Happy New Year!
A spiked drink turns a New Year's party into a night of lies, crime and revenge.
A New Year's Eve party draws hundreds of young people to a historic manor in the countryside, where one of them is hosting a party at his parents' home.
For a while, the night is intoxicating.
At midnight, as fireworks streak across the sky, one of the girls has her drink spiked.
Her best friend tries to expose what happened, but the party continues as if nothing has occurred. Realising that no one will confront the crime, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
From that moment on, the night spirals out of control. The historic manor becomes an arena of lies, crime and revenge.
By morning, one of the guests is gone.
Director's note
Having organised New Year’s Eve parties for many years, I have always been fascinated by the party as an ecosystem.
Everyone arrives for a different reason. Some come to celebrate, some are looking for connection or sex, some simply have nowhere else to sleep. Under one roof, several different parties can coexist at the same time, depending on whose perspective you follow. The party also changes as the night goes on. At first, everyone carefully builds an image of themselves. As alcohol and drugs take over, maintaining that image becomes harder, and the masks gradually begin to fall.
I am drawn to the strange mythology surrounding New Year’s Eve – its false promise of a new beginning: the countdown, the fireworks, who you spend midnight with, who you kiss when the clock strikes twelve. Everything suddenly feels important. I want to play with that excitement while asking: what if a new beginning for one person becomes a catastrophe for someone else?
I am interested in the contrast between happy people celebrating all around and terrible things happening only a few rooms away – things nobody wants to see.
Screenwriter's note
There are several reasons why I wanted to write Happy New Year!
First, I organised large-scale New Year’s Eve parties myself for years. I know the strange ecosystem of these nights: the excitement, the chaos, the masks people put on and how quickly everything can shift.
Second, I am interested in how a catastrophe unfolds: how seemingly insignificant things – small, innocent details – can escalate when ignored or normalised, setting off a chain reaction that eventually becomes impossible to stop.
The third and most important reason is more personal. A close friend of mine experienced drink spiking. Her story affected me deeply and stayed with me for a long time. I felt the need to write about the horror of what happened to her, but also about the silence surrounding it – the people who looked away, minimised what happened or simply let the party continue.
A series felt like the right medium, not only because of its reach, but because people come to television expecting to be entertained. You can give them that while gradually bringing them closer to difficult subjects through characters they have come to care about. It is one thing to understand something in theory, and quite another to experience it – even through a screen.
Biography
Montis is a screenwriter and director working across film and television. His work spans heartfelt drama, biting satire, and inventive docufiction. He collaborates with some of Lithuania’s leading production companies, including Dansu (Troll Farm, Midnight Stories), Studio Uljana Kim, Plopsas, Film Jam, and others.
A graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, he has contributed to the development and writing of several feature films and television series. Alongside his screenwriting work, he has written and directed short films including Lucid Dreams.
Together with producer Lineta Lasiauskaitė, he co-founded and runs Big Drama, a television production company developing original content for Lithuania’s leading broadcasters and streaming platforms.
Montis crafts stories where intimacy meets wit, and the unexpected hides in plain sight.
Producer's note
Montis Norvaisis and I met a few years ago when he turned to me for help while working on his first non-academic short film, Lucid Dreams. Soon after, Montis invited me to collaborate on producing the series Happy New Year!. From the moment I met Montis, his diligence, emphasis on planning, impeccable attention to detail, professionalism and consistent work with the whole team caught my attention. We also share the same working style – we are not ones to compromise on artistic choices. Montis and I always choose the option we believe is crucial to successfully realising the creative vision rather than a more convenient alternative.
Substance abuse, flashy parties organised by the children of wealthy parents and betrayal are complex, albeit widely discussed, subjects in cinema. Drug addiction can cause individuals to overstep boundaries and act irrationally and self-destructively; therefore, it can be challenging for audiences to feel sympathy for such characters. Both talent and certain life experiences are needed to evoke such emotions in viewers.
Montis’ story stands out to me not only because it was written by someone who has lived through it, organising New Year’s parties for several years and observing the various events, dramas and emotions of the participants, but also because that same person wants to bring it to the screen. I am sure Montis will do a great job – with authentic details and characters, openly and without aiming to justify or judge anyone.
The series is not a courtroom argument, but a universal romantic drama grounded in humour, tenderness, nostalgia and subtle eroticism. While the series will not shy away from uncomfortable topics, it will address them in an unobtrusive and in no way didactic manner. Viewers will naturally reflect on these topics as they follow the story, but will never feel lectured.
Biography
Lineta is a Locarno Match Me! emerging producer, Brussel CoProMarket Up-and-Coming Producer and a founder of Plopsas, focused on producing films from the talents with recognizable style and a desire to tell unexplored stories. Plopsas’ films premiered at the Cannes FF, Karlovy Vary FF, PÖFF, Tampere FF, etc.
Lineta is a winner of the National Film Awards “Silver Crane 2026”.
Profile
Plopsas is a creative production company established in 2023 by Lineta Lasiauskaite, one of Lithuania’s most active producers of the younger generation. The company aims to produce and co-produce high-quality fiction films, documentaries and television productions, working with innovative and original emerging local filmmakers and screenwriters who are eager to tell raw, unexplored stories.
Plopsas’ first arthouse short film, Ootid, was selected for the Palme d’Or competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The company has produced eight short films that have been selected for over 50 film festivals worldwide and won more than ten major awards.
Plopsas completed production of its first feature film in 2026 and is currently developing two feature films, two TV series and two short films. Its projects combine distinctive creative visions with solid financial structures, bringing authentic storytelling and emotional depth to powerful stories that offer a message of hope.