Emőke Tóth-Krigler and Gábor Krigler with Joyrider attended the Berlinale Co-Pro Series at Berlinale few weks ago. They managed to win the Series Mania Project Exhange Award wich never happened before with a Hungarian company. We reached Emőke Tóth-Krigler to tell us about their future plans.
Budapest Reporter: The Hungarian drama series “Balaton Brigade” has emerged as the winner of the Series Mania Project Exchange Award. Could you ever imagine that success? How did you receive the news?
Emőke Tóth-Krigler: We were really happy when we were invited to the pitch event back in December 2020. We thought this is our chance to make our mark internationally, so we have decided to put a lot of effort into it. We have seen a lot of online pitches in this last pandemic year and Gábor came up with the idea of how to make our pitch outstanding. We were hoping it would attract a lot of potential partners for the project, but we never thought we could win the Series Mania Award.
We were shocked and overjoyed by the award and of course we are honored to be able to present the project in Lille at the Series Mania Festival.
Bpr.: What caught the jury that the “Balaton Brigade” could get further?
E. T.-K.: They said that :“We were drawn to the story’s original, sunny lakeside setting, the complexity of the characters, and its fresh and deliciously vintage tone. This period spy drama revisits a historical time that all Europeans think they know from a daring angle, allowing us to deal with our recent past in a way that is both thought-provoking and fun.”
Bpr.: Did the jury notice your other projects? If yes, which ones?
E. T.-K.: No, this event is concentrating on the particular project you are presenting. But I hope the success of “Balaton Brigade” will eventually give us an opportunity to draw attention to our other projects as well.
Bpr.: What do you expect from the Series Mania?
E. T.-K.: The aim of an event like the Series Mania Forum Co-pro Pitching Sessions 2021 is to pitch your project to potential partners (producers, broadcasters, sales agents, streaming platforms etc.) and find the best partners. This way we can put together the details of the very difficult puzzle of the financing, realizing and selling a TV series project. I hope till the end of August (when Series Mania happens) we will already have some new partners and financing in place and we can finalize our puzzle in Lille.
