TV powerhouse Beta Film has signed a major deal with Australian public broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service. (SBS)
The deal, which includes a total of almost 200 hours of entertainment, is led by the RAI 2023 event series “Elsa Morante’s La Storia”, recently sold to the US and Canada (MHz Choice), Cannes winner “Operation Saber”, made for Radio Television of Serbia, Seriencamp Audience Choice Award laureate ’30 Days of Lust’, from the German regional state television SWR, and a second RAI title, ‘Cold Summer’.
The major deal, which will air on SBS Australia’s leading streaming platform SBS on Demand in 2025, underlines SBS’s status as one of the most enthusiastic buyers of luxury European scripted series sold on the open market.
It also suggests that the TV players supporting these series today are often Europe’s public broadcasters.
Directed by Francesca Archibugi (“Like Crazy”) and inspired by Elsa Morante’s groundbreaking bestselling novel of more than 750 pages, “La Storia” bowed to a record 24% share at RAI 1. Boasting great historical production values, ‘La Storia’ stars Italian A-Lister Jasmine Trinca (‘The Gunman’) as Ida, a half-Jewish single mother of two sons in a compelling story of motherhood, survival, persecution and poverty in World War II and post-war Rome that offers a feminine view of fascism. Ida prefers to concentrate on the essence of life. The film is produced by Italy’s Picomedia and France’s Thalie Images, with Rai Fiction and in co-production with Beta Film.
Winner of Canneseries 2024 for the entire cast, the event-based ‘Operation Sabre’ revolves around what Variety has dubbed Serbia the “Kennedy moment”: the 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, as well as the collective responsibility for the assassination and its aftermath, seen from the POVs of an investigative journalist, a police inspector, and a petty criminal. Vladimir Tagić and Goran Stanković were the creators and directors of This is That Production, which produced with Agitprop.
‘Operation Sabre’
Credit: This and that productions
Indie, a highly relatable, dramatic half-hour look at romantic love through the reality check of people approaching their thirties, “30 Days of Lust” was a highlight at Series Mania’s 2024 International Panorama, where it had its world premiere before it won the Public Choice Award at this year’s Seriencamp, while he is currently in the Top 10 of the youth demos in Germany.
Compared by Beta to “Fleabag” and “Girls” and financed by FFF Bayern and MFG Baden-Württemberg, “30 Days of Lust” is produced by Trimafilm, behind the 2024 Berlin hit “Ivo”, for German state television SWR, part from ARD serving South West Germany.
‘Cold Summer’, a hit on RAI 1, charts the morally gray alliance between a Caribinieri sergeant and a local mafia boss, himself suspected of murder, who helps take down an organized crime gang. Clement produces for Rai Fiction, in collaboration with Beta Film.
SBS Australia has also acquired Dutch royal drama Maxima, as recently announced.
Additional highlights of the new deal include all four seasons of ‘Sisi’, the RTL+ mega hit that was sold to more than 120 countries and combines glamor and greater sexual frankness.
Also in the mix are all three seasons of Spain’s award-winning special ops thriller “La Unidad,” which Max acquired for the US; both seasons of the Finnish crime thriller “Helsinki Syndrome,” starring “Vikings” star Peter Franzén; Lone Scherfig’s character-driven medical drama ‘The Shift’, a triple Oscar nominee, and reruns of the Italian international hit series ‘Gomorrah’.
30 days of lust
Credit: Trimafilm