The game series by showrunner Yevhen Tunik (Starlight Media) was recognized as the best among 63 projects from creators of 26 countries at one of the most prestigious pitching for children’s and teenage content in the world.
MIPJUNIOR Project Pitch is a unique pitching of new television projects for children and teenagers, which identifies ideas with the greatest potential for production and wide distribution. The pitching jury includes leading professionals from the global children’s content industry, heads of specialized areas at Netflix, BBC, France Television and Nile. According to the results of this year’s MIPJUNIOR, the series “Really?” was recognized as the best teenage project. The showrunner thereof is Yevhen Tunik, the creator of the “Preshi Lastivky” (The First Swallows).
“Really?” is a story about a teenage girl whose life was paradoxically saved by the war. Yevhen Tunik created the idea of this project in collaboration with Ukrainian teenagers, Oleksandra Lintovska and Kateryna Kavnichuk; he used to be their screenwriting mentor.
“When the war started, I wanted to be useful, like everyone else, and to apply my knowledge to help others. This is how I became a mentor for teenagers in a project in the west of our country. I was impressed by their creativity, vision of the world and events and the speed of their work. The idea of “Really?” appeared through this experience. We want to tell the story of life during the war through the perspective of ordinary Ukrainian teenagers. The audience of this story, is as wide, as of the “Pershi Lastivky” (The First Swallows) – it includes not only children, but also their parents”, – Yevhen Tunik, the showrunner of the project, says.
Five projects from Great Britain, Canada, South Africa and Ukraine have reached the pitching finals. The showrunners of these projects presented their ideas at MIPJUNIOR in Cannes.
Amy Takahari, director of acquisitions and coproduction for Netflix children’s and family content, commented on the winning Ukrainian series and said, “This is a very special project! It has a clear point of view, a lot of emotion and warmth.”
