LILLE & PARIS, FRANCE – February 17, 2020 – Now in its third year, the UGC Writers Campus by Series Mania, will be held once again as part of Series Mania. An immersive week-long writing workshop for 20 emerging TV drama writers throughout Europe, and under the editorial supervision of Lorraine Sullivan, UGC Writers Campus by Series Mania will run from March 20-27, 2020. Over the course of two months, more than 100 candidates from 30 different countries applied.
For the 2020 edition, the president of the campus will be Eli Horowitz, the creator and showrunner of the highly successful Amazon series Homecoming, starring Julia Roberts, with Season 2 set for this Spring. The 20 selected screenwriters will be also tutored by screenwriter Jeppe Gjervig Gram (Follow the Money, Borgen) and screenwriter and story consultant Nicola Lusuardi (, 1992), over the course of the program, through masterclasses, writing workshops and meetings with industry professionals. They will present their projects to the talent and producers of Series Mania Forum in one-on-one sessions and a general presentation on March 27, 2020 at Lille Grand Palais.
Under the supervision of Lorraine Sullivan and the Series Mania selection committee, the selected participants include:
- Richard Brabin – At Sea – UK (London Film School)
- Marta Irene Rosato – Bad Reputation – Italy (London Film School)
- Judit Anna Banhazi – Christabel - Hungary (Midpoint)
- Bar Farjun & Shachar Rosenfeld, Israël – The Instructors – (Sam Spiegel Film School)
- Alain Moreau, France – Agnès & Luis (La Fémis)
- Daniela Luciani & Ilaria Coppolecchia – Lamb of God – Italy (Scuola Holden)
- Elena Lyubarskaya & Katerina Gerothanasi – Moving On - Russia & Greece (Serial Eyes)
- Thomas Lehout & Juliette Barry – Lady Of War – France (CEEA)
- Rachel Kilfeather – In the waters – Ireland
- Kelsi Phung & Fabien Corre – Reconnaissances - France
- Eva Mathijssen – Tulpa - Netherlands
- Rahela Jagric Pric – Chef’s chefs - Slovenia
- Manuela Piemonte – 10th July - Italy
- Olga Chajdas & Marta Konarzewska – The Gift – Poland
“Since the creation of the program, the UGC Writers Campus by Series Mania objective has been to find the best emerging talent, bring them together with renown showrunners, and allow them to share their creative vision,” stated Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania. “An essential focus of the workshop teaches how to engage international audiences and produce innovative content in line with industry demands. We are delighted to be announcing these 20 selected participants, as well as Eli, Nicola and Jeppe as our esteemed guests and look forward to welcoming everyone to Lille.”
"We are very proud of the selection of screenwriters for the UGC Writers Campus. The richness of the profiles and the diversity of nationalities reflect our desire for openness and our desire to support national and international creation,” added Brigitte Maccioni, Deputy General Manager of UGC.
UGC WRITERS CAMPUS | PARTNER SCHOOLS
- La Fémis(Paris – France)
- Le Conservatoire Européen d’Ecritures Audiovisuelles(Paris – France)
- Serial Eyes(DFFB, Berlin – Germany)
- London Film School(London – United Kingdom)
- Sam Spiegel Film School(Jerusalem – Israel)
- Midpoint(Prague – Czech Republic)
- Scuola Holden(Torino – Italy)
- INSAS(Brussels – Belgium)
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.
ABOUT UGC
The UGC Group is one of the main players in the cinema industry in Europe with more than 500 theaters in France and Belgium (including UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles in Paris, the leading cinema in the world in terms of attendance) and the UGC network, one of the first in French-speaking Europe. It’s subsidiary UGC Images produces and distributes popular comedies, such as What Did We Do To The Good Lord?, by Philippe de Chauveron and its sequel, as well as major art house movies by directors such as Jacques Audiard (UGC has distributed all his films for 15 years) or Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life released in late 2019). In 2016, UGC launched the creation of a fiction production group UGC SERIES, today made up of five production structures in France and the United Kingdom. These entities currently produce and develop around twenty series for the main French and international broadcasters. Their first productions broadcast in France have reached historic audiences.
