Frank Spotnitz, “The X-Files” exec producer and “Medici” creator, will figure alongside Israeli producer Eilon Ratzkovsky and broadcaster-producer Johnathan Young as facilitators and mentors at the third edition of the Full Moon Creative Lab, a program open to European screenwriters specializing in thriller, horror and fantasy TV series.
Launched by the Romanian Film Promotion and Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, the Full Moon Creative Lab consists of creative residencies taking place in Romania’s Transylvania this October and in February and June 2024.
Ratzkovsky produced “The Band’s Visit,” a Cannes 2007 Un Certain Regard winner, and TV series “Sirens.” Young was the former VP of original programming and commissioning editor for Central and Eastern Europe at HBO Max.
Further experts take in Romania’s Geo Doba, a screenwriter and vice president of the alumni network for the Berlin-based Serial Eyes TV writing program; screenwriter and script doctor Gabriela Iacob, a former head of development at Media Pro Pictures who now runs Barcelona’s storytelling studio Storyliners; and France’s Agathe Berman, a producer-writer and pitching mentor at Series Mania Forum and beyond. More experts will be announced nearer to the event.
The Creative Lab will attend up to 12 screenwriters. The selected participants will be guided in writers’ rooms. A call for projects is open until Sept. 15. Supported by Creative Europe Media, Lab writers can come from any E.U. member state. The Lab aims to develop the Full Moon script Contest, launched by the Transilvania Film Festival in 2020.
Now gearing up for its third edition, the Full Moon Creative Lab catches Europe’s TV drama scene at a testing time.
Warner Bros. Discovery announced in 2022 it will no longer produce original HBO Europe scripted content for the streaming service in the Nordics, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey. HBO Europe had long been the mainstay of premium series production in Central and Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, the market has seen a “great Netflix correction – the recalibration, the reassessment of dollars,” “Spy Master” creative producer Ioanina Pavel told a debate in June at the Transilvania Festival’s Drama Room, its TV industry strand.
only three E.U. countries, Germany, Spain and Sweden figure in an Ampere Analysis Top 10 of international markets for new streaming commissions in second half 2022, ranking at No. 5, No. 9 and No. 10 respectively. “Growth activity shifts East,” commented the Ampere study, presented at the Berlinale Series Market.
Amid generalized downtrend, horror, however, occupies a privileged position. Action and horror is the only scripted category which has experienced an upsurge in the volume of commissioning both from streaming services and linear broadcasters, comparing H2 2019 to H2 2022, according to Ampere Analysis.
Though crime remains the bedrock of new series orders, si-fi, in contrast haș edged down. Sci-fi, most especially, and horror, along with anime, are the favourite genres with European AVOD viewers, compared to viewing habits on SVOD services. “Building upon the experience of two editions of the Full Moon script Contest and the Full Moon Horror & Fantasy Film Festival, we believe that there is a thriving market for genre content, particularly in the realms of thriller, fantasy and horror,” said Claudia Droc, head of international relations for the Transilvania Festival.
“There is a great demand for content that possess local elements that can resonate with audiences across borders, languages, and cultures,” she added.
The Crescent Moon Creative Lab forms part of a larger focus by the Transilvania Festival on the creation of international premium TV series, largely absent on the past on Romania’s film-TV scene, very much focused on local shows and a film industry whose top auteurs broke out to international acclaim from the mid-2000s.
