Serial Killer Festival screens new Czech series and timeless British comedies

The first event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe held annually in Brno since 2018, the International Serial Killer Festival brings together producers, creators, show-runners, and other TV and web series professionals to discuss the main trends in the industry, showcase the most promising dramas being developed in the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe, and provide them with a platform to reach audiences in Western Europe.

Running from Sept. 24 to 29, this year’s edition will once again aim to be “an international meeting point for professionals, academics and viewers who define the series production” meant to highlight the continuing relevance of TV and web production as cultural mediums. A special section British Nostalgia will additionally showcase some of the very best the UK has to offer.

Of the roughly three dozen titles, created for TV and web release, there were several notable homegrown standouts that can make for great autumn streaming. The main screening venue this year will be the Goose on a String Theater, with other screenings to be held in the Orli Street Theater, the Television Institute and the Mahen Theater.

And despite the name of the festival (a pun about what some have described as Czech television’s obsession with the dark thriller niche) all genres are welcome.

The Czech mini-series The Well, a Voyo production, will launch the 2024 festival. Inspired by real events and directed by Tereza Kopáčová, the show is designed as a prequel to the legendary 1970’s Czech detective series Thirty Cases of Major Zeman, looking more specifically at one of its most famous cases, a family tragedy that occurred in 1968 in Vonoklasy, near Prague.

The show will compete in the main section Primetime Killer, facing off against other top European productions like Operation Sabre (Serbia), Soviet Jeans (Latvia), Daughter of the Nation (Czechia) and I Know Your Soul (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Next up, as mentioned also competing in the main awards category, is Daughter of the Nation, a Czech Television-Canal + co-production satire around the life of Zdenka Havlíčková, the daughter of 19th-century writer, poet, activist and “father of Czech journalism” Karel Havlíček Borovský, with a screening scheduled to mark Czech Statehood Day on September 28. 

Another notable release to keep an eye on will be No Big Deal, running in the Central and Eastern Europe short series category Quick Killer. Directed by Jan Vejnar, the show looks at the OnlyFans phenomenon and the creation of pornographic and sexual content online among the younger generations. The show is produced by Czech Television and a Q&A with the showrunners will be held after the screening.

“I am very pleased that, in addition to the growing quality of this year’s shows, more and more women, and therefore, female protagonists are appearing in the best titles in key creative professions,” noted festival director and founder Kamila Zlatušková. “This trend is quite obvious compared to our first years and, thanks to this, we are starting to measure up with world productions.”

A specialty of this year’s edition, the section British Nostalgia will give viewers a taste of the best British humour has given to the world. On offer, we have nerdy IT Crowd (2006), political satire The Thick of It (2005), the timeless The Office (2001), the surreal and goofy Mighty Boosh (2003), and one of the best male duos in British television with Peep Show (2003).

As per tradition, the three-day TV Days conference will be held on the sidelines of the festival, bringing together a host of TV professionals, journalists and film students to discuss the trends in European and world television, and listen to inspiring talks from key players of the industry. Top panellists this year include producer of the hit culinary TV show The Bear, Carrie Holt de Lama.

“Our work truly begins on the last day of the festival in Brno,” founder Kamila Zlatušková told iRozhlas.cz, highlighting their close collaboration with the Berlinale and other top European festivals and broadcasters to promote local and regional titles to Western audiences.

All the information about the festival is available on the official website, and on Facebook or Instagram. All screenings are held in the original language with Czech and English subtitles.