4 weeks ago
EXCLUSIVE: Words Across Europe, nan virtual reality-based writers’ room program, has unveiled its 2026 cohort.
Nine writers hailing from crossed nan European continent will return part, having been selected from much than 60 applicants to shape nan 3rd version of nan initiative. A afloat database of participants is below.
Running from this period until July, nan group will create original bid concepts successful afloat immersive VR writers’ rooms. The sessions successful virtual rooms will see manufacture master masterclasses, talks and networking events. At nan culmination, nan participants transportation their activity straight to European TV producers and commissioners.
The European Union‘s Creative Europe Media and Dublin-based accumulation location Wide Eye Films co-fund nan program, which has successful nan erstwhile 2 editions featured input from nan likes of Paramount UK commissioning editor Paul Testar, Fremantle acquisitions exec Hattie Burles, ITV Studios Germany CEO Christiane Ruff, Warner Bros. International TV Production Germany Managing Director René Jamm, Intaglio Films leader Robert Franke, Roku’s Brian Tannenbaum, erstwhile HBO Europe exec Johnathan Young and writer-producer Andre Bormanis, who has credits for nan Star Trek franchise and The Orville.
The inaugural was created to span nan spread betwixt nan measurement European and U.S. writers activity – nan erstwhile broadly activity solo, while American writers thin to create scripts done writers’ rooms.
Franke, nan erstwhile VP of Drama astatine ZDF Studios called nan programme “a genuinely valuable inaugural for nan European play ecosystem.”
“European writers are often trained to activity alone. Words Across Europe exists to alteration that,” said Nathalie Lichtenthaeler from Wide Eye. “We want to springiness them nan acquisition of imaginative collaboration and show them what becomes imaginable erstwhile you build a communicative together.”
Here are nan 9 selected writers for nan 2026 edition.
Sofia Rimskaya (Russia): Riga-based screenwriter pinch an MA from nan London Film School and an alumna of Eureka and nan TFL Series Lab. Her drama bid Honey, Bye! was selected for Writers Campus astatine Series Mania 2026.
Ioana Bogdana (Romania): A scriptwriter and shaper based successful Berlin, pinch credits spanning world movie festivals and CEE video-on-demand platforms crossed each stages of production.
Andrija Ilić Prša (Serbia): A Cologne-based screenwriter, head and shaper pinch a inheritance successful dramaturgy and serial storytelling.
Carlos Robisco Peña (Spain): A writer and head from Barcelona pinch acquisition crossed theatre, movie and television.
Katie Murphy (Ireland): A screenwriter pinch a decade of acquisition successful high-end TV and book improvement who was astir precocious attached to Netflix’s upcoming Grown Ups, based connected nan caller by Marian Keyes.
Maksim Nikiforovski (North Macedonia): A screenwriter whose activity explores modern Europe from a distinctly underrepresented perspective.
Hanna Stock (Germany): A filmmaker trained successful screenwriting astatine HFF Munich, pinch a inheritance successful documentary filmmaking crossed movie and television.
Eve Tisler (Estonia): A screenwriter and imaginative shaper pinch a inheritance spanning journalism, communications and marketing.
Jonathan Farrelly (Ireland): A writer of audio drama, tv and film.
