Always a frontrunner at Co-Pro Series, the Berlinale Series Market’s annual project pitching event, “Tipping Point” walked off Tuesday morning with the Series Mania Award.
The prize is an invitation to the production’s team to present again at the industry centrepiece at next month’s Lille-based get-together, the Series Mania Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. “Tipping Point” joins 15 other projects as a sixteenth project presented out of competition in partnership with the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Set in the extraordinary Svalbard – an archipelago half way between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole, itturns on a feisty young eco-activist at constant odds with her father, an oil exec, until he is murdered. Teaming with some of his friends to investigate his death, she discovers another man from the one she knew, as she chases a stolen software which could solve climate crisis or destroy the world.
Produced by Finland’s ReelMedia, and Norway’s Maipo Film, which scored with Canneseries winner “State of Happiness,” “Tipping Point” is written by Northern Ireland’s Brendan Foley, behind Elisa-Viaplay smash hit “The Man Who Died” and “Cold Courage”, for Lionsgate and Viaplay, Britbox and AMC+. Itis currently at a second draft pilot script, with a bible. Shooting is scheduled from 2024 in Norway, Finland and the Canary Islands.
“We could have chosen several projects as the quality was so high, but some were already well advanced in their funding. We chose ‘Tipping Point’ because it addresses the greatest challenge of our time, the ecological crisis, but with a touch of optimism,” Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania founder and general director, said on stage at Berlinale Series Market. “There is a strong father-daughter relationship and the action takes place in the beautiful landscape of the Svalbard Islands” she added.
Talking to PvNew, Foley said that the series is also a daughter-father coming-of-age tale.
“Her view is very black and white: ‘This older generation f**ked it all up and we are picking up the pieces.’Hisview reflectedhisgeneration: ‘Just because something isn’t the way you like, it doesn’t mean you get to ignore it.’ She has to engage with that messy world where all sorts of bad things happen.”
Although turning on climate change, it’s not a totally negative take, he emphasised. “It’s an optimistic story. It’s just not ‘Pollyanna.’”
