8 World V I D E O A G E March/April 2022 panels and conferences on different subjects, which were organized around five key themes, including sourcing stories, content showcases, creative business inspiration, marketing of TV series, and innovation. Speakers included Universal International Studios’ Beatrice Springborn, Call My Agent showrunner Fanny Herrero, and Channel 4’s Caroline Hollick, among others. The Forum showed off 16 projects as part of its Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. The lineup included 15 projects from across the world, including Detective Touré from Spain, The Impossible She from Italy, and Island of Youth from Germany, as well as The Report, the winner from Berlin’s Drama Series Days at the Berlinale. Of the shortlisted projects, the jury selected South African drama Paradys as winner of the Series Mania Best Project Award. In addition to the festival and Forum activities, the fifth edition of one-day summit Lille Dialogues took place on March 24 under the theme “Empowering the Audiovisual Industry with Creativity.” Organized in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and the European Commission, the 2022 edition saw panel discussions as well as keynotes with top industry executives. Raffaele Annecchino, president and CEO of International Networks, Studios and Streaming at Paramount, gave a keynote. Additional highlights included keynotes from WarnerMedia’s Priya Dogra, TF1 Group’s Gilles Pélisson, and the session “Investing in Talent: How To Drive New Narratives,” which featured a conversation with France Televisions’ Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, and a panel with Newen Studios’ Romain Bessi, Studio Dragon’s Young-kyu Kim, and The EbonyLife Group’s Mo Abudu. Abudu was also honored with the second annual Woman in Series Award. During the festival, Series Mania entered an agreement with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) to organize co-production workshops to present projects at Series Mania. It was also announced that HBO Max signed on as a found-ing partner for Series Mania Institute, an initiative dedicated to training professionals in-terested in European TV series. HBO Max will invest one million U.S. dollars over the next three years. Series Mania Festival kicked things off with a strong opening ceremony onMarch 18 in Lille, France, andwrapped up with an awards ceremony on March 25. This year, the International Competition featured nine series, including the world premieres of Billy the Kid from EPIX and MGM International Television Productions, Fire Dance from Yes TV, The Birth of Daniel F. Harris from Channel 4, and We Own This City from HBO. Early in March, Series Mania organizers announced that the festival’s jury president would be Ukrainian film producer Julia Sinkevych (pictured with Series Mania general director Laurence Herszberg), co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy. She was able to attend despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The festival showcased more than 55 series and 30 world premieres. This year’s guest of honor was the British showrunner Michael Hirst, who was also in attendance to promote Billy the Kid, which he wrote and executive produced. The festival programming was supported by Series Mania Forum, the industry arm of the event that ran from March 22-24. The Forum included a lineup of Series Mania: Busy, Productive Despite Trying Times (Continued from Page 6) OVER BILLION VIEWS 9 ON YOUTUBE 200 + episodes x 6‘‒ 9‘ live-action combined with 2D animated world sales@steveandmaggie.com
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