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Exclusive: Screen can reveal the first trailer for Vladimir Tagic’s debut featureYugo Florida, ahead of its world premiere at Sarajevo Film Festival on Thursday, August 21.

Yugo Florida is playing in the Feature Film Competition, where it is one of three world premieres.

The film follows a man living an awkward, seemingly-pointless life; whose existence is turned upside down when his estranged, intolerable father is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

The film is produced by Marija Stojanovic for Serbia’s Sense Production. Co-producers are Bulgaria’s Contrast Films, France’s La Belle Affaire, Croatia’s Eclectica and Montenegro’s Adriatic Western.

Croatia-based sales outfit Split Screen has acquired Serbian filmmaker Goran Stanković’s feature “Our Father,” ahead of its world premiere in Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery section.

Stanković’s recent TV series “Operation Sabre,” created and directed with Vladimir Tagić, was a prize winner at Canneseries. His feature documentary “In the Dark” world premiered at IDFA. Stanković, who was raised in Serbia, studied filmmaking at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, where his thesis film “Way in Rye” was nominated for a Student Academy Award for best narrative short.

“Our Father,” which is Stanković’s debut narrative feature, follows 32-year-old Dejan who, after years of spiraling addiction, arrives at a secluded monastery commune run by a strict but magnetic priest. Isolated from the outside world, the commune treats addiction through labor, discipline, obedience and faith.

Assigned a humble guardian and immersed in a rigid daily routine, Dejan begins a...

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa is set to preside over this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival jury while Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle, actor Dragan Mićanović, writer-actor-director Emanuel Pârvu and writer-director Ena Sendijarević are all set as jury members.

Loznitsa has directed 28 documentaries and five feature films, including his Cannes competition debut title My Joy and Donbass, the latter of which earned him the Best Director Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand. In addition to presiding over the jury, Loznitsa will present a retrospective of his work at Sarajevo.

Tuttle is currently director of the Berlin International Film Festival, which she has headed up since 2024. Prior to that, she was festival director of the BFI London Film Festival and BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival. She also led the Directing Fiction program at Nfts.

Serbian actor Mićanović has credits that include Barking at the Stars, Coriolanus and Rocknrolla. He’s been...

Ukrainian director-writer Sergei Loznitsa will be president of the main jury of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival, it was revealed Friday.

He’ll be joined by Serbian actor Dragan Mićanović, Romanian director, writer and actor Emanuel Pârvu, Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker and screenwriter Ena Sendijarević, and Berlinale festival director Tricia Tuttle.

The jury will select the winners of the Heart of Sarajevo awards in the feature film competition program. The winners will be revealed on Aug. 22 at the awards ceremony.

Loznitsa has directed 28 documentaries and five fiction films. His feature debut “My Joy” (2010) premiered in main competition in Cannes. He won the Fipresci prize at Cannes for “In the Fog” in 2012, and the best director prize of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section for “Donbass” in 2018.

Mićanović’s film and television credits include the local hit “Barking at the Stars” (1998), and the international productions “Rocknrolla” (2008) and “Coriolanus” (2011).

Recent highlights include his role as...

After a production boom in recent years that had some industry insiders fretting about an unsustainable glut of content, the Serbian TV biz appears to be headed for a course correction, with local producers and commissioners pointing toward a shift in emphasis from quantity to quality.

“Over the past decade, the Serbian TV industry has experienced a significant expansion — particularly in the volume of series produced,” says George Makris, programming director at production and distribution heavyweight United Media.

“What we’re seeing now is a notable shift: the overall pace of production has slowed somewhat, but the bar for quality is rising,” he adds. “There’s a more curated mindset at play — fewer projects, yes, but more thoughtfully developed and better positioned to travel beyond national borders.”

With the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbia emerged as the region’s dominant political, economic and cultural force, making...

The national broadcaster Rai is turning Mario Tobino’s novel Le Libere Donne di Magliano into a television series in Italy. Set in a Tuscan psychiatric institution during WWII, the drama promises to delve into themes of women’s resilience and societal problems. The series, produced by Endemol Shine Italy and Rai Fiction, stars Lino Guanciale, Grace Kicaj, Gaia Messerklinger, and Fabrizio Biggio in leading roles. Endemol Italy’s head, Leonardo Pasquinelli, praised the project as “a powerful narrative of resilience, freedom, and self-worth,” underlining its historical and contemporary relevance.

The international television market is brimming with activity. At the Unifrance TV Export Awards in Paris, various productions were recognized for their brilliance. Newen Connect’s art heist drama Cat’s Eyes gained critical acclaim, with CEO Rodolphe Buet applauding its high-quality storytelling and bold vision.

In Australia, Sbs made waves by acquiring a sizable collection of international content from Beta Film.

Rai Adapting Mario Tobino’s Tuscan World War Two Novel

Italy’s Rai is adapting Mario Tobino’s influential novel Le Libere Donne di Magliano- Mondadori Libri. Endemol Shine Italy and Rai Fiction are producing the adaptation, which is set in Tuscany during the Second World War and follows a psychiatrist challenging the repressive confines of a women’s psychiatric hospital. Within this microcosm of society, some women find solace and an unexpected sense of freedom within a restrictive society, while others are unjustly confined for defying societal norms. The series stars Lino Guanciale, Grace Kicaj, Gaia Messerklinger and Fabrizio Biggio. Endemol Italy boss Leonardo Pasquinelli said: “This co-production illustrates our strong partnership with Rai and our combined commitment to deliver high-quality, culturally significant stories. Le Libere Donne is a powerful narrative of resilience, freedom and self-worth, bridging period drama with contemporary relevance, showcasing the impactful work of Mario Tobino.

It's the morning of March 12, 2003, in Belgrade, and a BMW is seen driving up to the entrance of Serbia's government headquarters. The door opens, revealing a gray-haired, middle-aged man, wearing a navy blue suit. The man is brandishing crutches, and as he exits the vehicle he readies himself, and begins hobbling towards the door. Out of nowhere, a bullet strikes him in the chest, sending the man to the ground. The man is, was, Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's first democratically-elected prime minister following the era of notorious war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, and these are the final moments in the opening episode of Operation Sabre, the eight-episode series on Max....

Ahead of Cannes Mipcom confab, Beta Film has closed a string of major deals on six premium series from Central Eastern Europe, a proof of the region’s fast transformation into a prime destination for multi-territory players such as HBO, Canal+ and Walter Presents, hungry for culturally-specific stories with global potential. Five of the shows come with a raft of prestigious accolades.

Case in point is the Serbian “Operation Sabre,“ winner of a Special Interpretation Award at Canneseries and Best Cee Drama at the recent Czech Serial Killer Festival, snapped up by HBO for the Cee region and Filmin for Spain and Portugal.

“We are extremely happy and grateful to have Beta Film on board as they are doing an amazing work with sales,“ said producer Snežana van Houwelingen of This and That Productions who also looks forward to the Serbian premiere on the local pubcaster Rts on Nov. 2. “The...

Beta Film’s Serbian thriller “Operation Sabre” – crowned at both Canneseries (best ensemble cast) and Brno’s Serial Killer (best TV show) – and the Latvia-Ukraine co-production “Mutiny” – about a true-life rebellion against the Soviet regime – are among the five high-end series selected for the TV Beats Forum’s inaugural Screening Day at Tallinn Black Nights, kicking off on Nov. 20.

The rest of the curated slate takes in Keshet International’s Finnish mystery thriller “Valhalla Project”; Lithuania’s most expensive series to date, “A Wolf’s Palate,” starring Edward Holcroft; and the Estonian period light crime “Von Fock.”

The showcase will include a screening of one episode of each show, followed by case studies with the key creatives and producers.

The TV Beats Screening Day is the latest effort from the organizers of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s and Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event series strand to spotlight, in the most dynamic way,...

Two buzzy Balkan series were under the spotlight this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where local creatives dished on their recipe for turning regional stories into potential breakout hits.

Sunday night saw the red-carpet regional premiere of “Operation Sabre,” a Serbian crime drama that premiered in Canneseries’ Long Form Competition this year. The show, about the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, is created and directed by Goran Stanković and Vladimir Tagić.

Snezana van Houwelingen, who produced the series for Belgrade-based This and That Productions, in co-production with Martichka Bozhilova (Agitprop) for Radio Television of Serbia, said that the creators were thinking about global audiences from the moment they began developing the script.

“From the very beginning, we believed this story had international potential, even if it was a very local event and it takes place in Serbia,” she said. “Everything we did during the development process was...

German series The Zweiflers (Die Zweiflers) took home the prize for Best Series at the Canneseries Awards last night.

This year, Canneseries took place from 5 to 10 April, in parallel with the final MIPTV event. The Zweiflers – which also won Best Music and the High School Award for Best Series – is a six-part series about a Jewish family in contemporary Germany pondering the inheritance of the family delicatessen. Creator and showrunner David Hadda paid tribute to his Jewish grandparents at the premiere of the show, which will premiere in Germany on Ard’s Mediathek streaming service in the spring.

Norwegian series Dumbsday (Dummedag) won for Best Screenplay. The series is set against the backdrop of a virus that causes people’s intelligence to drop to unsurvivable levels worldwide.

Elsewhere, Aina Clotet took home the Best Performance Award for her role as Mariana in Spanish-Swedish comedy drama This Is Not Sweden. The...

German comedy drama The Zweiflers was named best series at the seventh annual Canneseries festival that ran April 5-10 in Cannes.

The six-part series produced by Turbokultur from creator and showrunner David Hadda about a colourful Jewish family in contemporary Germany also won the prize for best music and the High School Award for Best Series voted upon by local students.

Led by an ensemble cast, the series centres on the inheritance of a family delicatessen as the past and future clash among several generations of Zweiflers.

Hadda told Screen of the win, “It was really always my dream to bring the series to Cannes.

Fockers who? Meet “The Zweiflers” instead: Brand new winners of Canneseries.

Created and showrun by David Hadda, the show picked up multiple awards at the French TV fest on Wednesday, including best series and music. Selected as a Variety Hot Pick earlier this month, “it’s destined to be billed as a Jewish ‘Succession’ set in contemporary Germany, with all the baggage that can bring to the table, Variety wrote.

That being said, its creator had another dysfunctional family on his mind.

“My biggest influence was ‘The Sopranos’ and I always said I wanted to do a Jewish ‘Sopranos’! The idea was to change the narrative from the victims’ perspective in Germany to a Jewish patriarch and Holocaust survivor who had lost everything – and everyone, and then came back to rebuild his life. That was empowering for me,” said Hadda.

Produced by Turbokultur for Ard Degeto Film and Hessischer Rundfunk,...

The Killing star Sofie Gråbøl has reflected on how her Danish breakout series redefined “national and linguistic borders” when it came to TV viewing.

Gråbøl spoke with Deadline in the midst of her time leading the Canneseries jury, for which she is judging shows from the likes of China, Brazil and Sweden.

The Killing, which was a smash hit both locally in Denmark and around the world, airing for three seasons between 2007 and 2012 and spawning a U.S. remake, “was a defining moment and a visceral way of showing how TV series can be accessible for all of us,” she said.

“It was something we couldn’t imagine [at the time],” added Gråbøl. “That something so local from this small country could have such interest across the border. We had been so used to importing culture from other countries but suddenly those national and linguistic borders weren’t defined anymore.”

The BAFTA-winning series...

Canneseries entry “Operation Sabre” goes back in time to Serbia’s very own Kennedy moment: the day when its first democratically elected Pm, Zoran Đinđić, was murdered.

“Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the assassination. This moment didn’t just change our politics. It changed our lives,” says producer Snezana van Houwelingen.

“He was in power for more than two years and during that time, many people actually moved back from abroad. It was our last moment of hope. Now, we are just going in circles and there is no progress. We have to do something for the next generation, the one that doesn’t even remember him anymore.”

Đinđić, who served as Pm from 2001, was killed in 2003 – one year after the beginning of the trial against former president Slobodan Milošević.

“He played such an important role in this country’s crucial moments.

Exclusive: The creative team behind Canneseries competition show Operation Sabre wanted to tell a “bigger truth” through their drama about the assassination of Serbia’s first pro-democracy prime minister, an event that remains raw in the public psyche.

No undertaking to tell the story of the killing of Zoran Đinđić in 2003 had been taken via TV drama, they told Deadline in the week leading up to the Cannes confab, and so they wanted to use scripted narrative devices to go beyond just this single event for the show being distributed by German major Beta Films.

“Our main narrative device was creating these fictional characters and through them we told a story that is a bigger truth – not just the factual truth – of who we are as a society, why this was happening and the choices the characters were making,” said co-creator Goran Stankovic. “Having these characters helped us tell a...

A French adaptation of Beta Film’s International Emmy-winning Turkish thriller series Persona is in the works with a female protagonist.

Mémoire Vive is starring Six Women’s Clémentine Célarié as Esther Lefevre, the reinterpreted female lead from the Turkish series, which has been greenlit for a second run. The French version is being produced by Calt Studio for M6.

The Turkish original stars International Emmy-winner Haluk Bilginer as the antihero Agâh. In the second season, Agâh, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, regains his memories piece by piece when his daughter takes him into her care. And while Agâh is looking for a way to handle his new-found freedom, he doesn’t realize yet that he has made some powerful enemies who yearn for revenge.

Both Persona and Mémoire Vive are entering production during this half of 2024, with the former filming 22 episodes and the latter four.

Beta is handling...

Offering a glimpse of its highly anticipated new series “Krank Berlin,” Beta Film has bowed the first trailer for the gritty and fast-paced medical drama, revealing a bold and modern take on the genre.

The trailer drops as Beta Film unveils its MipTV line-up.

The eight-part series follows a team of young doctors who are underpaid, poorly equipped, chronically overtired and beset with an increasingly callous healthcare system.

Created by British writer Samuel Jefferson, himself a former emergency-room doctor, “Krank Berlin” is set in the toughest and most overcrowded hospital in the German capital.

Haley Louise Jones (“Dear Child”) stars as Zanna Parker, the new head of the chaotic emergency room, who has her work cut out for her as she struggles with her own personal dilemmas. When she tries to implement new reform measures, she is met with resistance from the staff, particularly rebellious emergency doctor Ben, played by...

“The Killing” star Sofie Gråbøl will serve as the president of this year’s Canneseries competition jury, it was announced on Tuesday.

The Danish actor kickstarted her career with the 1986 film “Barndommens gade” (“The Streets of My Childhood”) and is known for her TV roles including “The Killing,” “Nikolaj og Julie” and “Taxa.”

Joining Gråbøl on the jury are “Madame Hollywood” director, screenwriter and producer Olivier Abbou; “Four Daughters” composer Amine Bouhafa; “City of God” actor Alice Braga; “Blancanieves” actor Macarena García; and “Samber” actor Alix Poisson.

Together, the jury will judge the eight series in competition and unveil the winners on April 10. The series competing in the festival’s main lineup include “Dark Horse” (Denmark), “Dumbsday” (Norway), “Living on a Razor’s Edge” (Brazil), “Moresnet” (Belgium), “Operation Sabre” (Serbia), “This Is Not Sweden” (Spain and Sweden), “To the Wonder” (China) and “The Zweiflers” (Germany).

“This upcoming edition feels like the...

The Killing star Sofie Gråbøl is leading the Canneseries jury.

Gråbøl will be joined by Olivier Abbou, Amine Bouhafa, Alice Braga, Macarena García and Alix Poisson in the six-strong jury judging a strong competition lineup that includes the likes of Denmark’s Dark Horse, Euro co-pro This is Not Sweden and Beta Film’s Operation Sabre.

Multi-award-winner Gråbøl is best known as the star of Scandi noir smash The Killing, in which she played the role of police inspector Sarah Lund, which brought her international fame. Past credits include breakout Early Spring, Taxa and Nikolaj og Julie.

She is joined by Abbou, the director and producer of a number of series and movies including Madame Hollywood, Territories and Get In, along with Braga, the Brazilian actress who has starred in internationally-acclaimed City of God and Hollywood movies such as The Suicide Squad.

García, meanwhile, made her film debut with Pablo Berger...

Canneseries has lined up world premieres of international titles including Apple TV+’s Franklin, Disney+’s Becoming Karl Lagerfeld and Netflix’s French comedy Fiasco for its seventh edition which runs in Cannes from April 5-10 in parallel with MipTV.

Franklin, produced by ITV Studios America with Apple Studios, stars Michael Douglas as the titular US founding father in a story about his time on a mission to France in 1776. Douglas, also an executive producer on the eight-episode limited series, is expected to attend the event.

“We can’t do a premiere in Cannes of Franklin without Franklin himself aka Michael Douglas,...

Michael Douglas, Kyle MacLachlan, Ella Purnell and Daniel Brühl are among the high-caliber stars who will take part in the seventh edition of Canneseries. The robust lineup, unveiled today by Canneseries’ artistic director Albin Lewi at a press conference in Paris, boasts the world premiere of Apple TV+’s “Franklin,” starring Michael Douglas as one of the Founding Fathers, and Disney+’s “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” with Daniel Brühl as the acid-tongued designer.

“Franklin,” which will also close the event, is directed by industry veteran Tim Van Patten, behind “Boardwalk Empire” and “Games of Thrones.” Douglas won an Emmy for playing Liberace in “Behind the Candelabra.”

MacLachlan and Purnell will be on the ground to present the international premiere of “Fallout,” the much-anticipated Prime Video show that’s based on a massively popular video game. Both will be feted during the 7th edition of the event, picking up the Canal+ Icon...

Beta Film has acquired international distribution rights to Serbian crime thriller “Operation Sabre” (“Sablja”) about the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić.

The eight-hour series – selected for Canneseries’ Long Form Competition – is created and directed by Goran Stanković and Vladimir Tagić. The duo already collaborated on “Morning Changes Everything” and wrote the new show alongside Dejan Prćić, Maja Pelević and Marjan Alčevs.

Heading back to March 12, 2003, Stanković and Tagić show the aftermath of the killing that threw the whole country into chaos – only one year after the beginning of the trial against former president Slobodan Milošević, indicted in 1999 for war crimes.

Đinđić, who served as Pm from 2001, following a stint as mayor of Belgrade, advocated pro-democratic reforms. He was also one of the co-leaders of the opposition to Milošević’s administration.

“Operation Sabre” is produced by Snezana van Houwelingen for This and That Productions, in co-production with Martichka Bozhilova...