‘Zombie Bootcamp’ Wins Top Prize At MipFormats’ Pitching Competition

[reaper]

CANNES– Australian reality format “Zombie Bootcamp” has snatched up the top prize at MipFormat’s international pitch competition hosted at MipFormat, the MipTV sidebar taking place April 5-6.

Warner Bros. International Television Production, which backs the competition, has committed to invest up to €25,000 ($34,260) to develop ”Zombie Bootcamp,” which was presented by Australian shingle The Feds.

The project, pitched by The Feds’ head of content, Lisa Gray, and associate producer, Claire Marshall, beat five finalists from Italy, Spain and Ireland.

The jury comprised Nick Emmerson, CEO of Ricochet (UK), Taco Ketelaar, senior VP of Prime Time Entertainment ProsiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland (Germany), Sandra Kleinfeld, director of development for studio and unscripted content for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada), Cathrine Wiernik, head of development and format acquisitions for TV4 (Sweden).

“Zombie Boot camp is definitely a unique idea! We look forward to working with production company, The Feds, on developing their format further for the international market,” said Andrew Zein, SVP of creative, format development and sales for Warner Bros. Intl. TV production.

The Feds describes the format as as “disruptive play on an endurance challenge with a morbid twist, pitting sixteen contestants against each other and the end of the world in the Zombie Apocalypse.”

The Australian outfit recently secured funding from Screen Australia, under the Enterprise Program, in order to help the company promote their shows abroad.

“This is a great recognition of the power of Australian story telling and an illustration of the international opportunities that are available to Australian content producers,” said Peter Rhodes, managing director of Reed Midem UK.

Added Rhodes, “This win is particularly significant as it sets the tone for MipTV which features a strong Australian contingent and will be honouring Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner with the Médaille d’Honneur Award.”