“Forget My Name,” “Life” and “Stolen Kids” proved some of the big winners at the 2021 Conecta Fiction awards ceremony in Pamplona, northern Spain on Wednesday night as the Europe-Latin America co-production forum reached its climax.
A female spy drama-thriller charged emotionally by an effective mother-daughter relationship, “Forget My Name” won one of the most enticing awards on offer: A development contract with Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. Set up at Avi Films, the series represents the latest screenplay from Argentine but Spain-based Jesica Arán (“Pajaro Negros,” “BOO! Historias para no dormir”) and partner Juan Lombardi at Spain’s Avi Films.
“‘ER’ meets ’24,’” says co-creator Alberto Macías at Mediacrest Entertainment, “Life” sees medics racing against the clock after a massive car crash to get organs to transplant patients in hospitals in Barcelona, Paris and Madrid. Its Spanish Film Commission prize repped the first of two statues on Wednesday night for go-ahead indie production-distribution house Mediacrest, its teen gender violence horror-thriller “The Beach House” winning a development contract from RTVE digital platform Playz.
Set up at Chile’s María Wood Producciones and Megamedia, and with celebrated cineaste Matías Bize (“The Life of Fish”) on board to direct, “Stolen Kids” won the prestigious TV Drama Vision Prize, given by the vibrant TV platform of Sweden’s Göteborg Festival.
The prize sees the child trafficking drama invited to present at next year’s Drama Vision – a welcome plaudit for a drama which its makers imagine beginning with a Swedish mother gradually realizing that her adopted son has been stolen from his rightful parents.
Of other major prizes, “Harrogate Detective Agency,” an upbeat Spanish summer village-set mystery drama targeting 8-12s, took an Acorde Prize. Informed by the spirit of Agatha Christie and “The Famous Five,” the 25-minute episode series has been created by C.J. Navas and Juan Galonce at Alicante-based outfit Fuera de Series Producciones. Spain’s Borja González Santaolalla, who co-penned Jaume Balagueró’s movie “Way Down,” and Ángel Agudo, a scribe on Atresmedia’s “Luimelia,” have boarded the series project as its director and co-scribe respectively.
Meanwhile “Gaia” and “Between Walls” swept all five awards on offer from institutions and companies backing a new section at Conecta Fiction: Euroregion NAEN, representing projects seeking funding or partners in Nouvelle Aquitaine, the Basque Country and Navarre.
A ecological drama set in a near future where the series’ protagonist begins to feel the earth’s pain, “Gaia” won a France 3 Nouvelle Aquitaine Prize, consisting of a €10,000 ($11,800) development contract from the Bordeaux-based public broadcaster, plus Navarre Television and Acorde Music Library awards.
“Between Walls,” a period romance between two women consigned to a psychiatric ward in Franco’s Spain, scooped both a Euroregion Prize, worth €6,000 ($7,000) and a €10,000 ($11,800) development contract from Basque pubcaster EiTB, which aims to drive ever more into premium fiction. Both prizes represent very welcome money for a series at an early development stage.