Abacus Media Rights has sold multi award-winning CBC/HBO MAX original comedy series “Sort Of” season 1 (8 x 30’) to Netflix in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, it was revealed at the Asia TV Forum and Market on Thursday.
“Sort Of,” produced by Sienna Films, a Sphere Media company, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, is created by Bilal Baig (“Acha Bacha”) and Fab Filippo (“Save Me”), who also serve as showrunners and executive producers. The dramatic comedy sees Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a fluid millennial who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family.
The series won prizes at the ACTRA Awards, BANFF World Media Festival/Rockie Awards, Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Directors Guild of Canada, Mipcom Diversify TV Excellence Awards, Peabody Awards and Writers Guild of Canada among many others.
Abacus has also sold seasons 1-5 of Jed Mercurio’s smash hit police procedural “Line of Duty” to Pumpkin Film (China Ruyi HK0136) in China. The company has also sold “Deadline,” “Pulse,” “H.M. The Queen: A Remarkable Life,” “Philip: Prince, Husband, Father,” “Queen Elizabeth: A Lifetime of Service,” “The Masked Dancer” season 2 and “Titans of Tech” to Rock Entertainment in Asia.
Pooja Nirmal Kant, co-founder and CEO at Still Road Media, who brokered the deals for Abacus, said: “We are delighted that the multi award-winning drama ‘Sort Of’ and a number of very relevant and absorbing factual series have been picked up for the Asian market, where we have already had great success selling a range of drama, entertainment and factual programming.”