Wednesday, September 18, was the third day of the International TV Festival & Forum Heart of Europe, organized by Polish pubcaster TVP in Warsaw. The agenda for the day included pitching sessions for the TV Series category as well as several panels. The focus of the day was funding opportunities and the most-popular entertainment formats in Central and Eastern Europe.

The panel discussion: From Dream to Screen: Funding, Training, and Workshops for Creative Success, hosted by Małgorzata Dzieciniak (TVP), featured Barbora Struss (CEO Midpoint Institute), Ilona Krupa (Creative Europe Desk Poland) and Agnieszka Szczerbiak (The Polish Film Institute). The three media executives discussed the different programs each of their organizations is offering and what are the prerequisites for a successful pitch and what kind of projects get funded. The panelists commented that winning projects should have strong vision, clear and strong voice, a clear plan what the final project will look like and have all the necessary elements like marketing plan, audience research; etc. Winning projects should also have a strong budget, a unique and engaging story, a portfolio of previous projects is also a strong point.

The second panel of the day was called Entertainment Spotlight: The Formats Dominating Central and Eastern Europe and was hosted by CEETV’s VP of Research and Founding Partner Yako Molhov who was joined on stage by Victoria Elmacioglu (NATPE), Marta Csizmadia (Rabbit Films, M6 Formats) and Deniz Tuzun (Global Agency). Molhov presented an extensive overview of the most-popular international and local formats in CEE as well as what’s in store for fall in terms of entertainment shows in four of the major markets in the region.

The last event of the day was a presentation called Public Service Broadcasters in the European Commissioning Landscape made by Léa Hermen (EBU) who highlighted what have been the changes in terms of commissioning in the past years, what are the most-popular genres for pubcaster and how viewers’ taste has changed over the years.

Day 3 also saw the closing ceremony of the event during which the winners of the Festival and Forum strands were announced.