Following the unveiling of the main festival showcase (read our article), Series Mania has now revealed its selection for the hotly anticipated Co-Pro Pitching Sessions which will take place on 24 March within the Series Mania Forum.

Chosen from among 450 applications from 65 countries, 15 projects (see detailed list below) will battle it out in competition, with a 16th project (hailing from Switzerland) due to be presented out of competition in partnership with Berlinale CoPro Series. European countries represented this year are Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the UK, Finland, Iceland, Latvia and France, alongside Estonia and Luxembourg.

The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions jury will be led by Spain’s Jorge Pezzi (Movistar+) who’ll be joined by France’s Alexandre Piel (Arte France), Germany’s Laura Mae Harding (ZDF), Israeli-US talent Alon Aranya (Paper Plane Productions) and Sweden’s Johanna Gårdare (SVT). The winning project will receive 50,000 euros.

For the very first time, Series Mania Forum – which attracted upwards of 5,000 professionals (showrunners, screenwriters, producers and buyers) from 75 countries last year  – will pay tribute to an individual country this year (with support from the CNC and KOCCA), namely South Korea, which is a major territory for the production of series with worldwide audiences, and which will see eight of its leading companies making the journey to Lille.

Series Mania Forum’s copious line-up boasts an array of conferences (notably on key market trends in TV and VOD, courtesy of the European Audiovisual Observatory, and on the new European co-production convention for series), panel discussions (on micro-dramas, among other formats, and the risks of censorship and self-censorship), keynote speeches (Disney+, SkyShowtime, BBC, Freemantle), showcases (France Télévisions, Arte, TF1, NHK), Coming Next From sessions (for France, Spain, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Wallonia-Brussels, Flanders, Finland, Norway and Sweden, Germany, Japan and South Korea) and masterclasses (Hugo Blick, Russell T. Davies and Nicola Schindler).

The line-up likewise includes the second edition of Buyers Upfront, the 5th edition of Creative Bazaar (consisting of residencies, workshops and training for screenwriters and producers, with over 60 participants from 15 countries) and the adaptation market (in partnership with Shoot the Book!). The Best Marketing Initiative Prize and the Woman in Series trophy are also due to be awarded once again.

Last but not least, Thursday 26 March will see the Lille Dialogues exploring the theme of "New Alliances" in order to promote shared thinking around the industry’s major challenges (including a new global, geostrategic deal outlining a new potential framework for funding series, and connections between commercial networks and on-demand platforms who were previously rivals) and to encourage co-operation. Leading the agenda are discussions on the challenges involved in the EU Agora programme and the pressure on broadcasters’ advertising revenue.

The projects selected for the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions:

Competition

Aurora.Newsroom. (Latvia/Estonia/Finland) – 6 x 52’
Genre: drama, thriller
Produced by Gints Grube, Inese Boka Grube and Elīna Gedina-Ducena for Mistrus Media, co-produced by Riina Sildos for Amrion Oü and by Petri Kempinnen for Good Hand Film & TV
Written by Katri Manninen, Juris Kursietis, Osvalds Zebris
Directed by Juris Kursietis

Death of a Diplomat (Iceland/Canada) – 6 x 55’
Genre: drama, thriller
Produced by Kristinn Thordarson and Leifur Dagfinnsson for Truenorth and by Virginia Rankin and Carolyn Newman for Blink49 Studios
Written by Lynne Kamm

Dejima (France) – 6 x 52’
Genre: drama
Produced by François Lardenois & Nathan Franck for Studio 14 Films, and by Olivier Wotling for Mintee Productions
Written by Mehdi Ouahab

Fagnes (Belgium/Luxembourg) – 6 x 52’
Genre: drama, thriller
Produced by Catherine Burniaux for Les Gens Studio and by Ozga Katarzyna for Iris Productions
Written by Vero Cratzborn, Gilles de Voghel, Maia Descamps, Logan De Carvalho and Judith Perrin

Fit (Israel) – 8 x 40’
Genre: drama, comedy
Produced by Alona Refua & Maya Fischer for Green Productions
Written by Moshe Rosenthal

Ignition (Germany) – 6 x 40’
Genre: action, dark comedy
Produced by Sebastian Herbst for Arkanum Pictures, co-produced by Carolin Haasis and Christoph Pellander for ARD Degeto
Written by Jessica Hoelzl, Susann Schadebrodt and Nadine Gottmann

Imposter Syndrome (United Kingdom) – 6 x 60’
Genre: drama, thriller
Executive produced by Eve Gutierrez & Paula Cuddy for Eleventh Hour Films
Created, written and executive produced by Tom Stuart

Konrad (Iceland) – 6 x 45’
Genre: crime, thriller
Produced by Andri Ómarsson for Glassriver
Developed for television by Andri Óttarsson

Montroc (France) – 6 x 52’
Genre: drama, action
Produced by Simon Arnal, Caroline Benjo, Clarence De Fontenay and Eliott Khayat for Haut et Court TV
Written by Clément Peny

Power Couple (Finland) – 6 x 45’
Genre: thriller, drama
Produced by Roope Lehtinen & Mikko Pöllä for Fire Monkey Ltd.
Written by Laura Suhonen

Red Pants (Kyrgyzstan) – 10 x 60’
Genre: drama, action
Produced by Erke Dzhumakmatova for Studio Oymo, co-producers Pavel Feldman & Alexander Seliverstov for Human Films
Written by Tilek Cherikov

The Glacier Murders (Spain/Chile) – 6 x 50’
Genre: drama, thriller
Produced by Arlette Peyret for Brutal Media, co-produced by Alvaro Cabello for Fabula
Written by Mariano Baselga and Enrique Videla

The Transfer of the Century (Italy) – 5 x 50’
Genre: drama, comedy
Produced by Indiana Production & Lucky Red
Written by Raffaele Iaccarino, Giacomo Zibardi, Filippo Gravino

Twisted Vines (South Africa) – 8 x 60’
Genre: drama, procedural
Produced by Stan Joseph for Ochre Moving Pictures
Written by Paul Crilley & Thomas Hall

Without Standing (Spain) – 8 x 50’
Genre: drama, thriller, procedural
Produced by Candela Izquierdo for 100 ACRES
Written by Jessica Aran

Out of Competition

Gold (Switzerland) – 6 x 45’
Genre: thriller
Produced by Stefan Eichenberger for Contrast Film
Created by Christian Wehrlin & Pascal Glatz
Written by Christian Wehrlin, Pascal Glatz, Mariama Djité & Jessica Hagan