Ukrainian drama Enrique and Polish doc Candidates of Death win Content Warsaw Copro Pitch

The 2025 Content Warsaw Copro Pitch presentation

CONTENT WARSAW: Ukrainian drama series Enrique and Polish documentary Candidates of Death were the winners in the scripted and unscripted categories of the 2025 Content Warsaw Copro Pitch.

Announced at C21’s event in the Polish capital today, the winners receive a US$15,000 marketing prize across C21Media’s digital, print and event products to support development and pre-sales promotion for the show.

Enrique hails from Sfera Film in partnership with KyivstarTV and 1+1 Media in Ukraine. It is billed as the country’s true crime series based on real events, challenging the tolerance of violence against women in closed patriarchal communities. The story is inspired by the chilling crimes of the notorious serial killer known as Elvis and reveals shocking details of his crimes and the investigations into them.

Ewa Hoffman (left), producer of Candidate of Death, and Enrique producer Anna Gonchar

Summing up the thoughts of his fellow judges, head of Paprika Studios Poland Kristoffer Rus described Enrique as “a gripping crime story that courageously addresses the urgent social issues of femicide, violence against women and the pervasive culture of silence surrounding these topics. We believe this production would greatly benefit from a strong marketing push to help launch the project and capitalise on potential pre-sales opportunities.”

In unscripted, Candidates of Death was put forward by the Bydgoszcz Film Chronicle Foundation in Poland. The obs doc follows the 15-years-plus process of creating an amateur horror film, titled Candidates of Death, by a group of friends. The movie subsequently becomes the starting point for discreet observation of the group as they grow up and have their first successes, as well as failures.

Regarding the doc, Rus said: “A seasoned Polish documentarian boldly draws on his own family and friends to craft a compelling coming-of-age story, skillfully blending humour with a meta-narrative about making a series of horror films. The dedication shown over this impressive 15-year journey is remarkable, and we look forward to seeing this universal story reach audiences on as many screens as possible.”

The pitch showcases some of the most exciting scripted and unscripted series in development within the Central and Eastern Europe entertainment community as their creators look for international coproduction deals to take the projects global.

This year there were more than 50 submissions and six projects were selected to pitch live at Content Warsaw on Tuesday.

The judging panel was made up of Rus; Igor Draguzet, chief content officer of Central European Media Enterprises; Victoria Yarmoshchuk, who recently stepped down as CEO of Film.UA; Magda Szwedkowicz, producer at MAG Entertainment; and Tamara Aagten-Margol, founder of Polot Media.

Full details of the finalists and how to get involved in the coproductions are available here.