The TV series festival Pilot came to a close in Ivanovo on September 22. The festival was an opportunity to watch the first episodes of TV series that viewers will see in the new season on Russia’s main channels. The program of the main competition included 17 projects.
The jury recognized the first episode of the series Spi so Mnoy (Sleep With Me) as the best pilot at the festival. Good Story Media and Sreda produced Spi so Mnoy, while Vladimir Raksha, who the festival jury named the best director, filmed the series.
The plot centers on a psychotherapist who is able to see other people’s dreams with the use of special technology, and ends up helping the local investigator find the victims of a serial killer who has fallen into a coma. Svetlana Ustinova, Artem Bystrov, Ksenia Kutyopova and others played roles in the film.
The comedy series Batya (Dad), starring Vladimir Vdovichenkov in the lead role, was deemed the most promising project of the season, according to the jury members. Good Story Media is producing the series for TNT4 channel.
The series talks about how relationships change over time. In the plot, a young modern father takes his wife and two children to his own father’s anniversary. On the way there he tells them stories of how his harsh father brought him up in the 90s. Elena Lyadova, Nadezhda Mikhalkova and Stass Starovoitov, the resident of the Stand Up show, played in the series.
The series Call Center, from the director and screenwriting team of Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov, received an award for best screenplay. This is an action-packed thriller about the employees of an online store for adults. When they come to work one day, they find out that there is a bomb hidden in the building and their lives now depend on two crazy people who call themselves Mom and Dad. Now the hostages have to fulfill all the demands of the unknown terrorists. In the process, they find out a lot of new things about each other.
Seven other series from Gazprom-Media Holding’s companies featured in the festival’s competition. Viewers also saw the comedy series Triada (The Triad) as part of the festival’s non-competition program. The male protagonist of this series faces a difficult choice between three women. The comedian Semyon Slepakov produced the series, and the lead roles were played by Boris Dergachev, Daria Moroz, Lyubov Aksyonova, Anastasia Kalashnikova, Alexander Ptashenchuk and Nika Viper. Triada will premiere on TNT on September 30.