Projects from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro were eligible to apply.  

The Croatian winner, Marjan Alčevski’s Uspjeh, is a multi-strand character-driven drama about a group of disparate people linked by a violent crime, offering a dark dissection of today’s society.

Serbian writer Ivan Knežević’s Otok is a contemporary investigative thriller exploring the challenges faced by a region that stands at the crossroads of modern Europe.

The move into original drama in the Adria region follows HBO Europe’s success with local production in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.  

“The First Draft Contest was launched to discover writers and stories across the Adria region and we’ve been really impressed with the quality of the submissions – so much so that we’ve selected two projects for further development rather than one as we initially planned,” said Steve Matthews, VP and Executive Producer, Drama Development, HBO Europe.

“We are very excited our First Draft Contest has been received with such high interest across the region,” said Marin Kariž, Country Manager of HBO Adria. 

HBO Europe has been producing quality TV series since 2010 in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Poland.