Kvartal 95, the best partner in Ukraine

It launched during MIPTV the series Servant of the People (24x’23-‘25), a political comedy series produced and starred by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is also the CEO & Creative producer of the production company. The company shares the global distribution with Eccho Rights (Sweden), who is highlighting the series at NATPE Budapest.

Some of our formats (Crack Them Up, Go Dance!, Claim to Meladze) have already successfully been sold to dozens of countries. Our Vecherniy Kvartal TV show is the most popular entertainment project on Ukrainian TV since it started 11 years ago and nothing can beat it’, describes Zelenskiy to Prensario.

‘One of our most popular TV projects has been the comedy series The In-Laws (6 seasons), which had unprecedented success not only in Ukraine but also outside the country. The series 3 times was voted as the best Ukrainian comedy TV Series in Ukraine with highest TV ratings. In 2012-2015 the series was nominated in Monte Carlo Television Festival as the series viewed by the largest audience on five continents, reaching the top three positions in the comedy category along with the Desperate Housewives and The Big Bang Theory’.

‘Our latest TV series Servant of the People became a TV ratings champ of the season in Ukraine, was sold to different countries in Eastern Europe and is on the way to conquering the world. All our own produced movies dominate box offices in CIS countries overtaking Hollywood blockbusters. In 2011 we produced the first 3D Ukrainian comedy Rzhevskiy vs Napoleon. Our drama I’ll be Nearby received the Grand Prix of the largest Russian Film Festival Kinotavr in 2012’, he adds.

With more than 100 writers onboard, Kvartal 95 is producing comedy and entertainment content, investing in new cutting-edge formats and gathering the best talents around. ‘Every year, when Forbes Magazine makes the list of the “Most Successful Showbiz Companies” in Ukraine, our company tops the rating’, remarks Zelenskiy.

Apart from the Servant of the People, the company is promoting internationally its formats, series and animation projects. ‘We started participating in international TV markets with our own stand only last autumn at MIPCOM, but our ambitions are high. For Kvartal 95 conquering the international market is one of the main priorities of our development. This year we plan opening our Agency in Europe, and in Los Angeles our agents are already working’, highlights the executive.

On formats is Crack Them Up (12-16x’45), produced and broadcast on 1+1 and Inter TV (Ukraine), Channel One (Russia), BTV (Lithuania), Jiangxi Channel (China), HTV7 (Vietnam) and optioned in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and others. Eccho Rights is the global distributor, and it also has the kids version Crack Them Up Kids (5x’90).

‘One of the most recent successful projects of the company has become its own 95 Animation Studio with over 130 animation specialists that can produce up to 76 minutes of animation per week. Its 400m2 Motion Capture pavilion with 36 cameras is one of the largest on territory of post-soviet countries. We also have come up with several innovative animation products’.

The Studio has come up with the innovative technology of “Cartoon Remake”, the know-how that creates 3D animated version of the popular TV films/series/shows. ‘This format allows us to revive audience’s interest to the product since it’s not a simple remake but a new layout with favorite script and characters but some new plot twists, details and jokes that are possible in animated version only’, adds Zelenskiy.

Two examples are the comedy animated series The Animated In-Laws (20x’26), which is currently broadcasted on 1+1 on Friday evening prime time slot. The company is currently producing a remake of a popular Russian comedy series, The Kitchen (20x’26).

The executive concludes about the sales alliance with Eccho Rights: ‘We started cooperating with them with our comedy game format Crack Them Up (2012), which had a great track record. We are satisfied with the results of our cooperation and there is no wonder we decided to continue with the Servant of the People with them, launched last April during MIPTV’.