Series Mania is already an important market of the content industry. On one hand, this year the festival format reaches its 13th edition, and on the other, its business forum celebrates its third anniversary, generating great attraction as a way of accessing new opportunities, fresh relationships. Always in Lille, France, the event is led by Laurence Herszberg, general director of Series Mania, and Francesco Capurro, director of the forum.

The numbers are impressive: in 2022 the event brought together more than 3,300 executives from 64 countries, between buyers, directors, producers, distributors and institutions dedicated to the audiovisual industry and 49 series were pitched in its dedicated sessions. For 2023 edition, more than 3,800 delegates are expected, from Europe, North America, South America and Asia, with high-ranking industry executives ready for business.

‘Each edition of Series Mania comes with its fair share of evolution that questions the way we view international creation. In 2023, we are paying special attention to series that originate in territories outside of the more established Anglo/European countries. Of the 396 series sent from 63 countries, we have preserved 54 of them, representing 24 different nationalities. Some come from territories we don't hear about very often, like Greece, Pakistan, Benin, Uruguay and Iran’, Herszberg said.

Some of the trends that will rule this year are narratives focused on vintage, with a lot of emphasis on 80s-90s; also, series that touch on important social questions about ethics and environmental in nature; and too, a marked trend on the power of women in the industry. HBO's Casey Bloys will deliver a keynote during the ‘Lille Dialogues’, titled "How HBO and HBO Max Dive into the Future".

SeriesMania also provides programmatic novelties during the three days, such as the “Creative Campaign Award”, which recognizes the series that had the most viewing and impact on social media. Similarly, in alliance with Telefilm Canada, CNC and the BANFF World Media Festival, the event presents "Canada-France Series Lab", a section that aims to promote and facilitate relations between 15 Canadian and French producers.

There are another new initiatives: also with CNC, "Going Europe" is a program that will form international teams of authors to face the challenges of international serial co-productions, in partnership with Conecta Fiction and the Sarajevo Film Festival. And the "Seriesmaker" section, that will focus on feature film directors who venture into the world of series, in partnership with BETA Group.

At the same time, there will be a new cycle of the long-awaited Pitches sessions to be held on April 21, which on this occasion fifteen projects from around the world compete for a prize of 50,000 euros, and whose jury includes renowned names such as Caroline Hollick, from Channel 4 (UK), president of the jury; Michele Zatta, from RAI (Italy); Françoise Guyonnet, from Studiocanal (France); Jarmo Lampela, from YLE (Finland); and Lindsey Martin, from CBS Studios International (UK). Projects from Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, France, Belgium, among others, participate in the competence.

The mentioned ‘Lille Dialogues’ are once again held within the framework of the event. This year's motto is 'Shaping the future with the audiovisual sector', and according to Capurro, the talks will have a 'progressive and decidedly optimistic' imprint. Apart from HBO’s keynote, the program will have an ambassador for the first time, the French writer Cyril Dion, who will be joined by executives such as Rodolphe Belmer, General Director of TF1; Romain Bessi, CEO of Newen Studio; Cécile Frot Coutaz, CEO of Sky Studios; and Lisa Perrin, managing director international production at ITV Studios. They will talk about sustainability, the role of governments on filmmakers, new technologies and their impact on narratives, and the persecution of IPs.

Mariano Gutierrez Alarcon from Lille, and Alberto Buitron

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