"Vortex"
The 12th edition of Séries Mania will take place in Lille from 18 to 25 March and French creations will be particularly well represented, with 17 French works in all sections of the festival: International Competition, French Competition, Short Forms Competition, New Season Premieres, Midnight Comedies. For the first time, the opening- ("Drôle", created by Fanny Herrero) and closing-night ("Oussekine", created by Antoine Chevrollier) films will be French.
As part of its new mission to promote audiovisual artists and its desire to extend this promotion to the general public, Unifrance will be present on site to capture festival highlights and will offer a daily appointment on Unifrance's social networks in the form of video dailies. These short videos will be broadcast on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter from Sunday, 20 March to Thursday 24 March, as well as a best-of at the festival's closing ceremony on Friday 25 March. These dailies will highlight the diversity of professions involved in the creation of fiction series by meeting with French and foreign professionals: actors, authors, composers, showrunners, producers, audiovisual distributors, broadcasters, journalists, critics, and festival programmers and directors.
On 21 March, Unifrance will be associated with the Welcome Drinks, the opening cocktail of the Series Mania Forum (the professional section of Séries Mania), which will be attended by many international professionals.
On Tuesday 22 March, there will be a panel discussion broadcast on Séries Mania’s web TV on the theme‚ “Why France Is Hot": an exchange about the growing international interest in French series, and the uniqueness and diversity of these series. The dialogue will be moderated by journalist AC Coppens in the presence of Sarah Hemar, Deputy Executive Director in charge of Audiovisual and Digital at Unifrance; Sydney Gallonde, producer and president of Make it Happen Studio; and scriptwriter Marie Roussin.
The same day, Unifrance will co-organise, for the seventh year, the Coming Next from France session. During this pitching session presented by François-Pier Pelinard Lambert, Editor-in-Chief of Le Film Français, five producer/distributor duos will present their new series exclusively to international buyers.
The programmes to be presented are: "Elle’s Kitchen" (6x45 min) produced by Cinétévé / 24 25 Films and distributed by Have a Good One; "The King’s Favorite" (2x100' / 4x52'') produced by Passionfilms and distributed by France tv distribution; "3PU" (6x52') produced by Storia Television and distributed by Mediawan Rights; "Marion" (6x45'), produced by Nolita / Darklight Content and distributed by Have a Good One; "Vortex" (6x52'), produced by Quad Drama and distributed by France tv distribution.
Finally, throughout the Series Mania Forum, from 22 to 24 March, Unifrance will have a physical presence through a dedicated space in the Business Lounge for its members' meetings.