The Monte-Carlo Television Festival’s industry program features stars
The Monte-Carlo Television Festival, which kicks off on Friday, will feature a stellar line-up of speakers for the industry segment, the Business Forum, including actors Lesley Manville, Aldis Hodge and Kevin McKidd.
Headline sessions include “Filmmakers & Friends: Finding Truth & Being Authentic to Their Story,” a conversation with executive producer and actor Aldis Hodge of Hodge Brothers Productions, and creator and executive producer Ben Watkins of Blue Monday Productions. They will share their insights into both their individual career paths within the television landscape and how their creative partnership allows them to experience a deeper collaboration between writer, producer and actor roles, contributing to the show’s success.
In a one-on-one “In Conversation with Michael Hirst,” the writer and executive producer of character-driven historical dramas such as “The Tudors” and “Vikings” will reflect on his creative process, avoiding the writers’ room and the enduring appeal of stories set in distant eras that still resonate with modern audiences.
An expert look at what it takes to turn an idea into a television series, ‘From Pitch to Premiere: Inside the Television Creative Process’ again features Hirst, who will swap secrets with Toma De Matteis of France.tv Studio, creator of the hit show ‘Un Si Grand Soleil’, on how a series comes together. They will be joined by Rola Bauer, whose credits include ‘The Girlfriend’, ‘Shadowplay’ and ‘Pillars of the Earth’, who will provide a studio executive and producer insight into the creative process.
The ‘Leading Ladies Changing the Channels’ lineup will feature a panel of executive and creative women who will share how many of television’s most compelling shifts are being driven by women. The line-up includes actress, executive producer and fiction jury chair Lesley Manville, Sue Latimer of ARG Talent Agency, Judy Lung of the Toronto Film Festival and Cécile Menoni of Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo.
As innovation rapidly reshapes the entertainment industry, ‘Talent, Creators & Agents, Navigating Today’s Television Trends’ features leading talent agents Darren Boghosian of UTA, Barry Buren of CAA, Roger Charteris of The Partnership Group and actor, director and fiction judge Kevin McKidd of Ferryman Films. They will share their insights on how they are adapting to this innovation-driven landscape, balancing opportunity and protection and embracing these changes responsibly.
Shifting the focus to digital and streaming, “Instinct vs Algorithm: What 30 Years of Greenlights Can Teach us About Storytelling in the Age of the Feed” will be an illuminating conversation with digital jury chair and former head of YouTube original content Susanne Daniels (UCLA), who will share how she helped shape youth culture, from defining network television at The WB and MTV to experimenting with premium digital content at YouTube Originals. In this conversation, she joins former YouTube director and digital judge and storytelling pioneer Luke Hyams (Pangaea) to explore the shifts in the foundations of storytelling.
AI is at the forefront of innovative technological revolutions for the industry, including documentary storytelling. The panel “AI in the Documentary Room: From Theory to the Edit Suite” includes panelists Tom Jennings (1895 Films), Gisella Marengo (GM Productions) and documentary and news jury chairman Joshua Seftel (Smartypants), some of whom are already using AI operations, who will discuss with moderator Remi Tereszkiewicz of BetaSeries what has changed and how while the documentary had to resist AI, it instead became the most mature testing ground became.
Changing direction, ‘Controlling the Narrative: Broadcasters & Producers Navigating the Regulatory Landscape’ will debate how more and more TV news, current affairs, entertainment and drama are being criticized and influenced by governments around the world, in an attempt to force both PBS and subscription-based broadcasters and producers to toe a certain line. Graham Benson (GCB Consultants) will moderate this debate with former PGA director Vance Van Pettten (Dodge Film School) and documentary and news judge and journalist and producer Will Hanrahan (FirstLookTV).
Concluding the Business Forum program is Season 2 of the Pitch Contest – “Tell Me a Story,” in association with Jennings of 1895 Films. The aim of the competition is to discover compelling factual story ideas from a new generation of filmmakers, with selected finalists invited to pitch their projects to an international panel of judges and influential TV and entertainment executives during the Business Forum.
