Five pairs of writers have been selected for this new edition and will come together for three week-long training sessions at the three partner events. They will take part in workshops and masterclasses on the specific challenges of creating an international series. Leading professionals will share their experience of international series with them, tackling the creative, financial, legal and environmental issues involved, as well as production, distribution and promotion questions related to this format.
This year, they will be accompanied by Austrian showrunner Jacob Groll throughout the program.
Going European is a training program for pairs of international writers, financed by the European Commission's MEDIA program for a period of three years (2023-2025), which aims to train writers in the co-writing, co-development and co-production of international series. A total of 30 authors will be supported throughtout the program, all of them involved in international series co-writing projects.
The first session kicked off on March 14th, at Series Mania - Lille / Hauts-de-France.
Here are the five pairs of writers selected in 2024 for the second edition:
Nadja Dumouchel (Germany): screenwriter and author, Nadja wrote the documentary series Art Stories and is currently co-writing the series Zebras with Nicolas Ducray, as well as several feature films and documentaries.
Nicolas Ducray (France): a prize-winning screenwriter for film and television at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Nicolas is developing his first feature film as a director as well as two series supported by the CNC: Bang Bang and Zebras.
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Judit Banhazi (Hungary): a freelance scriptwriter with experience in film and television production, Judit has developed stories for Gaumont, Audible, Banijay, Mediawan and Odeon Fiction. She is co-author of Transformation, a sci-fi project by Volker Engel.
Pierre Puget (France): author and producer, Pierre joined the Netflix series 1899 in 2020 as a translator and set consultant. He recently co-founded his own production company, BRAINS.
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Paul-Ravzan Macovei (Romania): experienced in production and direction, his second feature film Romina, VTM is one of the five best-selling Romanian films of the last thirty years and had the best opening in recorded history. He is currently directing Bravo, tată.
Simon P.R. Bewick (France): writer, director and producer, Simon has directed several documentaries. As a producer, his work on Play Dead with Arte was recognised at DOKLeipzig and DOCPOINT.
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Sonja Prosenc (Slovenia): writer and director, her films The Tree and History of Love were nominated for Oscars in 2016 and 2020. Her series Trigrad was presented at Series Mania and has been nominated several times for the Sarajevo Film Festival 2023.
Teona Mitevska (Macedonia): director since 2004, her filmography includes acclaimed films such as God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya, which won the 2019 LUX Prize, The Happiest Man in the World and 21 Days until the End of the World.
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Alex Balassa (Hungary): award-winning content creator, writer, producer and director with over 25 years' experience, Alex has been involved in a number of international projects in America, Europe and Asia. He also founded Balassa Films, Blind Spot Pictures and co-founded the investment fund Blindspot Capital.
Ewelina Agata Chyzynska (Poland): screenwriter, script consultant and musicologist, Ewelina has worked on over 1,700 episodes of series. She is a script consultant at House Media, where she contributes to the development of premium series and feature films.
