Two Ukrainian Formats Are Among Three Finalists Of Prestigious International Competition

On June 20 three finalists of PITCH & PLAY LIVE formats contest were announced and among them there are two projects from Ukrainian Studio Kvartal 95: Crack Them Up. Kids and Pick the Right Box (in collaboration with Gaudi Studio).

"We are very pleased that our two formats have been highly appreciated by competent experts from around the world. This confirms great potential of these shows, the worldwide interest in them and prospects for international distribution", – comments Vladimir Zelensky, artistic director of Studio Kvartal 95.

It is worth mentioning that another three Ukrainian projects were included in the TOP-10 formats: reality Teach Your Wife to Drive by FILM.UA production (with the participation of OK Media and Burda Creative Group), as well as the shows Common Language and Christmas Fairy Tale by 1 + 1 Production.

PITCH & PLAY LIVE is a formats contest, arranged for the first time by СEETV together with one of the biggest in the Central and Eastern Europe content markets NATPE Budapest. Together with Ukrainian finalists, formats from Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania and Russia were shortlisted into the TOP-10 fo PITCH & PLAY LIVE.

The jury that will select the winner among the three finalists consists of: Can Okan, CEO & President, ITV Inter Medya; Amos Neumann, COO, Armoza Formats and Girts Licis, Head of CEE, Formats & Content Development, Modern Times Group. The final round will take place in Budapest during the PITCH & PLAY LIVE session on Wednesday, June 29.

We wish good luck to Studio Kvartal 95 in the final round and we are proud that Ukrainian ideas are recognized internationally again.

A few words about Ukrainian formats selected among the TOP-10 at PITCH & PLAY LIVE:

Reality show Teach Your Wife to Drive: in each episode, two couples participate, and the one which has performed the task better with only three days at their disposal receives an award in the end. However, the focus of this show is to reveal the real feelings and nuances in the couple’s relationship, which surface in extreme situations. The format is distributed by UA Formats – a unique Ukrainian project that introduces the complete catalogue of almost all Ukrainian formats ever made on local TV.

Crack Them Up. Kids is a funny entertainment talent show, in which children from 5 to 13 can earn a lot of money if they make the jury laugh.

Pick the Right Box – an entertaining show in which ordinary people are competing with stars in four categories: science, sports, singing and dancing. In each of the categories the participants will compete with celebrities – real pros in the sphere.

Common Language – the original format of TV show, in which the speakers are promoting the idea of studying languages.

Christmas Fairy Tale is a large-scale musical show, based on Ukrainian ethnic traditions.

We would like to recall that since 2015 FORMAT SHOW Spring Edition conference and screening takes place annually in Kyiv, and its traditional part is the final round of SMALL WORLD. BIG IDEAS contest (in partnership with MIPTV / MIPCOM and international distributor Small World IFT). In two years, the competition brought together 90+ original ideas of TV shows from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Italy, Israel and other countries. The winners of the contest (Star Races by Ukrainian prodco Selena Films in 2015; Israeli format Come to Bed by Lital Shemesh in 2016) received an exclusive partnership with Small World IFT and badges to attend world's largest tradeshow MIP Markets in Cannes, France. Call for entries for SMALL WORLD. BIG IDEAS 2017 will be opened next February.

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