Czech’s Serial Killer rolls out read carpet for Nordic series and talents

Under the aegis of the dynamic festival director Kamila Zlatušková, Milan Kundera’s birth place Brno has become in only seven years a buzzing place for European content creators and decision-makers.

Now after Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Finland is the latest Nordic country in Focus. “We Czechs have a lot in common with Finland especially our sense of humour, and pessimism is kind of our hobby,” says Zlatušková, who’s been ranked by Forbes magazine among the 150 most influential women in the Czech Republic since 2021.

“Our position within the international drama festival landscape is strengthened every year,” notes the Serial Killer chief, who has received from an early stage a strong support from Nordic professionals - ranging from SVT’s content strategist and format acquisitions Markus Sterky - he should have a “killer" statue here as our very first guest” says Zlatušková -, to Liselott Forsman, Nordisk Film & TV Fond CEO, Jarmo Lampela, Yle’s head of drama, but also TV4 Media’s head of script content Piodor Gustafsson and Ivar Køhn, Rubicon CEO who both sit on the advisory broad of the Television Institute, a new international TV education platform based in Brno.

Zlatušková says her festival is still niche but has an increasingly wider reach. “We are getting more and more exclusive premieres and cooperation requests from global players such as Netflix, which last year had one of its first and unique public presentations within the whole of CEE,” she noted.

Serial Killer’s programme this year comprises 40 titles, including 13 from the Nordics and six Finnish part of the Focus Finland, introduced by their creators or producers:

• Reindeer Mafia (Poromafia)
• A Stranger Summer (Outo kesä)
• Welfare Warriors (Sisäilmaa)
• Riding the Beat
• the 2019 shows Invisible Heroes and Adults (Aikuiset)
• and 2014 eco-thriller Tellus

Other Nordic shows include SVT’s flagship drama Blackwater, selected for the festival’s International Panorama, Norway’s Kids in Crime, Rod Nock, Denmark’s Nordland’99 and Get a Life, screening in the Young & Reckless section, and the Berlinale Series Special Mention winner The Architect, presented as a Special Screening.

In the parallel industry showcase TV Days, no less than 10 sessions will be dedicated to Finnish public broadcaster Yle’s strategy across comedy, youth content, drama, and digital space through Yle Areena’s success story as number 1 local platform ahead of Netflix.

The Yle carte blanche will close with a Finnish & Czech discussion between Yle’s head of media Petri Jauhiainen and the newly appointed CEO of Czech Television Jan Souček.

Other keynote speakers at the TV Days include HBO’s former HBO executive VP of European production Antony Root and Piodor Gustafsson from TV4 Media, invited to comment on ‘How to create a bigger splash”?

Asked about Nordic content’s appeal on Czech TV, Zlatušková said “Scandi noir is still a big and popular genre, according to the largest buyer and local pubcaster Czech Television. “These series have a minority but very dedicated audience group,” confirmed Serial Killer’s creator, herself a fan the Norwegian comedy shows Magnus, which had viewers “literally writhing in fits of laughter” at a former Serial Killer event she said.

This year’s Nordic entry which should strike a similar chord with Czech audiences according to Zlatušková is Yle’s 2021 comedy Welfare Warriors (Sisäilmaa) created by Tiina Lymi for Solar Films. The Yellow Affair handles sales.