PARIS, FRANCE -- January 14, 2016 – With 2016 fully upon us, the Series Mania Festival (Series Mania), now in its seventh year, along with the CoProduction Forum (Forum), now in its fourth year, are ramping up for the much-anticipated 2016 annual event which will take place in Paris from April 15 - 24, with April 19 - 21 dedicated to the parallel event of the Forum. The Forum has as its mission the goal of helping high-end European drama projects find appropriate financial partners, mainly through coproduction deals or presale agreements.
As such, Ms. Laurence Herszberg, general director of event organizer Forum des Images and founder of Series Mania, announced today that they are officially announcing their “Call For TV Series Projects” with a deadline of February 26 for producers to submit their projects online http://series-mania.fr/en/call-projets/ . Once the submissions are complete, 15 TV series projects in development from all over Europe and abroad will be presented to the 300 potential co-financers, including producers, distributors, and TV channel representatives who scheduled to attend. The annual event will be comprised of pitching and work-in-progress sessions, along with a range of conferences.
“The rise of international co-production in TV series development is absolutely flourishing, commented Ms. Herszberg. “In 2015, the Co-Production Forum received 170 projects from 30 different countries for a final selection of 12 projects pitched. In 2016, we will surely be impressed by the quantity, as well as by the exceptional quality, of the projects we will be receiving.”
As part of its fourth year, the Forum has forged new strategic alliances with a number of major players in the international TV industry. The Forum has joined forces with TV France International to present the best of French production to international buyers. A new section, called Coming Next from France, will showcase a line-up of French TV series – completed or in post-production – which are available on the international marketplace. The Forum also has partnerships with Scripted, the new industry event exclusively for TV series, Berlinale, and the Göteborg Film Festival.
This “Call For TV Series Projects “comes on the heels of the recent announcement whereby the French Minister of Culture and Communication, Fleur Pellerin, has asked Herszberg and her team to develop an even bigger festival dedicated to TV series on an international scale, similar in scope to the Festival de Cannes or the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Ms. Herszberg will spend the next two months putting together a feasibility study concerning the development of the Series Mania Festival on such a scale.
ABOUT CO-PRODUCTION FORUM
Launched in 2013, the Co-Production Forum – the industry arm of the Series Mania Festival – has become the place to be for all those involved in the creation of TV series around the world. The third edition of the Co-Production Forum proved to be a huge hit with the 273 French and international industry professionals who participated in the event. Of the 170 projects from 30 countries for series looking for additional financing that were submitted, 12 projects – including two from France, nine from Europe and one Franco-Israeli coproduction – were selected for the Co-Production Forum. Submissions were up 106% in 2014. Last year’s Co-Production Forum was supported by MEDIA, the CNC, Gaumont, Red Arrow International, Makever, Haut et Court, and Barjac Productions.
