‘K-Dream,’ ‘Turbo-Folk Princess,’ Win Big at Conecta Fiction (2024)

TOLEDO Spain —“K-Dream” and “The Adventures of a Turbo-Folk Princess,” two scripted shows about young women chasing their dream of becoming pop stars, won big at Thursday evening’s Gala Awards at this year’s Conecta Fiction.

Shot in Spanish and Korean, musical drama “K-Dream,” now in development and directed at teens, sees a Venezuelan-Spanish teenager, a victim of bullying, focusing on her musical career to achieve hergoal: Creating her very own K-pop band in Korea. The eight part half-hour turns on her “discovering a non-label-able identity that doesn’t fit into her snobbish and classist environment,” stated creator Mi Hoa Lee, who also exec produces alongside Rosa Castro at Spain’s Angeli Pictures.

Flamboyant musical dramedy “Turbo-Folk Princess” features Vaska, who quits home under the mentorship of beguiling prostitute Eboni, aiming at taking the pop folk Balkavision Song Contest by storm. The journey of two women struggling with “their inner demons, past mistakes and learning how to take control of their own lives,” “Turbo-Folk Princess” is written by Macedonia’s Andrey Volkashin and Bulgaria’s Peter Vulchev, an on-the-rise creative duo. It is set up at North Macedonia’s Oxo Production and Bulgaria’s Equal Film and backed by Macedonia Radio-Television, Gley.tvand HBO. Show won a top CineLink Award last August.

Elsewhere, Conecta Fiction juries prized titles with a strong social or even political edge, channelled, however, in stories which are highly relatable or sluiced with genre tropes.

The CMMedia Award, for instance, went to “Caso Couso,” a doc feature from Spain’s Recrea Films. It charts a Spanish family’s battle against the U.S. government for justice and truth regarding the death of Spanish cameraman José Couso, killed in 2003 by U.S. fire directed at Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, housing all foreign journalists, to eliminate an Iraqi observer.

Winner of an Accord Award for music licensing and a SANFIC Prize –consisting in an invitation to take part in its Series Lab and pitching sessions –“Gilberta, Life and Death of a Trans Woman,” marks the latest from Leonel Vieira, a champion of mass audience film and TV in Portugal. Thefour-episode true crime tale relates the torture and murder in 2006 of trans woman Gilberta Salce by 14 adolescents in Oporto.

A terrorist conspiracy thriller, “The Sleeping Cell,” set up at SPi –behind Portugal’s first Netflix original series “Gloria – walked off with a Göteborg TV Drama Vision Award, consisting in the right to pitch next February at Scandinavia’s biggest festival-market.

Two titles at Spain’s SGAE Foundation showcase also reaped awards: “Dark Suns,” from Ignacio del Valle and Raimundo García, and “Outkasts,” by David Caiña.

“With the aesthetics of‘Mindhunter’or‘True Detective,’we dive into a nightmare in which more than 30,000 children disappeared through the mechanisms of Franco’s regime over 40 years,” Del Valle toldVariety.

“Outkasts” is “a fresh new way to reflect on the Basque Conflict, by focusing on the things that both sides have in common rather than the ones that tear them apart,” Caiña noted in aVarietyprofile of the series project.

CONECTA FICTION AWARDS 2024

Honorary Award – Future of Entertainment Conecta

Michèle Benzeno, Webedia (France)

Council of Europe Series Co-Production Development Award

“The Adventures of a Turbo-Folk Princess,” (Oxo Production, Equal Film, North Macedonia)

Rtve Play Award (ex aequo)

“K-Dream,” (Angeli Pictures, Icecream Pictures, Spain)

“Outkasts,” (David Caiña, Spain)

G.E.M.A. Pitch Perfect AWARD

“A Big Voice,” (Trilita Films, Spain)

Conecta Digital AWARD

“The Obscurity,” (Roberto Márquez Bonilla, Spain)

“Bad Decisions,” (La Maldita, Spain)

“Unclean,” (Vertice 360, Born Wild, Spain)

“Couso Case,” (Recrea Films, Spain)

“New Nomads,” (Sergio Oliveros, Spain)

Cmmedia Award

“Couso Case,” (Recrea Films, Spain)

Spain Film Commission Award

“The Pulse of Water,” (Nadie es Perfecto, Lola Cinema, Spain)

Warner Music Award

“K-Dream,” (Angeli Pictures, Icecream Pictures, Spain)

Triodos Bank Award

“Dark Suns,” (Ignacio del Valle, Rai García, Spain)

Content Americas Award

“The Summer of Dead Toys,” (Corte y Confección de Películas, Coming Soon Films, Spain)

Acorde Award

“Destape,” (Satisfaction Iberia, Spain)

“Gisberta – Life and Death of a Trans Woman,” (Volf Entertainment, Ultravioleta, Portugal)

The Core Award

“The Foodie and the Fussy,” (La Diferencia, Spain)

Wawa Award

“Stand-Up Therapy,” (Dadá Films & Entertainment, Spain)

Bam Bogotá Award

“Save Us From the Fires of Hell,” (Equeco, Chile)

TV Drama Vision Göteborg Award

“The Sleeping Cell,” (SPi, Portugal)

Sanfic Award

“Gisberta – Life and Death of a Trans Woman,” (Volf Entertainment, Ultravioleta, Portugal)

Nem Zagreb Award

“Destape,” (Satisfaction Iberia, Spain)

Serial Killer Award

“Gold War,” (Agitprop, Bulgaria)