01/10/2024 - The series-focused industry event at Tallinn Black Nights will feature ten projects in development and is introducing a Screening Day featuring five upcoming series

This year’s TV Beats Forum, taking place from 18-20 November as part of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event (14-22 November), promises to be a major highlight for scripted-series enthusiasts, with both screenings and in-development projects taking centre stage. The event will feature ten fresh projects in development, pitched during the Co-Financing Market, as well as the first-ever TV Beats Screening Day, showcasing five new drama series. Both sections of the event underline the growing prominence of Baltic and Eastern European series on the international stage.

The 2024 TV Beats Co-Financing Market will showcase ten new European drama series, all with strong international distribution potential. This year marks the fourth edition of the market, which continues to gain momentum. According to Petri Kemppinen and Roosa Toivonen, co-heads of the forum, the decision to feature ten projects instead of the usual eight was driven by the exceptional quality of the submissions. They stated: “We received a record number of proposals, mostly from our core interest regions – the Baltic States, the Nordics and CEE, but also from the rest of Europe and beyond. All of them are in a fertile development phase, and represent an intriguing diversity of topics and themes.”

Each of the projects, which will be pitched on 18 and 19 November, will compete for the Council of Europe Series Co-Production Development Award, valued at €50,000. This award forms part of the Pilot Programme for series co-productions, an initiative of the Council of Europe, and is open to independent producers from all Eurimages member states.

Alongside the development market, the inaugural TV Beats Screening Day will take place on 20 November, offering a platform for five new drama series to be presented to industry professionals, distributors and sales agents. According to Toomas Ili, the event’s curator, “The Screening Day is an excellent opportunity for distributors, broadcasters and industry professionals to have a first-hand look at the fresh new titles, as TV Beats Forum has always focused strongly on drama series produced in the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe.”

The highlight of the day is the world premiere of the Estonian historical crime series Von Fock, directed by Arun Tamm and produced by Jevgeni Supin. The series is set in 19th-century Estonia and follows court assessor Paul von Fock as he uncovers mysteries involving murder, missing fortunes and hidden identities.

Other series making their debut include Operation Sabre, a Serbian political thriller by Vladimir Tagić and Goran Stanković, inspired by the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić and focusing on a journalist’s dangerous investigation into the event. From Lithuania, A Wolf’s Palate is a psychological crime-drama by Emilis Velyvis, exploring the dark cultural relationships and conflicts in a small town, starring British actor Edward Holcroft and Finnish thesp Tommi Korpella.

The Latvian mini-series Mutiny, directed by Andrejs Ekis, is based on real-life Cold War events, which provided the inspiration for Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October. The selection wraps with Valhalla Project from Finland, a six-part series by Juha Wuolijoki about an expedition to Finnish Lapland in search of a parallel universe that could hold solutions to the climate crisis. The selection of these five series illustrates the diversity and depth of storytelling emerging from the region, blending historical drama, political intrigue and speculative fiction.

Here is the complete selection of projects and series at this year’s TV Beats:

TV Beats Co-Financing Market projects

Bunker (Slovenia)
Producer: Lilja Pogačnik (December)

The Code of Thule (Estonia)
Producer: Helen Lõhmus (Orée Films)

Fata Morgana (Hungary)
Producer: Gabor Harmi (Queenside Pictures)

In Paradise (Germany)
Producer: Corinna Poetter (eitelsonnenschein GmbH)

Ladies (Turkey)
Producer: Beste Yamalioglu (Karma Films)

Let It Snow (Estonia)
Producer: Jevgeni Supin (Zolba Productions)

Mercy (Portugal)
Producer: Justin Amorim (Promenade)

Norröna Murders (Iceland)
Producer: Hörður Rúnarsson (ACT4)

The Reluctant Contact (Ireland)
Producer: Jane Doolan (Mammoth Films Limited)

The Woman I Think About at Night (Finland)
Producer: Liisa Karpo (napafilms)

TV Beats Screening Day titles

A Wolf’s Palate (Lithuania)
Producers: Daiva Varnaitė-Jovaišienė, Asta Liukaitytė (Kino Kultas)

Mutiny (Latvia)
Producers: Andrejs Ekis, Dita Cimermane

Operation Sabre (Serbia/Germany)
Producers: Snezana van Houwelingen (This and That Productions), Beta Film

Valhalla Project (Finland)
Producer: Juha Wuoliojoki

Von Fock (Estonia)
Producer: Jevgeni Supin (Zolba Productions)