The 6th Heart of Europe International TV Festival and Forum opened in Warsaw on October 26, bringing together television professionals and creators from across Central and Eastern Europe for four days of screenings, project presentations and industry discussions.

This morning began with a pitching masterclass for selected participants, led by Andrea Culková of the MIDPOINT Institute from 10.00 to 12.00 as a continuation of the theme from yesterday's Workshop with Sascha Fahrbach for Pitching Session. The invitation-only workshop will be followed by the festival’s official opening at 17.00.

The evening program continues with Quick Chat: Inside the International Success of Variola Vera, featuring screenwriter Piotr Derewenda and film editor Magdalena Chowańska, moderated by Sascha Fahrbach. The discussion was followed by a screening of the first episode of the Polish series Variola Vera.

The festival’s competition features 28 productions submitted by 13 broadcasters from the region, competing across six categories: Fiction Film, Fiction Series, Documentary, Short Documentary, Children and Youth, and Digital and Entertainment. The shortlisted productions are evaluated by international juries comprising representatives of public service media organizations in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Fiction Series shortlist includes Drelich from Poland’s TVP, Stolen Hope: Love Hustler from Estonia’s ERR, The Fortress from Serbia’s RTS, The Offspring from Czech Television and Variola Vera from TVP.

Alongside the competition, the forum will showcase projects selected for live pitching in the Arts, Documentary, Fiction Film and Fiction Series categories. The Fiction Series selection includes projects from across the region, among them BG Posts from Bulgaria, Cathedral from Georgia, COYOTE BERLIN, a Romanian-German project, Hijacked Life from Lithuania and Estonia, Ice Queen and Intimacy on Prescription from the Czech Republic, On the Rocks from Poland and the UK, Slavic Science from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, The Man Behind The Mask from Latvia, and Not That Kind Of People from Lithuania.

The Heart of Europe Awards gala is scheduled for October 29, while the festival and forum continue in Warsaw through October 30.