PARIS & LILLE, FRANCE – February 19, 2020 – At press conferences held today in Lille and Paris, Ms. Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, announced the 15 projects selected to be pitched during the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions which have become the cornerstone of the Series Mania Forum, the industry arm of Series Mania. Having received over 400 projects from 50 different countries, the goal of Series Mania Forum is to help these high-end European and International drama projects find potential financial partners. Ms. Herszberg also announced that eOne’s Polly Williams, Head of Drama, Scripted Television – UK, has been selected as Jury President and will oversee a team of four other members, to be announced shortly, who will determine the best project among the 15 pitched and award a grand prize of €50,000 to help develop the winning show.
The following list of selected projects will be pitched by their producers to a panel of potential financiers:
Co-Pro Pitching Sessions – Official Selection (Eligible for Best project prize):
· A Marriage, Indigo Film, Italy
· Casa Girls, The Film TV, France
· Doppelgänger, AVI FILMS, Spain/Argentina
· Frozen Land, Non-Stop Production, Russia
· Good People, Hélicotronc, Belgium
· Life and Fate, Cosmopolitan Pictures, United Kingdom
· My First Family, Haut et Court TV, France/Israel
· Play of Mirrors, Velázquez in Rome, Vertice 360, Spain
· Submarine, The Mediapro Studio & Globo, Spain/Brazil
· Tahrir, Artza Productions, Israel
· The Abduction of Yossele Shumacher, Eran Riklis Productions, Israel
· The Black Lady, AT-Production, France/Germany/Belgium
· The Island, Producers At Work, Germany
· Turbo, Sense Production, Serbia
· Underground, Anagram Norway, Norway
And a 16 title, out of competition, in partnership with CoPro Series of Berlinale Series Market and Conference, will be announced shortly.
"At the heart of the Series Mania Forum, the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions continues to be the springboard for finding the best projects in development from around the world. “With over 400 submissions this year, for the first year from all over the world, I can say that it was not an easy task to narrow the search to the top 15 series. With projects from Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Russia, as well as all the projects from Europe and Israel, our selection is more international than ever before. We are pleased to be offering a series from Serbia as the Balkan region definitely appears to be an up-and-coming creative hot spot,” commented Ms. Herszberg.
For more information on SERIES MANIA FORUM program, please go to:
ABOUT POLLY WILLIAMS
As eOne’s UK-based Head of Scripted TV, Polly Williams currently focuses on curating a slate of distinctive, original, commercial high-end television drama with global appeal. Polly works closely with top independent producers in the UK and Europe such as Bad Wolf, Eleven Films and Sid Gentle. She has instigated first look deals with Mam Tor/Tally Gardner and King Bee Productions, run by Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola. Polly is currently prepping for a new BBC show eOne will co-produce with Eleven Film called RED ROSE penned by The Clarkson Twins and she has a greenlit ITV thriller called TENACITY which she is co-producing with Bad Wolf. She is also heading up development of an adaptation of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW for Apple in the US and has a range of projects in advanced development with broadcasters in the UK, Europe and US. Polly is also developing some high profile projects internally including an adaptation of Ann Patchett’s novel, STATE OF WONDER with Philippa Goslett and Will Oldroyd, a TV adaptation of WHITE MISCHIEF with Sid Gentle and Stephen Beresford and a darkly funny comedy by Dolly Wells and Emily Mortimer called PLEASE BE FRANK. Polly is an experienced drama producer and she has worked at BBC, Carnival Films and Kudos where she produced shows like LIP SERVICE, HOTEL BABYLON, SECRET SMILE and HOLBY CITY. She began her career as a script editor and development producer.
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.
