Videoage International March 2019

14 March 2019 Series Mania Preview directors, and French and international television professionals to screen international TV fare. Forum des Image is a cultural institution founded in Paris in 1988 that is focused on the French audiovisual industry. Originally, Series Mania was held in Paris, but it moved to Lille in 2018. Then, in 2013, Series Mania instituted its industry sidebar event, Series Mania Forum, as a marketplace to co-finance international TV projects in development. Series Mania has grown steadily since its origin, as last year’s event saw 55,639 visitors in attendance for screenings at Lille’s Le Nouveau Siècle, UGC Ciné Cité Lille, and at Le Majestic. The professional arm of Series Mania saw 2,010 executives in attendance, including top- level decision-makers and financiers, 459 of which were content producers. The Forum is expecting similar numbers in 2019, with over 2,000 professionals registered thus far to gather at the Lille’s Grande Palais convention center. In addition, this year, Series Mania organizers partnered with UGC, the European cinema multiplex operator, to bring the UGC Writers Campus by Series Mania, formerly known as Series Mania Writers Campus. The workshop gathers 20 emerging TV drama writers from across Europe for a writing-intensive week from March 20-27. As part of the UGC Writers Campus programming, Series Mania is welcoming André and Maria Jacquemetton, who wrote and produced six seasons of the AMC drama Mad Men with Matthew Weiner, as the guests of honor. Series Mania and the Berlinale Co-Production market partnered on a Project Exchange, in which it was agreed that one project from the European Film Market’s Drama Series Days would be selected to be pitched in Lille, and vice versa. Big Bones , an eight-part historical crime drama produced by Satelfilm and Superfilm in Austria, was chosen to be included in Series Mania Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. This year, the official competition jury is led by director-screenwriter Marti Noxon, and includes actress-producer Juliana Margulies, actress Audrey Fleurot, director-screenwriter Delphine De Vigan, and director-screenwriter Thomas Lilti. Recently, SeriesMania revealed the 16 projects selected to be showcased during the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, part of Series Mania Forum, the industry side of the festival. Series Mania received nearly 400 project submissions from 41 different countries for its pitching forum. The official selection for the pitching sessions includes Capital Punishment (Israel), Extravagan- ce (France/Belgium/Germany), Faraya (Leba- non), Femen (France), Gymnasts (Italy), Influen- ce (United Kingdom), Low Season (Switzerland), Purple (France), Reset (Spain), Ride Out (Fin- land), The Attack (Germany/France), The Drea- mers (Israel), The Fortress (Norway), The Kollec- tive (Netherlands/USA), and The Rise & Fall of the Somali Pirates (Belgium/United Kingdom). Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of SeriesMania, remarked, “Todate,more than a dozen previously pitched shows have been brought to the screen thanks to co-production deals or agreements finalized at Series Mania. This year the selection is very diverse, and I hope that it will inspire our participants and our elite team of jury members.” This year, the international jury for Series Mania Forum consists of CBSSI’s Meghan Lyvers as jury president, France Télévisions’ Nathalie Biancolli, SVT’s Anne Croneman, Banijay Rights’s Caroline Torrance, and Fremantle’s Christian Vesper. The five-member jury will select one of the Pitching Session projects for a grand prize of 50,000 euro. The Series Mania Forum will also feature the Lille Transatlantic Dialogue event, a joint initiative between Series Mania, the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée), and the European Commission. (Continued from Cover) From l. to r.: Jury president Meghan Lyvers, senior vp, Co-Productions and Development, CBS Studios International (U.S.); Nathalie Biancolli, head of Acquisitions & International Fiction, France Télévisions (France); Anne Croneman, head of Film& TV Drama, SVT (Sweden); Caroline Torrance, head of Scripted, Banijay Rights (U.K.); Christian Vesper, evp, Creative Director for Global Drama, Fremantle (U.K.). “To date, more than a dozen previously pitched shows have been brought to the screen thanks to co-production deals or agreements finalized at Series Mania.” — Laurence Herszberg Francesco Capurro, director of Series Mania Forum Frédéric Lavigne, co-founder and artistic director of the festival