The executive spoke to ttvnews at Mipcom to talk about the new factual titles the company presented in Cannes, as well as its international expansion plans.
*By Mónica Iriarte, from Cannes, France
Already well known in Europe and the US markets, UK indie prodco Woodcut Media is eager to expand its footprint in new territories, seeking to find opportunities for sales and coproductions with new partners around the world.
As another step towards this mission, the company’s distribution area, Woodcut International, was present at this year’s Mipcom in Cannes with several new titles for the international market.
“We readily attend Mipcom as a production company and we’ve been coming as a distribution business for about two or three years now”, Koulla Anastasi, Managing Director, Woodcut International, said to ttvnews. “For us at Mipcom it’s all about talking about our new releases.”
The new slate is led by history series WWII: Women on the Frontline, produced for Channel 4 in the UK and SBS in Australia. “As a female-run and female-led production business, we are keen to tell women’s stories, particularly the ones that have been undertold. So stories of female heroines during war times are an important reflection on history to tell. We’ve had a great reception for WWII: Women on the Frontline so far,” she highlighted.
“As a wider production business our reputation is very much in true crime as well. And we are presenting a new series called World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners, which we’ve been partnering with Channel 5 and FilmRise in the US. We are selling them outside the US and UK markets. It’s a different take on a traditional crime series,” she added.
In addition to finished content, the company is also presenting projects for development. “We are also pre-selling our development slate as well, talking about various ideas of ours from history into true crime into broader factual.”
With these and other titles on hand, Woodcut is seeking to expand its footprint in the global arena. “We’ve only been around for three years now and for us it’s really about growing as a business and the Woodcut brand beyond the UK and US, where we are well known.”
“Our sales agents will be at Mipcancun next month, we will also be at Natpe and Reelscreen, as well as Miptv. We are keen on having a strong profile on all the international markets. Thinking ahead we have a really exciting project at the moment called Titanic in Color, which we are representing, another Channel 4 commission for us. It’s such a well recognizable title outside English-speaking markets so we hope it will travel well for us next year,” she explained.
And in this global expansion, Latin America stands as a key market for the company. “We are eager to explore markets outside Europe and the US, and Spanish-speaking America is something we are really strategizing for. What can we do to tailor our packages. And we are really open to Latin American producers who’d like to co-produce with us,” she concluded.
