Vertical Drama International Festival REALIST, which resumed its work in 2026 as the first independent review of microdramas and vertical content in Russia, summed up the results and named the winners. The winner of the Grand Prix is the Chinese microdrama "My Mother is the Royal Guardian". The Russian microdrama "Locked between Floors" was recognized as the Best Russian Series. Within the framework of the festival, a large-scale business program was held with the participation of international experts, after which strategic cooperation agreements were signed and leading producers from around the world outlined the key principles of vertical content production.
The Moscow-based festival was held from July 10 to 20. The festival was held online on the Chill platform, bringing together industry leaders from 13 countries in Russia for the first time, including China, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. The international competition program included more than 100 titles, and in non-competitive screenings, viewers were shown episodes of over 300 vertical series.
The closing ceremony was held at Khlebozavod in Moscow. The host of the ceremony, actress Olga Sutulova, noted: "REALIST has become not just a platform for watching vertical series and popular voting, but has united the industry in a live dialogue."
The winners of the main competition program were determined by the audience vote. According to Anton Kalinkin, over 5 thousand viewers watched the series on the festival's platform in 10 days. "At the same time, we did not launch a broad external promotion of the contest; the main audience consisted of representatives of the industry and the professional community. When summing up the results, we took into account only the votes of those viewers who, according to our rating system, watched more than six episodes of different TV shows and took part in voting. Thanks to this, we got the most objective picture of the audience's perception. As a result, the winners of the festival were determined based on the votes of almost a thousand active participants," he explained.
The award in the category Best Animated Vertical Series was given to the project M. C. BUNNY: The Tower Incident (Indonesia), the creators of which went live on a video call and thanked the organizers in Russian.
Producer Ali Ghamlouch announced the winner of the prize in the category Most Outstanding Character of a Vertical Series/Microdrama. The winner is the Russian project When they kill you — come. The Turkish vertical series Boardroom to Bedroom was recognized as the Best Classic Microdrama. Announcing the winner in this category, Short Drama Alliance CEO WenWen Han noted that along with the language of film, television, and mobile content, the industry has a new format — microdramas that are becoming part of the future.
The award in the category Best Genre Vertical Series/Microdrama was shared by two projects at once — the Indian Mastermind and the Russian Lay Low in Zhelokhovo. The Best Russian Series according to the results of the popular vote, was the Russian microdrama Trapped Between Floors.
Then, ON Media CEO Sofya Mitrofanova took the stage and presented a special prize, "For finding new ways to engage with the audience". It was awarded to the project of the Soyuzmultfilm film studio Oomka invites you to the North.
At the end of the ceremony, the festival's producer Anton Kalinkin thanked partners, guests, participants, as well as representatives of the press, emphasizing their important role in the development of the industry. He announced the winner of the Grand Prix of the REALIST festival: the best microdrama of the festival is the Chinese series My Mother is a Royal Guard.
The relaunch of REALIST took place during the period of active development of the vertical series market in Russia. The format, which has already become widely used in international markets, is now becoming one of the most dynamically growing areas of the modern audiovisual industry. The main objective of the updated festival was not only to introduce the best examples of vertical storytelling to the audience, but also to create a professional platform for international dialogue, partner search, and development of new projects. As part of the festival, a large-scale business program was held with the participation of experts and industry representatives from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey.
Following the results of the business program, international experts confirmed that microdrama is an independent engineering format with its own strict laws: the viewer needs to be hooked in 6-10 seconds, each episode should end with a cliffhanger, the story should be end-to-end, and the visuals should work on a mobile screen (close-ups are more important than scenery). Ali Ghamlouch (UAE) emphasized that his team does not use AI for scripts, preferring live authors. Cassandra Yang (China) gave figures for the global market ($3 billion, audience growth of 21%, 85% of viewers are women) and showed how AI is used to create characters and scale production. Russian cases confirmed the advantage of local content over foreign content (Stories), the effectiveness of the format for brands (Pyaterochka — 10 million views, Dasha the Millionaire — 500 million views, and 25 million rubles of monetization), and the possibility of creating AI animation by small teams (Tills Media). As a result of the negotiations, cooperation agreements were signed with China, India, and the United Arab Emirates in the production, adaptation, and distribution of vertical content.
At the closing ceremony, REALIST Festival Program Director Katerina Pshenitsyna announced the signing of three key agreements between the Russian company Red Carpet Studio and international partners:
— with Short Drama Alliance (China) — about the development of REALIST as a global platform for promoting vertical storytelling;
— with The Epic Company (India) — on licensing, potential adaptation, localization, and remake opportunities in mutual markets;
— with producer Ali Ghamlouch (WhiteBee Media, UAE / Lebanon) — on joint development, production, and distribution of vertical drama series.
These agreements provide Russian producers with access to the largest Asian and Middle Eastern markets, and foreign players with access to the growing Russian segment.
Closing the festival, Anton Kalinkin summed up: "The REALIST Festival is closed. I hope that we will see each other again next year and present an even larger format of the event. Then we will be able to talk in more detail about the Russian microdrama market. It will already be not only promising, but also interesting in terms of production, audience, and numbers. The main task today is not to compete, but to form the habit of viewers to watch vertical content."
The REALIST 2026 festival is over. The vertical TV series industry in Russia has received a powerful impetus for international cooperation and rethinking approaches to content production.
The official partner of the festival is ON Media Holding (formerly MTS Media).
Winners of the Vertical Drama International Festival REALIST:
Best Animated Vertical Series: M. C. BUNNY: The Tower Incident (Indonesia)
Most Outstanding Character of a Vertical Series/Microdrama: When they kill you — come (Russia)
Best Classical Microdrama: Boardroom to Bedroom (Turkey)
Best Genre Vertical Series/Microdrama: Mastermind (India) and Lay Low in Zhelokhovo (Russia)
Best Russian Series: Trapped Between Floors (Russia)
Special prize from ON Media "For finding new ways to engage with the audience": Oomka invites you to the North(Russia)
Grand Prix: My Mother is a Royal Guard (China)
The Moscow-based festival was held from July 10 to 20. The festival was held online on the Chill platform, bringing together industry leaders from 13 countries in Russia for the first time, including China, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. The international competition program included more than 100 titles, and in non-competitive screenings, viewers were shown episodes of over 300 vertical series.
The closing ceremony was held at Khlebozavod in Moscow. The host of the ceremony, actress Olga Sutulova, noted: "REALIST has become not just a platform for watching vertical series and popular voting, but has united the industry in a live dialogue."
The winners of the main competition program were determined by the audience vote. According to Anton Kalinkin, over 5 thousand viewers watched the series on the festival's platform in 10 days. "At the same time, we did not launch a broad external promotion of the contest; the main audience consisted of representatives of the industry and the professional community. When summing up the results, we took into account only the votes of those viewers who, according to our rating system, watched more than six episodes of different TV shows and took part in voting. Thanks to this, we got the most objective picture of the audience's perception. As a result, the winners of the festival were determined based on the votes of almost a thousand active participants," he explained.
The award in the category Best Animated Vertical Series was given to the project M. C. BUNNY: The Tower Incident (Indonesia), the creators of which went live on a video call and thanked the organizers in Russian.
Producer Ali Ghamlouch announced the winner of the prize in the category Most Outstanding Character of a Vertical Series/Microdrama. The winner is the Russian project When they kill you — come. The Turkish vertical series Boardroom to Bedroom was recognized as the Best Classic Microdrama. Announcing the winner in this category, Short Drama Alliance CEO WenWen Han noted that along with the language of film, television, and mobile content, the industry has a new format — microdramas that are becoming part of the future.
The award in the category Best Genre Vertical Series/Microdrama was shared by two projects at once — the Indian Mastermind and the Russian Lay Low in Zhelokhovo. The Best Russian Series according to the results of the popular vote, was the Russian microdrama Trapped Between Floors.
Then, ON Media CEO Sofya Mitrofanova took the stage and presented a special prize, "For finding new ways to engage with the audience". It was awarded to the project of the Soyuzmultfilm film studio Oomka invites you to the North.
At the end of the ceremony, the festival's producer Anton Kalinkin thanked partners, guests, participants, as well as representatives of the press, emphasizing their important role in the development of the industry. He announced the winner of the Grand Prix of the REALIST festival: the best microdrama of the festival is the Chinese series My Mother is a Royal Guard.
The relaunch of REALIST took place during the period of active development of the vertical series market in Russia. The format, which has already become widely used in international markets, is now becoming one of the most dynamically growing areas of the modern audiovisual industry. The main objective of the updated festival was not only to introduce the best examples of vertical storytelling to the audience, but also to create a professional platform for international dialogue, partner search, and development of new projects. As part of the festival, a large-scale business program was held with the participation of experts and industry representatives from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey.
Following the results of the business program, international experts confirmed that microdrama is an independent engineering format with its own strict laws: the viewer needs to be hooked in 6-10 seconds, each episode should end with a cliffhanger, the story should be end-to-end, and the visuals should work on a mobile screen (close-ups are more important than scenery). Ali Ghamlouch (UAE) emphasized that his team does not use AI for scripts, preferring live authors. Cassandra Yang (China) gave figures for the global market ($3 billion, audience growth of 21%, 85% of viewers are women) and showed how AI is used to create characters and scale production. Russian cases confirmed the advantage of local content over foreign content (Stories), the effectiveness of the format for brands (Pyaterochka — 10 million views, Dasha the Millionaire — 500 million views, and 25 million rubles of monetization), and the possibility of creating AI animation by small teams (Tills Media). As a result of the negotiations, cooperation agreements were signed with China, India, and the United Arab Emirates in the production, adaptation, and distribution of vertical content.
At the closing ceremony, REALIST Festival Program Director Katerina Pshenitsyna announced the signing of three key agreements between the Russian company Red Carpet Studio and international partners:
— with Short Drama Alliance (China) — about the development of REALIST as a global platform for promoting vertical storytelling;
— with The Epic Company (India) — on licensing, potential adaptation, localization, and remake opportunities in mutual markets;
— with producer Ali Ghamlouch (WhiteBee Media, UAE / Lebanon) — on joint development, production, and distribution of vertical drama series.
These agreements provide Russian producers with access to the largest Asian and Middle Eastern markets, and foreign players with access to the growing Russian segment.
Closing the festival, Anton Kalinkin summed up: "The REALIST Festival is closed. I hope that we will see each other again next year and present an even larger format of the event. Then we will be able to talk in more detail about the Russian microdrama market. It will already be not only promising, but also interesting in terms of production, audience, and numbers. The main task today is not to compete, but to form the habit of viewers to watch vertical content."
The REALIST 2026 festival is over. The vertical TV series industry in Russia has received a powerful impetus for international cooperation and rethinking approaches to content production.
The official partner of the festival is ON Media Holding (formerly MTS Media).
Winners of the Vertical Drama International Festival REALIST:
Best Animated Vertical Series: M. C. BUNNY: The Tower Incident (Indonesia)
Most Outstanding Character of a Vertical Series/Microdrama: When they kill you — come (Russia)
Best Classical Microdrama: Boardroom to Bedroom (Turkey)
Best Genre Vertical Series/Microdrama: Mastermind (India) and Lay Low in Zhelokhovo (Russia)
Best Russian Series: Trapped Between Floors (Russia)
Special prize from ON Media "For finding new ways to engage with the audience": Oomka invites you to the North(Russia)
Grand Prix: My Mother is a Royal Guard (China)