I am truly honored and privileged to be selected for the prestigious MIPTV Producers to Watch list—an exclusive recognition of independent producers with global potential.

This year has been incredible. Not only was my new series selected for MIPTV, the world’s largest television market, but I was also chosen as one of the most talented and promising producers on the planet. Wow!

MIPTV (Market of International Programs of Television) is held annually in Cannes, France, sharing its world-renowned facilities with events like the Cannes Film Festival and Cannes Lions. As the largest content market, MIPTV brings together the global industry to co-produce, buy, sell, finance, and distribute entertainment content across TV, film, digital, and audiovisual platforms. It’s the ultimate space to network, trade, and uncover future trends.

A heartfelt thank you to Reed MIDEM, MIPTV, and the jury for this incredible honor. See you in Cannes!

#ProducersToWatch #InDevelopment #MIPTV

This is HUGE! A long-time career goal of mine has come true: being selected for the biggest television market in the world—MIPTV! My latest show, Xolenia, has been chosen for the In-Development Creative Talent Pitch 2020 out of hundreds of projects.

Every year, this prestigious event selects just 6 projects from hundreds of submissions. We have spent over a year developing Xolenia, and being recognized at MIPTV—the world’s leading television market—makes all the effort feel truly worthwhile.

A huge thank you to Reed MIDEM and the esteemed jury!

Thank you for this incredible honor, it feels absolutely unreal! See you in Cannes!

What an amazing honor to be selected to be among the most talented television creators of 2018 from all over the world by HBO and Primetime Emmy Awards… This year for the second time the HBO event is happening in the cutest town of Manchester, Vermont which makes everyone feel like they are constantly walking in a movie set.

During the seven days of the event, we have met with the top executives of the industry including HBO, Netflix, Comedy Central, Fox, ABC and many more; attended the panels and watched the amazing series in the selection.

As far as our show the Elevator, even though it was one of the only 3 Non-English speaking shows in the Festival, it was received brilliantly among the audience and the executives. One of my favorite quotes after the screenings was from the Director of the Festival Philip Gilpin Jr. as he described the show as ‘genius’ and talked very generously about my unique approach to storytelling, which in fact was surprising for me since I was more used to hear the word ‘crazy’ about my series until that time. But maybe in hindsight they are the two different sides of the same coin.

Overall the seven day event was one of a kind experience for me. Being around so many high level executives and so many multi talented creators, gave me a unique inside look to the industry at its highest level and how it works in the States. I think I have accomplished my first introduction handsomely to so many of these very important people and also after spending so much time drinking with ridiculously talented people I have managed to create an amazing team of creatives for my next project.

So thank you Philip, thank you Vermont and finally thank you HBO and Primetime Emmy Awards for a great event and even greater experience!

One of the most prestigious residencies in Europe, the Marseille Writing Residency invites 13 writers from across the continent to join Professor Rich’s writer’s room.

You directly feel that an organization cares for the writers when they fly you all the way from Boston, pay for your stay plus expenses for the whole week… And that’s how Marseille Writing Residence has started. Thirteen writers from all over Europe all expenses paid, invited to be in the writer’s room of Professor Rich for four days of intense work to perfect their pitch and ultimately present it to the producers who are attending the Pitch Sessions.

I have to admit it was challenging… Not only being in the spotlight and pitching is a b*tch for us writers but being in a room with twelve other extremely smart storytellers and make your story bulletproof to their questions required more work than I’ve anticipated. But in the end it was all worth it since after a whole week I have found myself feeling very confident about my pitch.

The other interesting part of the Residence was the panels… We’ve attended truly interesting talks with Frank Spotnitz, the showrunner of the hit series the Man in the High Castle and Anthony Horowitz, the author of the last James Bond novel. I always find these panels with established industry writers very interesting, since more often than not when you get into a conversation with them you realize that they went through the exact same troubles that you as a writer go through everyday and it always helps me to hear that from people that I look up to.

Lastly I want to mention a couple of things about the city… Every city that I visit have a character, a motto or something that they identify themselves with and in Marseille that was multi-culturalism. As a port city located in the South of France, Marseille apparently has always been the place where cultures meet and live together. And you can feel that diversity everywhere around the city; in the streets, in the architecture and in their approach to everything.

Overall one week in Marseille in Professor Rich’s writing room was genuinely one of a kind experience. I perfected my pitch for my new series, met with some of the greatest writers of my generation plus we also had the chance to be part of the biggest web festival of Europe, Marseille Web Fest.

So thank you Professor, thank you Jean-Michel Albert and thank you @marswebfest for this great honor! I will remember this forever.

What an honor! I have been awarded with the most prestigious ‘What’s Next Award’ of @Webfestberlin as the Writer to Watch, as the creator expected to shape the near future of storytelling..! What!!

It was truly one of the most important and memorable nights in my life. Even now I am having real hard time expressing how I feel about that evening.

In my humble experience, every festival always has a perspective and a purpose that reflects on their selections. In Berlin, in the heart of Europe the focus of the festival is to find the next trends and the next big thing in storytelling!

Therefore every year they present their most important award as ‘What’s Next Award’ to one writer, one director and one producer. And this year I was fortunate enough to be named the ‘What’s Next Award: Writer to Watch’ to have that privilege.

This award was particularly important and extremely emotional for me because since I have decided to follow the career path to be a writer, I’ve been spending so much time trying to create stories that offer something entirely new to storytelling and the overall narrative in the industry, which has not been the easiest and the most rewarding task to take on…

But this special award not only rewarded my series The Elevator as ‘the next thing’ but also recognized my entire efforts to be original since the beginning of my career. It’s really hard to express how good it felt to hear my name in the ceremony and to know that all my efforts so far were paid off at some level!

It also didn’t hurt that this emotionally special award came with a €1500 cash prize which will definitely come handy considering the long journey ahead of us. So, grateful for this!

Finally, I want to promise to all the jury who found me worthy of such prestigious award that I will go further than any alumni of this award and I will make you proud of your decision every step of the way! Thank you so much for this honor! This night was for life!

You can also check out this article to find out more about for more about Webfest Berlin and the prestigious What’s Next Award.

As a part of the buzz that the Elevator has created over the 33rd Valencia International Film Festival Cinemajove, I was selected as one of two short-form creators for an official interview.

It was simply a pleasure to meet the kindest Gerardo in this process. We’ve talked about the show, my career, my inspirations and also my past visit to Valencia, when I was just a young student in Universidad Politécnica de Valencia studying Audiovisual Communication.

Check out the full interview here by Gerardo Léon, or read below.

Interview with Bora Omeroglu, director of The Elevator.

With the series The Elevator by young filmmaker Bora Omeroglu, Turkey becomes part, for the first time, of our Official Web-Series section. The Elevator tells the story of a girl that has a moustache and lives in an elevator. Abandoned when she was a child, she is brought up by an extravagant superhero, Qushyman. With him, she will discover love, heartbreak and responsibility and he will be her guide on the path to fulfilling a prophecy written a thousand years ago. If The Elevator’s plot sounds far-fetched, what is really shocking is the mix of references Bora Omeroglu manages to pull off. From Michael Jackson to Bonnie Tayler, everything can be a part of this fun and original comedy.

The Elevator tells the story of a girl that lives in an elevator. Let see, why did you decide to give the girl a moustache? Where does this idea come from?

These last years I’ve become obsessed with how we are used to seeing everything with the serenity of knowing exactly how the stories will end. Series, romantic comedies, blockbusters, they all use a very similar formula; they show us different versions of the same story, again and again, with little or no unpredictability. I decided I wanted to create a satirical series that told a special story about these Hollywood clichés, but I also wanted the audience to stay alert, wondering what would happen next. I also wanted to point out a social issue that I am very passionate about: gender issues! So I opened the series with a girl with a moustache. Boom! Yes, I want the audience to wonder about this. And, although I intend to answer this question in twelve episodes, I want them to feel comfortable without knowing the answer… and to accept her for what she is.

The series mixes a lot of references: soap operasand pop culture (with the main song of Live Aid, We are the world, Bonnie Tayler, Whitney Houston). How did you come up with this explosive mix?

Soap operas are a great inspiration in my comedies. Addictive storylines, overacting, crocodile tears, corny surprise endings… I love them, I can’t get enough. I wanted to use all of these elements in the series, but I also didn’t want the audience to get used to anything, so I tried to constantly interrupt this rhythm with popular references and musical sequences to create the general exhilarating tempo of the series, that can go anywhere at any time.

The Elevator has a very special, very surreal, type of humor. How did you decide upon it and how has the audience reacted to it?

From the beginning of my career I have focused on trying to create original series with their own voice and their own rhythm. And that is probably because, as a spectator, although I watch mostly everything, I have never followed a particular series. I’ve always liked different things from different shows. So, when writing, The Elevator, I wondered what would happen if I could somehow mix the magical world of Wes Anderson with the pure innocence of Ally McBeal, adding a little parody to it. Would it become a special series? I didn’t know for sure, but once I did it, I was very excited to see the reactions. Up until now, we’ve done screenings in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, and the reactions were a lot better than I expected. Not only has it received the attention of industry professionals that are attracted to the original story and its visual world, which looks like a comic strip, but it is has also got a warm reception from the audience, mostly due to its comedy and satire of social and political issues. As a writer, being recognized internationally with my first series has been an important part of what I’ve been trying to prove to myself and the industry for many years. I couldn’t be any prouder!

Tell us about the casting.

As it intended to be a new type of comedy, we wanted to work with new names. Defne Koldas, the girl with the moustache, is a Turkish musical theatre actress that graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama of London and she is the daughter of a well-known Turkish actress. She is currently starring as the character of Tzeitel in the musical The Fiddler on the Roof with one of the largest theatre companies in Istanbul. Adem Yilmaz, the Qushyman, is also a very talented Turkish musical theatre actor, born in Belgium, and he has starred in over thee internationally-acclaimed feature films. He is currently at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama completing his Masters. Lastly, but as important, the acappela group Patron Cildirdi creates our music and is our official Girl Next Door. All of our actors have been really amazing, I can’t praise them enough. It has been the best group of actors I have had the privilege to work with. With their effort the series ensued with very few changes.

Turkey is a great unknown for the general Spanish audience. How is the audiovisual industry in your country?

In Turkey we are very lucky to have many world-recognized filmmakers, such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan, that received the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, Fatih Akin, who just won the Best Movie Oscar, or Tolga Karaçelik, that just won at Sundance 2018. But in the industry, television and, over all, television series, are the motor of the main Turkish productions, with a production of about 50 series a year. Television is definitely the popular choice for Turkish families to spend their evenings.

The series has visited many festivals all over the world. How has the reception been? Has there been any problem with translating humor out of your country’s borders?

That is as great question. Not losing humor in the translation was one of my biggest worries. From the start of the project, I wanted to create a comedy that offered something new to the industry, not just in Turkey, but all over the world. To do this, when I was writing the script, I purposely avoided local jokes and always took into account how the references would be translated, including any type of musical pieces, to all different cultures of the world, in English, Spanish or French. So, if a joke didn’t fit into these patterns, it was discarded. And I discarded many! But, besides the feedback we received, I am happy to see that almost all those who have seen the series have recognized the world I tried to create in a small elevator, and how unique and pure it truly is. I think that is my greatest achievement.

You studied at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. What do you remember of that time in your life?

I remember everything! Yes, I studied Audiovisual Communication Design at Politécnica. I think we always cherish our student years, but my time at the Polytechnic University not only helped my try out my talents, but it also allowed me to explore myself culturally and socially in some of the most progressive institutions and cities of Spain. I have travelled to many cities, before and after my university studies, but I don’t know why, I still feel a special type of connection with the city of Valencia and the time I spent here. Perhaps it is because we mostly define the places where we’ve been through the quality of the time we’ve spent there. If that is true… Valencia… is the best city in the world!

How has your time in Spain and Valencia influenced your work?

Valencia was the first place where I got an award for my filmmaking. My first short-film, The Coil, was given the ‘Best Video’ award at Valencia Crea ’09 and the ‘Best Short Film’ prize at the Mostra Audiovisual of the Gandia Campus. Before arriving to Valencia, I was very shy about the responsibility of exposing myself and my work for people to see it. But my experience here not only validated me as a filmmaker, but it also showed me how art and different points of view were valued in life. I frankly think that my time here in Valencia and in Spain gave me the confidence that an artist desperately needs to create something new and challenge the mainstream.

The Elevator is the first Turkish series that participates in Cinema Jove. As an ambassador for your country, how do you feel?

One of the many reasons I wanted to create this project was to show the world there are exciting things happening in Turkey. I am very happy to have been successful at this; thank you for this opportunity. I am very proud of being the first Turkish series creator at Cinema Jove. I hope more will visit future editions.

What do you expect of your visit here?

I don’t know what to expect! I just know Valencia has always been very nice to me. So, I’m not sure what will happen, but I’m sure that it will be what’s best for me! I’m really looking forward to returning to Valencia. I am very excited and thrilled to be part of Cinema Jove.

Selected as one of the Final 5 Short-form Series for the very exclusive pitch session at Torino Short Film Market Vol. 3, I had the incredible opportunity to present my long-standing series Sex and the Sixteen.

It was a fantastic experience that allowed me to showcase my vision, connect with industry professionals, and gain valuable feedback.

My pitch went significantly better than the one in Marseille Web Fest and immediately after, we dove into speed meetings with producers. My overall impression is that they were genuinely excited by what they heard, with most eager to continue the conversation. Follow-ups are already in the works.

Last but not least, even though it was my first time in Italy, I can easily say that it had an huge impact on me… I totally fell in love with the city! The amazing architecture, extremely polite people but most of all the vibe of everything was just right for me! I wish one day I will have an other opportunity to come back and spend more time here.

A heartfelt thank you for the invitation and for allowing me to be part of this special market!

This week The Elevator was in the the biggest weekly culture magazine of Spain, ‘El Cultural’. Check out these amazing quotes from @EnricAlbero‘s exclusive article reviewing some of the best works of Valencia International Film Festival – including our very own comedy show The Elevator.

”The crazy vein of the the 33rd International Valencia Film Festival is exploding in The Elevator by Bora Omeroglu. It is the story of a baby with a moustache, raised in an elevator by a superhero who looks like Batman with osteoarthritis…”

”With an aesthetic that at times can remind the Jeunet-Caro duo, this Turkish comedy is between the bizarre explosion and the technical filigree without mitigating a feeling of dejà-vu…”

Check out the full article by Enric Albero.