Laurence Herszberg, Founder and General Director of Series Mania (March 15-22), announced the 15 projects of 16 selected as part of the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions (March 19), the founding premise and most anticipated event of the Series Mania Forum (March 19-21). The 16th project, "Witness 36", which was announced earlier this week as part of the Berlinale's Co-Pro Series will be presented but excluded from the competition for the grand prize. An international jury of industry professionals will determine the best project among the 15 projects and prize the Best Project Award €50,000 to help develop the winning series. This year, the 15 projects were selected from 413 applications from 57 countries, including four new territories: Mexico, Cameroon, Panama, and Chile.
“Since its inception in 2013, the goal of the Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions has been to help the high-end European and International drama projects find potential financial partners. Given the illustrious list of titles which have received their start at the Forum, we know for a fact that this works. This year we have seen a significant increase in projects coming from South America, especially from Brazil and Mexico and have noted the emergence of Asia as a newcomer highlighted by the presence of two Japanese companies in this year's selection,” commented Herszberg. “Also, this year we received a number of stories inspired by true events and many projects based on strong IPs. While we saw a decline in dystopian themes in favor of more realistic projects and found that the submissions favored more traditional thrillers with an increasing number of dramedies. We look forward to unveiling the winner of the Best Project Award with €50,000 on March 19 in Lille,” added Herszberg.
The 2024 international jury of industry professionals includes: Nina Lederman (USA), EVP Global Scripted Development & Programming, Sony Pictures Television; Marco Chimenz (Italy), Group Co-General Manager, Federation Studios; Jennifer Ebell (United Kingdom), EVP, EMEA Sales and Acquisitions at FIFTH SEASON; Marianne Furevold-Boland (Norway), Head of Drama, NKR; Karin Marelle (United Kingdom), VP Program Acquisitions & Co-Productions, Starz.
TITLES AT THE PITCHING SESSIONS
• "Antilia" (6x52'- France), produced by Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin et Vincent Mouluquet for Ego Productions, written by Maxime Crupaux & Baptiste Fillon and directed by Vincent Maël Cardona.
• "A True Novel" (8x60'-Japan, USA), an historical drama produced by Satoko Ishida and Meri Koyama for Shochiku and Jonathan Kier and Matt Brodlie for Upgrade Productions and written by Riko Sakaguchi.
• "Eurovision Murder Mystery" (6x52' - France, Germany) produced by Emmanuelle Guilbart and Agathe de Lorme for APC Stories and Henning Kamm and Johann Buchholz for Friday Film and written by Fabienne Hurst & Bertrand Soulier.
• "Food, Love, Faith" (8x50' - Israel) a drama produced by Efrat Shmaya Dror for United Studios IL and written by Yossi Madmoni.
• "Issak" (6x45' - Japan, Germany) an historical drama produced by Itaru Mizuno from Nippon TV and Lasse Scharpen from Studio Zentral, written by Itaru Mizuno and Richard Kropf, based on the manga "Issak" by Shinji Makari and DOUBLE-S.
• "Judgement of Solomon" (6x45' - Bulgaria) a mystery/drama produced by Katya Trichkova for Contrast films LTD and Mirrormind LTD and written by Teodora Markova and Nevena Kertova.
• "Kiss My Feet" (6x50' - Finland, Netherlands) a drama produced by Aleksi Bardy for Helsinki-Filmi Oy and Fleur Winters for Big Blue, Netherlands and written by Daan Gielis & Mark Van De Grift.
• "Nanga Parbat" (6x52' - France) a drama adventure series produced by Amaury Ovise for Kazak Productions and written by Caryl Férey.
• "The Art of Magdalene" (6x45' - Poland, Ireland) a drama produced by Wiktor Piatkowski for Bahama Films and Jonathan Farrelly for PIO Media LTD and written by Wiktor Piatkowski.
• "The Left Hand Of Venus" (6x45' - Greece) an historical comedy produced by Ioannis Kostas, development producer Dimitra Barla, for Arcadia Media and written by Nikos Panayotopoulos, based on the novel by Takis Theodoropoulos.
• "The Odesa Wrestlers" (6x45' - Norway), a drama produced by Cathrine Simonsen for Monster AS and written by Joachim Førsund and Thorbjørn Harr.
• "Thirst" (6x60' - Canada), a thriller produced by Julia Ferreira Langlois and Annie Sirois for Trio Orange and written by Sylvain Neuvel.
• "Our People" (6x55' - Slovakia) a political drama produced by Jakub Viktorín and Tomáš Hrubý for nutprodukcia and written by Miro Šifra and directed by Tereza Nvotová.
• "Vatican" (6x50' - Italy), a drama, thriller produced by Nicola De Angelis for Fabula Pictures and written by Flavio Bernard, Ciro Di Maso and Marcello Olivieri.
• "White Ties" (6x45' - Germany), a drama, inspired by true events, produced by Laura Von Portatius for Wüste Film and written by Oke Stielow and Uwe Flade and directed by Viviane Andereggen.
• "Witness 36" (8x45’ - Argentina) an espionage thriller produced by Michael Nozik for Oficina Burman (The Mediapro Studio), written by Natacha Caravia, Juan Matías Carballo, Daniel Burman and directed by Daniel Burman.
While we saw a decline in dystopian themes in favor of more realistic projects and found that the submissions favored more traditional thrillers with an increasing number of dramedies” Laurence Herszberg Founder and General Director of Series Mania
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