Sydney, Cannes – Australian production house The Feds secured the top prize at the MIPFormats International Pitch competition, held in Cannes on April 6 ahead of MIPTV, for the groundbreaking format Zombie Bootcamp.
The MIPFormats International Pitch is a global pitching event for creators and producers around the world with original, non-scripted entertainment formats and is exclusively sponsored by Warner Bros. International Television Production. Warner Bros. ITVP has committed to invest up to €25,000 to develop the winning project of the 2014 MIPFormats Pitch.
Zombie Bootcamp
The Feds secured the win against strong international competition from five finalists from across Italy, Spain and Ireland. The creators, The Feds Head of Content, Lisa Gray, Associate Producer – Development and Claire Marshall pitched the project in Cannes to a full house of global television delegates. The international jury of formats experts included: Nick Emmerson, CEO, Ricochet (UK); Taco Ketelaar, Senior Vice President, Prime Time, Entertainment Sat.1, ProsiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland (Germany); Sandra Kleinfeld, Director of Development, Studio & Unscripted Content, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada); and Cathrine Wiernik, Head of Development & Format Acquisitions, TV4 (Sweden).
“This year’s finalists showed a great variety of original and entertaining ideas and they all did a brilliant job pitching to our jury. Zombie Bootcamp is definitely a unique idea! We look forward to working with production company, The Feds, on developing their format further for the international market,” said Warner Bros. International TV Production SVP, Creative, Format Development and Sales Andrew Zein.
The Australian developed reality TV format, Zombie Bootcamp, is a disruptive play on an endurance challenge with a morbid twist, pitting sixteen contestants against each other and the end of the world in the Zombie Apocalypse.
“This win is a testament to the rich and diverse content that is coming out of Australia right now and The Feds are proud to be taking our innovation globally with such a supportive development partner in Warner Bros,” said The Feds, Founder and Director of Content & Broadcast, Lizzy Nash.
The Feds recently secured a portion of Screen Australia’s funding under the Enterprise Program which will assist them in taking Australian content innovation across global borders.
“This is a great recognition of the power of Australian storytelling and an illustration of the international opportunities that are available to Australian content producers. This win is particularly significant as it sets the tone for MIPTV which features a strong Australian contingent and will be honouring Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner with the Médaille d’Honneur Award,” said Reed Midem UK, Managing Director and OBE, Peter Rhodes.
