PARIS & LILLE, FRANCE – October 16, 2019 – Following the tremendous success of this year’s event, Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, today announced the “Call for Series” for the Series Mania Festival (March 20-28), while at the same time announcing the “Call for Projects” for the industry arm of the Festival, the Series Mania Forum (March 25-27). Both have a deadline of January 10, 2020 to submit projects.
On the Festival side, 70 series will be selected to be part of the Series Mania program. Last year, 31 world premieres were part of the program, including the 10 rounds of international competition. Eleven prizes will be awarded by the various juries during the closing ceremony at the end of the nine-day Festival. The Series Mania international competition has allowed the international launch of prestigious series, such as The Virtues (Channel 4), The Rain (Netflix), Ride Upon the Storm (Arte), Your Honor (Yes), I Love Dick (Amazon), and Polar Day (Canal +). To submit online, please go to: https://film.series-mania.festicine.fr/en.
On the Forum side, producers can submit their projects for the Forum’s annual Co-ProPitching Sessions. From these submissions, 16 projects will be selected to participate and to be pitched in front of decision makers of the TV industry. As with the past three years, the Best Project presented during the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions will be awarded a 50,000€ prize, as determined by a professional jury of leading industry executives.
The Forum has been the driving force behind the release of series such as: Banking District (Switzerland), Eden (France), Keeping Faith (Great Britain), Manor House (Czech Republic), Stella Blomkvist (Iceland) Tabula Rasa (Belgium), Trepalium (France), Warrior (Denmark), as well as the recent Devils (Italy) and The Head (Spain).To submit online, please go to: https://projet.series-mania.festicine.fr/en.
“Our mission with Series Mania is to find the best emerging talents in Europe and beyond, link the best projects with the right people, and help to foster the next big hit in the series industry. Thanks to the Forum, we are offering industry professionals the best in development and co-production opportunities from both expected and unexpected countries,” said Herszberg.
ABOUT SERIES MANIA
Created by Laurence Herszberg in 2010 in collaboration with artistic director Frederic Lavigne while both were at the Forum des images, the Series Mania Festival brings the best international series to the big screen and offers audiences (over 72,000 spectators in 2019) the rare opportunity to meet and learn from renowned showrunners, directors and television talent. Series Mania has developed into a unique event with wide recognition that is entirely dedicated to series, aimed at both the general public and industry professionals. For the 2020 edition, from March 20-28, the Festival will once again be held in the charming northern French city of Lille (Hauts-de-France). As usual, it will include a program of world premieres and series selected for competition, overseen by a prestigious international jury.
ABOUT SERIES MANIA FORUM
Launched in 2013, Series Mania Forum, the industry arm of the Series Mania Festival, has become the place to be for all those involved in the creation of series from around the world. In just a few years, Series Mania Forum has already seen many projects come to fruition, including Eden, Stella Blomkvist, Keeping Faith and Tabula Rasa, with many others currently in production. In 2019, the Forum held its second edition of Lille Transatlantic Dialogues, a one-day summit bringing together high-level political, corporate, creative and economic players from the TV and culture sectors in Europe and North America. With more than 3,000 registered professionals expected in 2020, the Forum (March 25-27) is now the place where industry talent and decision-makers meet to create the new generation of serial fiction.
