Over 500 international executives from 66 countries have already confirmed their attendance, the highest numbers of attendees including both buyers and producers are coming from Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, USA, Spain, UK, India, South Korea, Poland.
The forum will feature more than 100 feature films, 90 series, and 70 animation projects, over 50 documentaries, as well as 75 projects for co-production. The new content slate is mainly produced by Moscow-based companies, but KEY BUYERS EVENT traditionally brings regional players as well from biggest Russian cities – Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Khabarovsk and others.
This year new arthouse films in development, eligible for global festivals, will be presented to international programmers and independent cinema distributors. For the first time, KEY BUYERS EVENT will also gather 11 major Russian VOD platforms – the market will host an exclusive overview of the national VOD services.
“From the local event we launched in 2019, KEY BUYERS EVENT has transformed into the large-scale national market, a must-attend event for international players, interested in globally compelling content and new opportunities coming from Russia. Compared to 2020, with over 300 projects and 34 premieres presented last year, the upcoming edition has shown exponential growth to 400 titles and 50 premieres, but not only in quantity. We constantly adapt to the national industry needs and follow key trends of the global market, so we have expanded the business program and launched new sections. The forum is now a unique business platform that provides a transparent overview of the whole market, including a showcase of the content available, the opportunities for co-production and co-funding, local players across the industry – from top distributors to post-production services, as well as talents,” explained Evgenia Markova, ROSKINO CEO.
CO-PRODUCTION
This year KEY BUYERS EVENT expands the co-production section, held in partnership with When East Meets West (WEMW) international forum. The section will host 75 Russian IPs looking for international partners, as well as pitching selections.
The co-production pitching will be held in a bilateral format for the first time in the history of KEY BUYERS EVENT. Russian producers will pitch 17 selected projects to international producers, while 9 global finalists (selected out of more than 60 applications) will present their IPs to the potential Russian partners.
The selections will be announced in the coming weeks.
PROGRAM
The attendees will have access to 17-panel discussions featuring key Russian and international speakers, highlights include:
“Film Destination: Moscow” will feature Russia’s largest companies that organize production in the country and have worked with major international studios that have shot in Moscow.
KEY BUYERS EVENT Ambassador, actor Yuri Kolokolnikov (“Game of Thrones”, “Tenet”, “The Americans”), the rising actress Sofya Lebedeva (“The Last Minister”), together with casting director Frank Moiselle (“The Tudors”, “The Vikings”, “The Borgias”) and producer Gudny Hummelvoll ("Occupied"), will discuss the opportunities for Russian actors on the global stage at the "The Rise of Russian Talent at the International Stage" panel.
"Global Digital Trends Emerging in Russia" will gather the representatives of foreign companies such as Jungo TV (USA), Ottera (USA), Fuel TV (Portugal), Xiaomi (China) to discuss worldwide digital trends that are reaching the Russian market and will affect it in the nearest future.
“Co-production Opportunities and Funding in Russia” will give an overview of thestate support and private funding available in Russia.
“Breakthrough of Russian Animation” will be dedicated to the Russian animation producers and their most internationally appealing titles.
Other topics will include social impact entertainment, film education, an exclusive look at the Russian VOD market, and success cases from the biggest international distributors working with Russia. The keynotes, major speakers, and program details will be announced soon.
KEY TITLES & PREMIERES
National Media Group will present projects produced by Art Pictures Studio, Rentavideo, Channel Five, as well as new projects by CTC Media.
Among the premieres from the Art Pictures Distribution, NMG international market division, are "Guests From the Past" and Evgeniy Sangadzhiev's “Happy End” about the webcam industry. “Happy End” has already received over one million views during the first month of streaming in Russia. The company also announces another project by actor-turned-director Sangadzhiev – “Ballet”, an 8-episode drama starring Fedor Bondarchuk, John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė.
Art Pictures Distribution also presents “Battle”, the first documentary project of Art Pictures Studio dedicated to the world-known film director, actor and screenwriter Sergei Bondarchuk. Journalists Anton Jelnov and Denis Kataev are the authors of the movie with Ilya Belov as a director. Fedor Bondarchuk is producing.
The company will also offer "Children vs. Adults" family TV show from CTC Media among non-scripted projects.
Channel Five will premiere "Die Hards", a detective story that became the prime-time leader this spring, as well as the new "Owl" series about a traumatic surgeon who discovers his talent as an amateur detective. The series is scheduled to premiere in Russia this autumn. The package of Channel Five projects also includes detective hits "A Suspended Cop", "Copsosaurs", "The Fabulous Five", and TV formats "Street Hypnosis" and "Angel’s Day".
Gazprom-Media holding will highlight the projects of Gazprom Media Entertainment Television, Central Partnership and NTV Broadcasting.
Gazprom Media Entertainment Television will announce the “Catfish” series from Good Story Media and Sreda Production Company, as well as “#DADDYCOOL” from Comedy Club Production. Both stories center on single fathers, evolving around different situations and challenges they face in their lives.
Central Partnership, Russia’s largest distributor, will show exclusive materials on its premiere projects “The World Champion”, produced by Three T Studio (The Crew, Three Seconds, T-34, Fire) and directed by Alexey Sidorov (T-34), “December” directed by Klim Shipenko (Salyut 7 and Son of a Rich) and “The Pilot. A Battle for Survival”, a survival story in the WWII setting produced by StarMedia and Interfest. "Fire" action disaster movie, already sold to the USA, France, Germany, Italy, and the Middle East, will be part of the screenings programme. The company will also will also screen for buyers “Couple from the Future", a box-office hit comedy with a great remake potential, the WWII drama "Zoya", a female empowerment story based on a life of the most famous russian skier "White Snow", as well as the TV series premiere "Tenderness" and a documentary mini-series "The Standouts".
NTV will present the award-winning drama "Fatherland" that highlights corruption and hard choices that lead to dark endings, sports thriller "KAMAZ. Extreme Racing" about the “KAMAZ-master” racing team as part of the premiere screenings, as well as true-crime series "The Missing" about the search and rescue operations. NTV will show a trailer for the franchise "Beyond Death", with season 2 premiering soon. The company traditionally offers non-scripted content, with the “Superstar" music show and the "Secret for a Million" this year.
ROSKINO will handle global sales for "Vertinsky", a new series directed by Avdotya Smirnova, retelling the dramatic story of an outstanding Russian poet and performer of the twentieth century Alexander Vertinsky.
CTB Film Company presents “Upon the Magic Roads” fairy-tail fantasy that has already earned over 1 billion rubles at the Russian box office, as well as “Infiltration” military thriller and “My Sweet Monster” animation comedy that have already beensold to the USA, Germany, France and other countries. The film company will also premiere an episode of “Moonzy” new season, a cartoon written by the American screenwriter Paul Pimento.
Star Media premieres the second season of "Detective Anna". After the first season’s success across the globe, including Amazon Prime, where the project was included in the list of the best mystical series on the platform, the company starts international sales for the long-awaited season 2 at KEY BUYERS EVENT.
Subscription-based streaming service START presents a bunch of new originals – “The Vampires of Midland”, “Passengers” and “Container”, selected for MIPDrama this year. START’s flagship title is “Mediator”, a story of a professional negotiator trained by the Russian government to bring high pressure, threatening situations to a successful conclusion, through the power of persuasion.
1-2-3 Production will present a new procedural mystery crime series "Insomnia" produced by Valeriy Fedorovich and Evgeniy Nikishov. The show centers around a famous hypnotherapist who manages to solve the most extraordinary crimes using regressive hypnosis until he discovers that the roots of his own nightmares and insomnia stretch far back into the past.
The lineup of Sovtelexport, the official distributor of Russian Television and Radio, includes “The Optimists: Caribbean Season", "Call Me Mother" and “The Terrible” series. The company will also present Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Homo Sperans” – a documentary which explores peculiarities of the Russian people’s mentality.
The market will host exclusive presentations from Russian animation companies. SMF Studio will premiere the "Meow Magic" animated series for preschoolers. The company will also present other animated series – “Rockoons”, “The Secrets of Honey Hills”, “Mr. Theo, Cat and Dog”, as well as “The Formula For Water”, “The Golden Beehive”, “Umka and his friends” and “Loodeville” projects as part of a co-production market.
RIKI Group is ready to present new seasons of its internationally known projects “The Fixies” and “Tina and Tony”, “Kikoriki” and “BabyRiki”. The company will also premiere new materials on its upcoming adventure feature “Teddy Boom” and the latest TV series “Beardy Bodo”.
100 Kilowatt animation studio will premiere the “Turtles” trailer.Among the company's key projects are also “Magic Kitchen” and “Nick The Inventor” animated series.
Parovoz animation studio will mainly focus on co-production opportunities, presenting a teaser for "Spaceport" – a pre-teens comedy series about the adventures of three outsiders in space, and a brand-new kids title as part of the pitching selection.
Wizart will highlight its new slate with “The Snow Queen-5”, “The Warrior Princess”, “Backpack”, “Tin’s Firebots”.
KEY BUYERS EVENT will also feature newest projects from All Media Company (“Fib The Truth”, “Bullterrier”, “The Riot”, “Japan: The Other Side of a Kimono”, “Star on Vacation”), Planeta Inform Group of Companies (“Wings Over Berlin”, “WE”, “The Ex”), Sreda Production Company (“Crystal City", "Married Life Scenes"), Sputnik Vostok Production (“Taste of Sun”, “Sad Sam”, "Art of Isolation", "Up to the Sun"), Mars Media (“The Prisoner”, “The Golden Horde”, “A Dog Named Palma”), IGMAR ("The Oath", "Flashmob"), Mirsand ("V2 – Escape from Hell", "Blue Whale"), Russian World Vision9 (“Red Ghost”, “Eleven Silent Men”, “Take a Hike, Vasya! Lost in Bali”, “Palmyra”, "Ginger’s Tale", "Inadequate People-2"), Rock Films (“Zemun”), Revolution Film (“Girls Got Game”, “Petropolis”), Line Up ("Yeltsin. The Ultimate Battle"), R-media ("Presumption of Innocence"), BOKOFACTORY ("Fortress. Russian Finance: the Faces Behind"), and others.
For the first time, KEY BUYERS EVENT will gather top Russian VOD platforms to present their originals – including START, IVI, Okko, More.tv, Nonfiction, Premier, Smotrim, 1 tv.
Kinopoisk HD (“Swamp”, “Maelstrom”), Megogo Studios (“Standup Undercover”) and Kion ("Durov") will premiere new titles.
PARTNERS
The general partners of the KEY BUYERS EVENT: digital are Russia’s largest holdings: National Media Group (Art Pictures Studio, Vodorod, CTC Media, Channel Five) and Gazprom Media (Gazprom Media Entertainment Television, Central Partnership, NTV broadcasting company).
The official partners of the event are CTB Film Company, Star Media, streaming service START, theAssociation of Film and Television Producersandthe Russian Animated Film Association.
International media partners: C21 Media (UK) and Variety.
National media partners: Channel Five, “Booker’s Bulletin”
The executive partner of the event is Expocontent, the official representative of MIPCOM and MIPTV in Russia, Ukraine and the CIS countries. SPB TV is the technical partner of the KEY BUYERS EVENT: digital for two years running.
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More details: https://keybuyersevent.com/
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