Serial Killer fest brings the best of TV production to Brno
The seventh Serial Killer festival, dedicated to TV and internet production, kicks off in Brno on Wednesday. Over the next five days, visitors will have a chance to see some of the best Czech and foreign shows at a number of cinemas in the Moravian capital. The event will open with the premiere of The Well, a prequel to an infamous Czechoslovak communist propaganda series. I asked the festival’s director Kamila Zlatušková to tell me more:
“We are very excited to open our festival with this series, because the director, Tereza Kopáčová, was the one who closed last year’s event with Czech television series called The Sense of Tumour, originally a Belgian production.
“Right now, we are opening with Voyo, the VOD platform of TV Nova, which is the biggest commercial broadcaster in Czechia. It’s not a coincidence, because Voyo won here last year with Metoda Markovič, so I think these are all examples and proofs that the quality of TV series is increasing.”
The Well is not the only Czech series that will get its premiere at this year’s Serial Killer. What other series will you showcase?
“The second series is The Daughter of the Nation [the story of the daughter of the famous Czech national Revival journalist Karel Havlíček Borovský], the first Czech series produced by France’s Canal+ in a coproduction with Czech Televisio. The third title, another Czech Television production, is No Big Deal. It focuses on the phenomenon of Only Fans, so it’s edgy and it’s a great series to watch as well.”
One of the highlights of the festival will be the special screening of an episode from the Emmy-winning series The Bear, attended by a special guest. Can you tell us more about her?
“It is the producer Carrie Holt de Lama. She is coming from Chicago, and all the fans of The Bear will know that this story takes place in Chicago as well. She will be spending the whole week with us. She will have a Master Class and she will also share her thoughts in a discussion with Czech foodie Lukáš Hejlík. She will of course attend the screening but I am really curious about the Master Class, because I think she is a great producer and The Bear is a masterpiece.”
We should also mention a special section called British Nostalgia dedicated to classic UK comedies. What will be on the programme?
“On the programme will be classic British comedies, for example the IT Crowd, because we would like to bring this experience of sharing and laughing back to the cinemas. But there will be more, of course. All the titles are available on our website serialkiller.cz, because there are about 30 series to watch and many more events to attend.”
One of the aims of the festival is to highlights key trends in TV and web series production. Do you notice any noticeable trends in Czechia’s TV production?
“Not only in Czechia. I was recently attending a big conference on TV streaming and production in Poland and I was very excited about Netflix numbers, which suggest that Eastern European comedies are starting to trend abroad and I hope that Czech humour will reach as far as possible.”
