CONTENT BUDAPEST 2023 finished yesterday its three days of conferences, panels and networking. It was a pity the situation of two events in the same city in two weeks, because it stopped more people to take benefit of very good talks and networking that the CEE region really needs to surpass the current cross-roads of the war, local production and digitalization. CONTENT was a very well-organized event that could have had a double of attendance in another context. It had high-end ‘buyers’ as speakers at the panels, as it can be seen on the attached pictures.

We repeat the numbers we inferred yesterday: 450 registered people, including 200 buyers. On site, there were around 200 people total per day, the two first days. The content winners of the event? The pitch award of USD 20,000 went to "Rumbarumbamm", an Hungarian series written by Agota Benedek, narrating an abortion through the pandemic, a war and an economic crisis. The special mention award was for "Chopin", a series of Balassa Films (Mexico) with the producers of "Amelie" and the director of "Homeland", which considers the famous compositor as the world's first rockstar.

Last day conferences? At 'State of the CEE Nation', Victoria Yarmoshchuk, CEO, Film UA Group (Ukraine) said: ‘Today it is easier to get co-productions for Ukraine from Western Europe than from Eastern Europe. It is key the union of production companies to achieve greater competitiveness’. Dariusz Jablonski, CEO Apple Film (Poland): ‘The Polish productions are very creative and there is a large investment in streaming platforms in the country. So, Poland will be on top of the move for the upcoming years’.

At "Content Trends: how to find the next big format hit", Volodymyr Zavadiuk, Head of big brave events, 1+1 Media (Ukraine): ‘Our population need a post pandemic inspiration. It is hard now with the war to transform our industry, but we are doing it, we more local contents and many documentaries, mainly’.

At "Drama co-production between CEE and global markets", Krisztina Gallo, head of co-productions, Paprika Studios (Romania): 'Streamers, investments inflate production costs, while the broadcaster would still like to produce high-end content with streamers. So, the flexibility on both ends needs to be much greater to achieve that’. Gabor Krigler, Joyrider: ‘There are a lot of funds available in Europe for project development, but the evaluators are far away from the commissioners. So, millions are going for projects that will never happen. They are more a kind of social program for hipsters all over Europe, than a content investment’.

Buyer testimonials? Asia Bataieva-Dokalenko, director of monetization content, SLM (Ukraine): 'Mainly we came to look for new partners and new ways of cooperation. Nowadays coming from Ukraine is a big challenge, so the trips must be worth enough’. Gonca Stojanovska, head of programming, GLEY.TV (Macedonia): ‘A year ago we started with a local streaming platform, the first one in our country. We are targeting children or young people, 16 to 20 years old. Also, women from 25 to 35 years old’.

Anna Scheitzach, Big Media, Germany: ‘We are buying and selling here. This market is good because you get in touch with many local players. We expect it will be bigger next year’. Alex Balassa, Balassa Films Mexico: ‘We have co-productions to develop with CEE, looking for commissioning broadcasters’. Barbara Jerzyk-Alvarez, BBC Studios (UK): ‘These are times for alliances, and Buda is good to reinforce relationships, more than the bigger shows’.

Francisco Ferreyra, from Budapest

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