More than 50 Russian companies at MIPCOM

As in every MIP edition of the last years, Russian companies are gaining momentum with many nominations to awards, pitch and screenings, such us SMF Studio's animated comedy series Loodleville that is one of the five finalists of the "MIPJunior Project Pitch". Among series, supernatural teen drama Dreams of Alice by Valeriy Fedorovich and Evgeniy Nikishov from 1-2-3 Production (creators of Netflix' To the Lake) was selected as part of the Canneseries festival.

Russian digital scenario is becoming more and more competitive with more platforms launching original slates, as the one to be presented today, October 12, in Cannes, by KION, which brings a diverse slate of original content. The presentation will highlight its crime drama Crystal City, dramedy Wanna Be Happy, teen drama series 16+, action horror Padre Sergius, crime drama Reaper Bay and documentary film Durov about the founder of the social networking site VK and Telegram and neodoc Sakharov. Two Lives, which tells the story of the creator of the hydrogen bomb, the academician and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov. 

Moscow Export Center will a presentation within its "Made in Moscow" business mission and showcase 18 Moscow-based companies. Taking place on October 13, the presentation will be moderated by Maria Grechishnikova, CEO of Star Media Group. This business mission will showcase projects by SMF Studio, Wizart Animation, Platoshka animation studio, Agama Film, Media Foundation, Caramel & Co, ODIN-MEDIA, Amex Media, Meriot, AVK Production, KinoAtis, Russian World Vision, R-media, Rocket Fox, net-film, Ponimatica, service companies Cyrillicа and Cerebro. All companies will also present their content and negotiate within the online market platform.
 
Vitaliy Stepanov, acting CEO of MEC, said: 'The production of Moscow studios is actually popular. For instance, a lot of companies which got the support of the Moscow Export Center managed to conclude the contracts with partners from the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and other countries. 18 Moscow companies will present their products at Mipcom this year. Animation and filmmakers, companies, which provide services of digitization, keeping, rights management of the audio-visual records, are among them'. 

CEO of Roskino, Evgenia Markova, added: 'Today, thanks to the higher level of quality of Russian projects, there is a new trend in terms of request for Russian series and animation – our content is in demand in international distribution, in co-production and festivals. Recently Russian companies concluded a number of new co-production agreements — in the nearest future we will produce projects with Italy, China and other countries. Russian content producers are turning to social topics that are now relevant and we see this tendency at this year's MIPCOM — international industry will put a special emphasis on social topics'. 

CEO of Expocontent Company, the official representative of MIPCOM and MIPTV in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and the CIS, Alexandra Modestova, remarked: 'MIPCOM 2021 is the first global event for the content market in the last 2 years to take place physically, and now the industry is gradually returning to its usual work. Despite the fact that entry to France is still closed for Russians due to the epidemiological situation in the world, projects from Russia will loudly be presented on the market — our series Dreams of Alice is selected for the official competition of Canneseries, the SMF Studio’s project Loodleville is one of the finalists of MIPJunior Project Pitching, and moreover, Russian projects will be presented within two large-scale showcases at Palais des Festivals — joint “Made in Moscow” presentation of 18 Moscow-based companies and a showcase of original projects by streaming service KION'.

Main drama offerings at MIPCOM: period drama Cloister (Sovtelexport), historical Detective Anna (Star Media) and sports drama Kamaz. Extreme Racing (NTV) 

Star Media exhibits the detective series The copycat and the Cold Shores S2, as well as the thriller series called Cold Shores. Return, military drama The Black Sea, the continuation of the historical detective Detective Anna, whose S1 has gained popularity on Amazon Prime in 13 countries and was included in the list of the best mystery series. The large-scale project about life from the inside of Bolshoi theatre will be produced by Channel One Russia and KION in co-production with German company Kinescope film, Arte TV channel and Salzgeber. In December 2020, Star Media launched the ContentScan service aimed to protect intellectual property and combat piracy. In the fall of 2021, the company announced the launch of its own streaming service LAVA for Russian-speaking audiences abroad in cooperation with OTTera, an American leader in the development and adaptation of the latest advanced technologies.
 
Gazprom Media Entertainment Television (GPM ETV) shows social drama Catfish, series Stream, which will premiere in the upcoming 2022 and the adventure folk-thriller Ikotka, as well as TV3' series Prof and Documentalist: Ghost Hunter. Friday! launches the family comedy Superdad, a teen dramedy Suburbia, a new original format Battle of the In-Laws and a hybrid TV+TikTok show TikTok Talent. The company plans to finalize the deals for Latin America, Baltic countries and Eastern Europe.
 
Sovtelexport, the sales branch of Russia Television and Radio, presents the period drama Cloister based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Zakhar Prilepin, Elsa’s Land, a moving love story of 70-year-old Leonid and Elsa, and a detective drama about the epidemic The Lockdown. The company plans to announce deals with Mexico, China, Latin America, and the United States. NTV key projects are sports drama Kamaz. Extreme Racing about the world famous truck racing team and series Fatherland, a story about a journalist fighting corruption. It also announces supernatural thriller Beyond Death S2, dramedy series Dinosaur S3, continuations of action-packed drama Dr. Driver and series Shepherd. Among the non-scripted formats are the game show Secret for a million and the music show Superstar!.
 
Art Pictures Distribution exhibits sports drama Rugby, comedy series The Russian South and Knee-high to a niblick, while START present its original projects: vampire-themed detective series The Vampires of Midland, a Series Mania contestant and the most discussed series of the spring on social media in Russia according to YouScan, a psychological thriller about an extraordinary negotiator Mediator, and a mystery drama about regrets, atonement and absolution Passengers nominated for the Rockie Awards and Seoul International Drama Awards. And All Media (a START company) launches the film Litvyak, the thriller Fib the Truth, Goliath and A Team of Heaven; the company is looking for co-production partners for “Goliath” that is currently in production.

Top Russian animation projects: The Secrets of Honey Hills (SMF Studios), Be-be-bears (Digital Television Russia) and Finnick (Riki Group) 

Mars Media Entertainment participates with a new 12-episode adventure drama series The Prisoner and  feature film A Dog Named Palma; SIGNAL MEDIA is the only Russian exhibitor with its own stand at MIPCOM 2021, where it presents + 350 hours of new content of various genres: documentary cycles Top-Notch, Monster Machines, Take the Wheel, animation projects Heroes of Envell: Exit Game and Moriki Doriki as well as a feature film Last Trial. Russian World Vision continues negotiations on the drama The Intervention while it expects a lot of interest in the thriller Homeward previously sold to Latin America and the sports comedy Girls Got Game, which has already been sold to Latin America and France, released in the USA, Canada and several European countries.  

Melnitsa Animation studio is presenting a new season of preschool TV show Moonzy in 3D CGI format based on the scripts of Hollywood scriptwriter Paul Pimenta. The series will soon premiere on Spacetoon TV in MENA and Melnitsa is finalizing SVOD deal with US-based platform Klooma for 52 episodes of the show in 2D format. The deal will also include 52 episodes of family sitcom The Barkers. 

Riki Group continues the sales of its projects Kikoriki, Babyriki, PinCode and a Russian-Chinese coproduction — spin-off Panda and Crash, feature films Finnick and Teddy Boom, as well as the series The Fixies, whose small characters launched its own TV show Fixielab in China shortly before the start of the market and became mascots of the pavilion of Russia at the World Exhibition “Expo-2021” in Dubai (UAE). Youku Kids (Alibaba) and the Russian animation company will co-produce three more seasons of the series for preschoolers Tina & Tony.

Digital Television Russia presents the animated series Puppies & Kittens, Leo & Tig, Fantasy Patrol and Be-be-bears; b4r agency presents three projects: Flora’s Team, Monsikids and Secret Room. 100 KILOWATT launches Homies, Eager Beaver and Nick the Inventor and an educational project Magic Kitchen. SMF Studio includes musical comedy Rockoons about seven playful raccoons performing different musical gigs, Meow Magic, a detective comedy The Secrets of Honey Hills and comedy series The Adventures of Peter and Wolf as well as a new project — an adventure comic Coolics. Wizart Animation Studio exhibits the fifth part of the Snow Queen, educational series for kids Backpack and comedy series about robot firefighters Tin’s Firebots.