The Sarajevo Film Festival's CineLink Drama event, established last year to present TV drama series projects to industry professionals (see the news), has announced that this year it is introducing a development award worth €10,000 in cash, sponsored by Film Center Serbia (FCS).

“Support for the development and production of television series in the region comes in various forms – from environments with extensive professional institutional and financial support to those where the very idea of support is undefined or is in its infancy,” said Boban Jevtić, general manager of FCS. “The success of last year’s CineLink Drama platform at the Sarajevo Film Festival has motivated Film Center Serbia to enthusiastically take part in the early stages of this initiative.”

An international jury consisting of head of ZDF/ARTE’s Film Department Meinolf Zurhorst, story editor Tatjana Andersson of Sweden's SVT Drama, and Giacomo Durzi, scriptwriter, story editor and tutor for the TorinoFilmLab and Biennale College Cinema, will select the most promising project.

Jovan Marjanović, Sarajevo's head of industry, said: “We were excited to get so many submissions for the new drama series. The projects that have been selected promise to bring a new chapter to regional screens. The potential is obviously there, and so is the interest from the broadcasters. We want CineLink Drama to be a must-attend event for everybody in the business of quality TV drama in this region.” 

In addition, this year CineLink Drama is hosting a MIDPOINT TV Launch workshop, during which seven projects will be developed and presented at a pitching session in Sarajevo. In the coming weeks, CineLink will announce this year’s panels, case studies and guests for the CineLink Drama programme, which is organised in collaboration with the NFM TV Drama Vision/Göteborg Film Festival, Drama Series Days/Berlinale, MIDPOINT, and the Embassy of France in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Here is the full list of projects at CineLink Drama 2017:

All Panthers Are Pink – director TBC (Germany/Serbia)
Producers: Titus Kreyenberg, Miroslav Mogorović
Production companies: Unafilm, Art & Popcorn

Danube – director TBC (Croatia)
Producer: Jasmina Kallay
Production company: Maxima Film 

Burn Baby Burn - Dejan Zečević (Serbia)
Producer: Nikolina Vučetić Zečević
Production company: Biberche

Glycerin – Miloš Pušić (Serbia)
Producers: Ivan Knežević, Miloš Pušić
Production company: Altertise

Return to Sorento - Ann Tsitskishvili (Macedonia)
Producer: Labina Mitevska
Production company: Sisters and Brother Mitevski 

The Last Socialist Artefact - Dalibor Matanić (Croatia/Serbia)
Producers: Ankica Jurić Tilić, Milan Stojanović
Production companies: Kinorama, Sense Production