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HBO Europe picks First Draft pair

HBO Europe is expanding its original programming after selecting two projects from its writing competition First Draft Contest to develop.

The contest was launched at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2016 and marked HBO Europe’s first step towards producing original TV series in the Adriatic region.

Two projects have now been selected from more than 500 entries across the region, which comprises Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Uspjeh is a Croatian character-driven drama from Marjan Alčevski and follows a group of disparate people linked together by a violent crime.

Serbian writer Ivan Knežević is behind Otok, which is an investigative thriller exploring the challenges faced by his country due to its geographical position at the crossroads of modern Europe.

HBO Europe is making its move into original drama from the Adriatic region having produced dramas such as Aranyélet (Golden Life), Umbre (Shadows), Mamon (Mammon) and Wataha (The Pack) with local producers in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

Steve Matthews, VP and executive producer of drama development at HBO Europe, said: “The First Draft contest was launched to discover writers and stories across the Adriatic region and we’ve been really impressed with the quality of the submissions – so much so that we’ve selected two projects for further development, rather than one as we initially planned.

“Both Uspjeh and Otok embodied the criteria, with authentic and passionate storytelling at their heart, and we’re looking forward to working closely with talented writers Marjan Alčevski and Ivan Knežević to develop them further.”

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