While many of content markets are suffering ups & downs, SERIESMANIA in Lille, France, consolidates itself every year. It is an example that a good business market can come from a festival, when it has steady basics: good traffic of industry members, interesting conferences and fresh news at every edition. For global suppliers, SERIESMANIA is a good opportunity to go deeper into the series segment, both TV and digital, to meet top buyers with more time and many 2nd tier buyers which are difficult to see at MIPCOM or other big events.

Some numbers? THE SERIESMANIA FORUM (the market inside the SM FESTIVAL) expects to have this year +4500 visitors from 72 countries, 7-10% up from last year. There is an expanded exhibiting area at Lille Grand Palais hosting 80 exhibitors, including 20 national delegations (Brazil and Algeria for the first time). About content, there are 48 selected series, including 40 unreleased, 26 world premieres and 12 international premiers. All in all, 406 series projects were submitted, from all over the world (New Zeland, The Philippines, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uganda, etc.) and 15 projects from them, are presented in the ‘Co-pro pitching sessions’, seeking for international financing.

Some high-profile first-time exhibitors are StudioCanal, Movistar, Secuoya Studios, Lionsgate and Mediaset. The event features the ‘Series Mania Buyers’ Upfront’ today (March 24) an exclusive initiative for buyers providing early access to highly anticipated series and facilitating meetings with key distributors. ‘The Creative Bazaar’, a space for residencies, workshops, and training programs for screenwriters and producers, has gathered over 80 participants from 25 countries between March 21 and 24. On March 27, the LILLE DIALOGUES will focus on "Post Peak TV: The Age of Challenges," addressing topics like AI, financing, and audience shifts, with industry leaders from Warner, ITV, TF1, France Télévisions, M6 and Arte.

In 2024 edition, Francesco Capurro, director of SERIESMANIA FORUM, said: ‘We’ve had a very fluid show. It has been our biggest event so far’. Now the event surpasses figures again. Comparing to previous years, the global attendance of the forum included: 3300 registered participants in 2022, 3800 in 2023, 4200 in 2024 and now +4500 in 2025. The Festival all in all included in 2024 98.000 participants, 10443 visitors at the Festival Village, 700 guests, 410 volunteers, 509 journalists and 31 photographers.

Pillars of the growth? Without MIPTV in April any more, SERIESMANIA is now the big spring French market, making the people and entities that just attend French markets, focus more on Lille. Also, the last years were hard for content market in Europe, due to constriction of production projects in digital platforms and the staff reductions in many of the big media companies. Slowly, the situation is getting better, with broadcasters as examples of stable business. Third, the north of France keeps as a good destiny for many 2nd tier Northern industry members, not common to see in the South.

New trends in 2025? Laurence Herszberg, managing director of SERIESMANIA (Festival + Forum) stresses three tips to take in mind: ‘The invasion from ourside’, because this year series explore the intersection of geopolitics and intimate lives; ‘Family as a social mirror’, because other series tackle pressing social issues within family dynamics; and ‘Masculinity in crisis and the rise of heroines’, with a new perspective on masculinity, with male characters questioning their identities and desires. Females, on the other hand, get stronger and more capable.

Nicolás Smirnoff and Alberto Buitron

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