People

The Going European program, launched in early 2023 by the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) in partnership with the Séries Mania festival (France), the co-production and networking market Conecta Fiction & Entertainment (Spain) and the Sarajevo Film Festival - CineLink Industry Days (Bosnia-Herzegovina), presents the five pairs of international authors who will take part in the first edition.

Going European is a training program for international duos of authors, funded by the European Commission's MEDIA program for a three-year period (2023-2025). Its aim is to train authors in co-writing, co-development, and co-production of international series, supporting 30 writers throughout the program, all of them involved in international series co-writing projects.

The participants will meet for three intensive one-week training sessions, which will take place during the three partner events. They will participate in exchanges, workshops and masterclasses on the specific issues involved in the conception of an international series: creative, financial, legal and environmental aspects, as well as production, distribution and promotion issues, while meeting with seasoned professionals from the entire value chain of the series industry.

Here are the five pairs selected in 2023 for the first edition of the program:

Julien Paolini (France): After several awarded short films, he wrote the series Le Doute for Arte, before moving on to writing and directing his first feature film, Amare Amaro, released in 2020. His second film, Karma Police, is currently being post-produced.

Isabel Andrés Portí (Spain): Scriptwriter and director, she worked on several awarded documentaries for ARTE, ZDF, TVC, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. Back to fiction, she’s now working on a feature film adaptation of a book and a series project.

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Maja Pek-Brünjes (Croatia): Her drama series The Mountain is broadcasted on Croatian public television; she’s also a writer for crime series Jinx and The Witch Hunter. She won the 2020 HBO Europe Award for her work as development producer for Afterparty.

Matija Dragojevic (Serbia): Laureate screenwriter of the 2019 CANNESERIES Writers’ Residency, his mystery thriller Awake was multi-awarded at the 2021 Sarajevo Festival. In 2022, his drama series Wool won the Best Scripted Award at the NEM Market in Zagreb.

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Fabien Dao (France-Burkina Faso): After his studies at Paris-based FEMIS, he directed three award-winning short films, and the series De plus en plus loin (Canal+ International). He’s currently working as a co-writer for several TV projects.

Ange-Régis Hounkpatin (Bénin): After graduating at the FEMIS, he wrote several awarded short films, and is currently working as a screenwriter for TV series: Wara’s season 2 (TV5 Monde), Black Santiagos Club (Canal+ International) or La cerise sur les accras (Arte.tv).

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Laetitia Mikles (France): Director, documentarian, scriptwriter of several short and feature films, she’s also a critic at the magazine Positif. Her movies, notably Touchée or Que l’Amour, have been awarded by various international festivals.

Flynn Roddam (UK): Scriptwriter and producer, she has worked on several feature films, series, and podcasts, and was assistant to Peaky Blinders’ director for the show’s sixth season.

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Víctor Santos (Spain): Creator of awarded graphic novels, published in various countries, he has worked with the most famous comics publishers. His graphic novel Polar was adapted for Netflix, starring Mads Mikkelsen.

Anthony Alleyne (UK): Director, scriptwriter and producer, his first feature film Sunburn was released in 2021. He’s also co-producer of the short film Cognition, which won 164 awards in international festivals.