Ms. Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, and professional jury president, M-K Kennedy, Executive Managing Director of TV Series, STUDIOCANAL, announced this evening the winning project of Series Mania Forum’s annual Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. Of the 15 projects selected and pitched on the first day of Series Mania Forum, the industry arm of the Series Mania Festival, the jury team selected the comedy romance from France and Japan Tokyo Crush as winner of the Series Mania Forum Best Project Award.
Along with Kennedy, the jury included André Béraud, Head of Scripted, Programs and Feature Films, ICI Radio-Canada Télé (Canada); Henriette Marienlund, Head of Drama, DR Drama (Denmark); José Pastor, Head Of Drama And Fiction, RTVE (Spain) and Frank Seyberth, Head of Coproduction, International Fiction, ZDF (Germany). Together they had the honor of presenting the check for €50,000 to the Tokyo Crush team.
“After a good amount of debate, we chose Tokyo Crush because we loved the potential we saw for the story IN and OUT of the kitchen. It felt fresh like a series with multiple points of entry for audiences. Featuring an ensemble of characters and conflicts that are ripe for great comedy: clash of cultures, tradition versus modernity, competition and will-they/won’t-they romance. All of which made it singular,” commented Kennedy.
“The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions are one of the most anticipated parts of the Series Mania Forum and we are delighted to be giving the €50,000 prize to Tokyo Crush. In the difficulties of today’s world, I’m delighted to see that a romance comedy took the top prize. This is just what the audience needs during this time,” added Herszberg.
TOKYO CRUSH – 8 x 30′ – France, Japan
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Produced by Jonas Ben Haiem and Jean-Félix Dealberto for Salle Commune, and Hiroko Oda for Flag Inc.
Written by Clémence Dargent
Short synopsis: Mona, a bold Parisian chef, is hired to reinvent a struggling Tokyo izakaya – if only Toshiro, the talented (and annoyingly handsome) grandson of the founder, would let her.
