in Europe from the point of view of the national-wide analogue terrestrial TV nets quantity: there are 16 channels of that kind in the country. The situation is to change dramatically after the analogue terrestrial switch off that is planned for summer 2015. The number of digital terrestrial TV nets that will have national-wide coverage will increase to 32.

Private TV broadcasters owned by Ukrainian tycoons play the lead role on the local market. There are four dominant TV Groups in Ukraine: StarLight Media (belongs to Viktor Pinchuk, operates STB, ICTV, Novy Channel, M1, M2 and QTV channels), Inter Media Group (belongs to Dmitry Firtash, runs Inter, NTN, K1, K2, Mega, Enter-film, MTV Ukraine, Pixel channels), 1+1 Media (owned by Igor Kolomoiskiy, operates 1+1, 2+2, TET, PlusPlus channels), and Media Group Ukraine (belongs to Rinat Akhmetov, runs TRK Ukraine, Football, Football+, Donbas, Sigma TV, Sphere TV and NLO TV channels). Government-owned TV channel First National is not so popular, as private broadcasters. Nevertheless it belongs to TOP-10 most popular TV channels in Ukraine. There is no public broadcasting company in the country yet, although the process of its launch on the basis of state-owned First National TV channel is currently underway. Totally there are 16 national-wide broadcasters, more than 200 local and regional TV stations (both private and govern-ment owned) and more than 100 satellite private broadcasters.

Cable is the most widespread television platform in Ukraine accounting for over 38% of all television households. The penetration of cable TV has risen more than 10% over the past several years (for in-stance its penetration in 2007 was 27%). The analogue terrestrial platform yet remains the second most widespread television platform in Ukraine and is used by 33% of television households. However, the con-stant growth of the cable and satellite platforms has eroded the terrestrial platform’s market share which has decreased from 75% in 2007 to 63% in 2009 and to 33% in early 2013. All services on the terrestrial platform are currently free-to-air including DTT service from Zeonbud, private operator of 4 out of 5 DTT multiplexes in Ukraine. Satellite TV is the third popular TV platform in the country with more than 20% pen-etration (the majority of satellite households prefer to receive FTA channels and not to pay DTH operators for the service). The rest 8-9% of the households use DTT or IPTV platforms (currently there is no update statistics of these two platforms users) to watch TV.

From the advertising point of view Ukraine is the second largest market in the region after Russia. The total volume of its TV ad market amounted $483 million in 2012 and is forecasted to grow 9.5% in 2013 up to $529 million (data provided by All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition).

Belarus

Belarus is a former USSR Republic with the area of 207.6 km² and population of 9.5 million people. It is estimated that there are 3.7 million television households and approximately 4.5 million television sets in use. At the end of 2012, 227 television and radio broadcasters were officially registered with the Byelorus-sian Ministry of Information, of which 158 radio broadcasters (137 governmental and 21 commercial) and 69 TV broadcasters (28 governmental and 41 commercial).

Currently six nationwide broadcast services are available on the analogue terrestrial television platform: Belarus 1 (coverage is 99.72% of the population), ONT (97.99%), Lad (91.78%), CTV (81.06%), RTR-Belarus (63.94%) and NTV-Belarus (64.2%) DTT platform officially launched on 1 July 2005 at that time using MPEG-2 in the capital city of Minsk. Adoption of MPEG-4 AVC standard has been approved by the Parliament. As of February 2013, DTT coverage reaches 95.65% of the population. Analogue switch off is planned for completion by 2015. Currently eight broadcast services (Belarus 1, ONT, Belarus 2, CTV, RTR-Belarus, NTV-Belarus, Mir and Belarus 3) are available on the DTT platform; they all are accommo-dated in a single DTT multiplex.

Although the vast DTT deployment the analogue terrestrial television platform is still the most widespread television delivery platform in the country and is available to 99.64% of the population. Cable TV is avail-able to 50% of the population. An IPTV service was launched in February 2009 and the number of sub-scribers is been growing.

TV MARKETS: UKRAINE, BELARUS, GEORGIA, MOLDOVA

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From the advertising point of view local TV market is rather small for such population as it is in Belarus today. TV advertising spend reached last year a bit more than $55 million. It is forecasted that the market size will grow at least 10% this year. More precise data on TV advertizing market in the country and on TV channels ratings is not available for now because of the absence of national-wide TV research and mea-surements.

Moldova

Moldova is a rather small country in Eastern Europe with an area of 33.846 kmé and a population of 3.6 million people. The total number of television households in Moldova is 1.2 million and it is estimated that there are a total of 4 million television sets in use.

Cable is the most widespread television delivery platform in Moldova (near 70% of households in Moldova are subscribed for the cable operators services), because of the county’s small size and high population density. At this stage, most households rely on analogue cable with only a small penetration of digital cable. The analogue terrestrial television platform is the second most used television platform, used in 20-22% of all television households for their primary television services. Satellite TV penetration is near 8% of the Moldovan households.

A DTT trial offering services from one transmitter began in September 2003 in the city of Chisinau. One multiplex is available offering access to four television program services. The launch of a nationwide DTT platform is expected to begin in summer 2014. The analogue switch-off is planned to be completed by 2015. At that time, DTT services should be available to 85% of the population and DTT penetration should have reached 80% of households.

Currently four nationwide terrestrial television broadcasts are available in Moldova. They are:Moldova 1 (coverage is 97-99% of the population), Prime (92-95%), 2 Plus+ (87-92%) and NIT (60%). In total there are more than 270 TV channels in Moldova (including national-wide, regional, local and satellite), the ma-jority of which are international ones (id est they are registered in other countries but poses licenses to broadcast in Moldova).

The whole volume of the TV advertising market in Moldova totaled about $18 million in 2012 and it is fore-casted to grow 13-15% annually in the next few years.

Georgia

Among the three countries of Caucasia, Georgia is the second largest territory: larger than Armenia and smaller than Azerbaijan. It has an area of 69.7 km² and a population of 4.6 million people. The total number of television households is slightly more than 1.5 million and it is estimated that there are approximately 2.5 million television sets in the country.

A total of 7 broadcasters are available on the analogue terrestrial platform (Government-owned Channel 1 Georgia and commercial TV channels Rustavi 2, Sakartvelo, Adjara TV, Marneuli TV, MZE TV and Alani TV), although not all broadcasters have a full population coverage. The commercial broadcaster Rustavi 2 has the largest population coverage reaching near 85% of the population. Currently there are more than 60 TV channels and over 40 radio networks in Georgia.

Analogue terrestrial is the primary television platform in the country. Cable and satellite platforms are in-significant and used only in such large cities as Tbilisi and Batumi (approximately 20-30% of households). There are less than 200,000 pay TV subscribers (less than 14% of the total number of households) in the country.

The country has begun a DTT trial which has been running since the summer of 2009 in the city of Tbilisi. For digital terrestrial TV implementation Georgia will use DVB-T2 standard with MPEG4 compression. The analogue switch-off should be completed in the country till June 17, 2015, although there is yet no special DTT Deployment Programme approved by the Georgian authorities.

Unfortunately, data on TV ratings and share of the TV channels in Georgia is not available because of the absence of national-wide TV researches in this country. Nevertheless TV advertising is a rapidly evolving industry – the total TV ad spend exceeded $100 million in 2012.

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

For the last few years media often mentioned your name and the name of your company in con-nection with film production including international coproduction as well as organization of im-portant international movie industry events. It seems that you pay less attention to TV series pro-duction, don’t you?

Besides of the activity discussed in the media TVINDIE continues producing TV projects. Detective series Moscow. Central District is in production for NTV channel. We continue to produce this project for ten years. The shooting of the first block of episodes for the fourth season finished by the end of 2012. We continue shooting the second block. 32 episodes are equal to 16 full length feature films. At the same time some more new big projects are in development. We plan to launch production in the nearest future.

TVINDIE conducts activities in different areas such as TV content production, international co-production, rights sales etc. Are there different departments or branches responsible for each activity in your company structure?

Each activity is conducted by TVINDIE on behalf of the separate legal entity - one for TV projects and movie production, the other one - for distribution, and one more for producing partnership projects. At the same time our company remains unitary enterprise. Thus the staff is engaged in several parallel projects on different directions.

To produce films the company is supposed to have sufficient filming and studio equipment. What is TVINDIE’s technical base? Do you have your own soundstages and postproduction studio?

We take all the necessary equipment for a rent as well as the soundstages. We may shoot in Moscow, Belarus or Europe so it is much simpler to pay local rentals for their services. There was a time when TVINDIE had sufficient equipment providing full cycle of postproduction including sound. But we gave it up, because postproduction is a separate business. We still have some editing equipment but all the work demanding additional facilities is made by contractors.

How does TVINDIE sell projects from its catalog in Russia and internationally?

We prefer direct sales. First of all we control rights sale to major TV channels and territories and second-ary sales are provided by our partners according to distribution agreements we sign. The latest important deal was signed with Franco-German TV network ARTE that acquired our film The Fly (Mukha, Russia, 2008) directed by Vladimir Kott.

As to pre-sales of new projects we work with sales-agents. The sooner we start cooperation with them the more likely are the successful results. Such cooperation makes project promotion and distribution more effective. By the way, one of the main objectives of the screenings Work-in-progress organized by TVINDIE in the framework of film festival 2morrow/Zavtra was to find sales-agents for the films on the final stage of production.

We build the most appropriate distribution model depending on the project. Making large-scale releases in Russia we deal with Central Partnership. Paradise and Drugoe Kino provide more targeted releases. For example, Jos Stelling’s latest film The Girl and Death is to be released by Drugoe Kino.

We act the same way choosing platforms for promotion of our projects – these may be international A category festivals or local events. Our project Dubrovsky was presented at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2011. Some major international sales-agents felt interested in it from the very beginning. Since then we provide them with information on the production status. I hope that we sign the presales deal by the time the project is finished. It is in postproduction now and is planned to premiere in autumn 2013.

YEVGENY GINDILIS: THE WORK OF EUROPEAN PRODUCERS CAN’T EVEN

BE COMPARED TO THE ONE WE HAVE TO DO

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW INTERVIEW

Yevgeny Gindilis

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Would you, please, tell us about promotion and distribution of the coproduction projects in which you were engaged along with European producers? Let’s take The Girl and Death as an example.

All the producers engaged in the coproduction agree the strategy of world sales together. At the same time each co-producer coordinating actions with the partners makes efforts to sell the project in his coun-try. The Girl and Death was first presented for sale at Red Square Screenings in Moscow in October 2012. By the day the film was finished it had a sales-agent – Dutch company FCCE – taking it to Los Angeles to American Film Market (AFM) and then to Berlin to present at the European Film Market (EFM).

The film was premiered at Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. The pictures director Jos Stelling is one of the founders of that film festival. The Girl and Death won three prizes of Golden Calf there: as the best film, for the best operators work and the best sound. In November 2012 the film was taken to the special section of Film Festival Cottbus, Germany. Thanks to our partners the same month it was released in Benelux. Russian and German theatrical premieres will take place in May.

You have a great experience of international coproduction (since 1998). What changes in the conditions of coproduction would you note? How do co-producers share the responsibilities?

The situation really changed during last 15 years. Technological progress had a great influence on the ways and methods of projects promotion and distribution. Projects we made in 1990s seem to be much simpler, on the other hand some moments were more complicated to cope with.

European film financing system became more complicated. There appeared new opportunities which producers need to learn how to use taking into account their project’s peculiarities. Art films may be fi-nanced and subsidized by local and international foundations. To get the support producers have to meet a long list of strict demands. The more complicated is the financing of the project the more time it takes to produce it. For example, my Dutch partners and I spent five years to collect production budget for Jos Stelling’s film Duska. Money for The Girl and Death we were collecting for three years. It was the first project supported by the Russian Cinema Fund along with Dutch and German foundations. Stelling’s company provided budgeting from Netherlands and singed the pre-sale deal with local TV channel AVRO. Together we found partners from Germany who were granted the support of the local film foundation as long as the film was shot in Germany. So we engaged all the possible sources of financing.

In international coproduction project each of the partners is responsible for finding sources of financing in his country. At the same time there is a delegate producer responsible for the whole budget. He is the one who provides financial support in case of contingencies to guarantee the project will be realized.

What is the difference between international feature films coproduction and international TV content coproduction?

The production of international TV project is a complicated process. It may be realized successfully within the structure of the international broadcaster. At the same time it seems almost impossible for indepen-dent producers from different countries to meet demands of the different channels and the audiences’ preferences in the same project. There may be some exceptional image projects but the higher level of markets integration needed to make them regular.

What is the difference between the state support producers are granted in Russia and European public foundations’ support?

European foundations providing support to film producers are strictly controlled by the public bodies. There are local and national foundations in many European countries. They are aimed to support Euro-pean films as cultural products opposed to the American profit targeted movies. The procedure of getting the support is mostly clear and reflects the interests of the whole industry. There is also automatic sup-port from TV channels and aid systems based on scores for participating international film festivals. The advantage of European public support system is the variety of ways to get funding. Producers are offered more opportunities and more guarantees that make their risks much fewer.

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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?

The projects' promotion and distribution support is not less important than production support. It is the 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.

In 2009 TVINDIE in cooperation with Warsaw Film Foundation and MEDIA Mundus International Pro-gramme of the European Community launched the presentations of Eastern European works-in-progress taking place at CentEast Market Warsaw which is an industry event of the Warsaw film Festival and one more time at the forum Projects for Tomorrow held in the framework of 2morrow/Zavtra International film 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 (Ovsyanki) directed by Aleksei Fedorchenko that won Osella award for Best Cinematography at Venice Film Festival in 2010, another one is Sergei Loban’s film Chapiteau-Show awarded The Silver St George, the Moscow International Film Festival jury’s special prize.

In October 2012 TVINDIE with the support of Cinema Fund of Russia launched forum Red Square Screen-ings. It will be held annually presenting about 50 films made in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus 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:

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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.

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