The final leg of this year's MIDPOINT TV Launch culminated in the prizes that were given out as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival's partner awards ceremony.

The HBO Award, worth $5,000, went to the Greek project Sleepover by writers and creators Maria Hatzakou and Alkis Papastathopoulos, and producers Amanda Livanou and Athina Rachel Tsangari. 

The Belgian project Transit by creators and writers Domien Huyghe (also the director) and Melissa Dhondt received the Art Department Masterclass Award. 

Finally, the Serbian-German co-production TURBO, created by Milica Živanović (also the co-writer), Matthias Nerlich and Milan Stojanović (the latter two are also producers, and Nerlich is a co-writer), and written by Boris Grgurović, picked up the C21Media Award.

For descriptions of the projects, click here.

"In less than a year, MIDPOINT has led us from our basic idea to a strong, packaged project, ready for financing and production," Stojanović told Cineuropa. "We had the luxury of working with amazing professionals like Maggie Murphy (UCLA), Steve Matthews (HBO) and Erik Jenderssen (Band of Brothers), who were stunningly dedicated to our project, making the work a constant wonder and joy. I’ve never felt so confident when pitching something – it was with unbreakable confidence in the project and in front of an audience so open and hungry for what we had to offer. We're now on an unstoppable journey towards production."

Katarina Tomkova, the programme coordinator of MIDPOINT TV Launch, said: "The Sarajevo Film Festival and its CineLink Industry Days were hosting the third and final workshop of MIDPOINT TV Launch. The platform comes at a time when the projects have already worked on their concepts, pilot scripts, bibles and pitch books, and are ready to enter the market. 

"The CineLink Drama umbrella enables our participants to present their projects to a pool of industry professionals, offers them networking possibilities, and is a natural step forward in forming the financing models and production set-ups of their future television series. Basically, CineLink Drama gives them an incredible opportunity to access a vibrant and well-established professional industry platform, important for the future development of their projects."  

The calls for submissions for the 2019 edition of TV Launch are now open; more information can be found here.