On Friday, at Venice Film Festival, the European Producers Club (EPC) and Netflix revealed the winners of a pitch contest for fictional series. The top prize was awarded to Irish film and television producer Anna Mannion from Tri Moon Films.
The pitch contest is a joint initiative by EPC and Netflix to help create new opportunities for European women producers. It was launched at Series Mania in March, and open to EPC producers working for women-owned companies. Following a selection process by an independent jury, composed of Cia Edstrom, Francine Raveney and Olivier Kohn, the finalists of the competition came together at Netflix’s European headquarters in Amsterdam to pitch their projects to Netflix’s Content Team. Netflix and the EPC announced the names of the winners of the competition at Venice Film Festival on Friday.
1st prize: Anna Mannion, Tri Moon Films (Ireland)
2nd prize: Ada Solomon, Microfilm (Romania)
3rd prize: Mariela Besuievsky, Tornasol Media (Spain), Martichka Bozhilova, Agitprop (Bulgaria), Gabriele M. Walther, Caligari (Germany), Olena Yershova, Tato Film (Ukraine / Turkey)
All finalists are receiving an award to develop their projects further (€50.000 for the 1st prize, €20.000 for the second prize, €5.000 for each winner of the third prize). The initiative is funded by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity which aims to build new opportunities for underrepresented communities within the entertainment industry.
Tri Moon Films is an Irish TV/Film Production Company, based in Sligo. Tri Moon Films is passionate about creating Irish stories for the global marketplace. The production company has a wide range of projects on its slate, ranging from Kids Live Action/Animation, TV Drama, Feature Films and Documentaries.
In the framework of the launch of the EPC Gender Charter, we established this scheme dedicated to women producers with Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity. Women producers are more scarce in the general landscape. We felt the need to open new opportunities and improve their accessibility to the market. We are excited that the outcome of the scheme gives high visibility to women producers from a broad range of countries – from Romania and Bulgaria to Ireland, Germany and Spain and many others.
Gudny Hummelvoll, President – European Producers Club
Congratulations to the winners! It was exciting to see pitches from women producers from across Europe and it’s been great to partner with the European Producers Club to empower women. We know how important representation behind the camera is for representation on screen, which is why we support initiatives like this one with Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity.
Chris Mack, Director, Grow Creative – Netflix