TV REAL SCREENINGS FESTIVAL 2022
In the run-up to MIPCOM, our second annual TV Real Screenings Festival is spotlighting 18 fantastic new and returning properties that reflect the wealth of standout factual content available to buyers today. Whether you’re on the hunt for your latest true-crime obsession, new blue-chip fare celebrating the wonders of the world or high-end factual entertainment that will educate and delight, you’re sure to find it here.
Clicking on each show title will take you directly to the trailer.
ZDF Studios has long been known for its strengths in science, wildlife and history, and those proficiencies are on display in its TV Real Screenings Festival lineup. The three-part Surviving Hothouse Earth spotlights climate change, delivering “cinematic shots of nature, landscapes and urban life,” says Ralf Rückauer, VP Unscripted, alongside expert commentary. Lush footage is also available in the ten-part Africa from Above, Rückauer notes, pointing to its “spectacular aerial adventure” that spotlights how “humans and animals live in some of the most extreme environments on Earth.” The six-part War Gamers, meanwhile, delivers a new perspective on World War II as it focuses on members of the U.K.’s Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRENS).
All3Media International is offering up a 90-minute documentary with a different battlefield perspective: War and Justice: The Case of Marine A. “Featuring exclusive footage and powerful, candid testimony from Alexander Blackman, aka Marine A, this documentary film delves into the dark heart of those defining moments in battle and the ensuing four-year legal campaign for Blackman’s freedom,” says Rachel Job, senior VP of non-scripted content. On the true-crime front, Job highlights the two-part How to Hire a Hitman, which she describes as an “eye-opening investigation into the dark side of the internet.” Lifestyle and factual entertainment round out the All3Media International selections, with season nine of the beloved Escape to the Chateau, season ten of Fake or Fortune, the “colorful and entertaining” Gino’s Italy: Like Mamma Used to Make with Gino D’Acampo and the six-part Sarah Beeny’s Little House, Big Plans, which Job says is “packed with fantastic tips, professional insights and inspiring stories demonstrating how attainable your dream home can be through creativity and ingenuity and hard work.”
Tatiana Grinkevich, senior sales manager at BossaNova Media, highlights The Andes Tragedy: 50 Years Later, which tells the definitive story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane disappeared in the Andes in 1972. “One of the most harrowing and fascinating survival stories of all time is retold by the survivors and experts, as we relive their journey and gain new insights into the infamous crash that brought them to the very brink of humanity.” BossaNova also has a new science series in the ten-part Engineering Repurposed.
New Dominion Pictures is also offering up a true-crime doc: A Spy in the FBI, which, per Kristen Eppley, executive VP of distribution, “has it all: it has drama, it has espionage, it has sex,” as it chronicles the story of Robert Hanssen. The company also has 115 episodes of the paranormal series A Haunting and 70 episodes of the reality series FantomWorks, focused on the “largest automotive restoration shop in America,” Eppley says.
Rive Gauche arrives at MIPCOM with a three-part natural-history production, Living Earth, exploring plants and animals in deserts. “Using gyro-stabilized 8K aerials, 6K drone photography, high-speed Phantom photography, timelapse, macro and elegant graphics, we will reveal the inner workings of these ecosystems in breathtaking detail—from the individual hairs on the back of a jumping spider to the wingbeats of a dragonfly as it plucks a mayfly from above the water,” says Marine Ksadzhikyan, COO and executive VP of sales. Also available is the six-part doc series In Their Own Words, which profiles the likes of Angela Merkel and Elon Musk, and the 13-part series Disaster Déjà Vu, about cities like San Francisco and Peru that suffered brutal natural disasters twice.
