Series Mania Forum started yesterday at the Lille Grand Palais with great affluence on the exhibitor's stands, the market and the keynotes during the day. It is a year affected by a substantial slowdown in production, generated mainly by the strikes in the United States, but also by the shift in the industry to seek a more sustainable production model, with co-productions being the main focus and also companies’ consolidation.

The market itself began on Monday 18th, by the end of the day, at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lille, where Unifrance organized the welcome cocktail, with the presence of the heads of Series Mania and Jérémie Kessler of the CNC. Francesco Capurro, director of the Series Mania Forum said: ‘We are happy that the market continues to grow, and above all that France continues to increase its audiovisual industry and can count on international players to enhance it’.

To inaugurate the market conferences yesterday, the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) organized the keynote “Key Trends in TV”, with the official speakers Gilles Fontaine, Lucia Recalde, Susanne Nikoltchev and Pandora Gagnon da Cunha Teles, who focused on four key trends, warning signs of a slowing down of production, countries winners and losers in the content production, in how strong the industry is at the moment and how much co-productions there is in Europe.

Also in a very anticipated content showcases session, with a large audience in the Grand Theater at the Lile Grand Palais, Larry Tanz, VP & Head of Content EMEA at Netflix, discussed the growth and ambitions of streamer in the region, and presented new titles which coming soon: "Crooks" from Germany, the comedy "Kaos" from Greece, also "La Liga" documentary, to name a few. ‘Until March, we have currently 40 projects in production, and we're working right now with 400 producers’, commented.

In addition, several delegations also had their screenings. Unifrance was one of them, where the different companies under the umbrella of the French organization presented 7 productions, with the presence of Sarah Hemar, its audiovisual director; Audiovisual From Spain was also present with 6 series from Spanish production companies, including Sanctuary from Artesmedia Television, The Other Life from Goodmood & Mediawan Rights, and Heartless from Onza distribution. And the Taiwan’s Creative Content Agency highlighted some of the 60 productions which is’t offering at Series Mania in its own “Coming From…” session.

The day ended with the session “Daily Soaps: An Unexpected Ally for a Successful VOD Strategy” where Newen Studios (France), BBC Studios (UK), Fremantle (UK) and Ampere Analysis, discussed how long term soap operas like ‘Eastenders’, UK 40 years on air, ‘Neighbors Australia’ and ‘Plus Belle la Vie’ have been adapted to the new market trends with VOD. ‘We all agree that the extreme loyalty of the viewers of the genre is key to their long success and makes the genre very resilient’, stressed Cyrine Amor, senior analyst from the consultancy firm.

At the end of the day, the Series Mania television festival awards were presented. Our People, a political drama project from Slovakia, won the award for best pitch, in front a jury headed by Nina Lederman from Sony Pictures Television.

Mariano Gutiérrez Alarcon, Alberto Buitrón

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