Madama Reale has won the I Savoia. La Serie competition, which was launched in the autumn of 2017 by the Torino Piemonte Film Commission, FIP Film Investimenti Piemonte and Regione Piemonte. The French writers Laura Piani and Tara Mulholland have been awarded €50,000 to develop their TV series concept, which focuses on the real-life Madame Royale, Marie-Jeanne de Nemours.

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The rights to develop the TV series have been acquired by the French Production Company Les Films D'Ici (which co-produced Fire at Sea [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by the Taviani Brothers in Italy) and the Piedmont-based production company Lume. 

The competition was open to screenwriters from Europe with the intention of selecting the best concept to form the basis of a high-profile TV series set in the era of the Savoy dynasty and capable of promoting the history of the region of Piedmont and its royal residences. The call for applications was promoted throughout Europe and received great interest. 247 writers took part in the contest, individually or as part of a group, with 150 TV series concepts entered into competition, 10% of which came from overseas. An editorial committee and scientific committee then read and analysed the projects before choosing the final concepts, which were presented at Venice Film Festival’s Industry Event and at the MIA (International Audiovisual Market) in Rome. 

The chosen project is about Marie-Jeanne de Nemours, a hopeless orphan who was born in Paris and later went on to become the Duchess of Savoy. In 1675, her reign over the small Italian duchy reversed the European status quo. For a decade, she lived according to her own rules, challenging Louis XIV in an attempt to strengthen the Savoy’s international status, flaunting her young lovers, cheerfully avenging the lovers of her late husband and doing everything in her power to transform Turin into "a new Athens," bursting with knowledge and culture. But this woman, who chose to live like a man, was capable of anything and everything except loving her one and only child. This is the story of a mother and son battling fiercely for power. 

"Madama Reale has convinced us of its ability to combine a great historical TV epic with highly topical themes,” states the competition curator, Piero Bodrato. "The life of Marie-Jeanne de Nemours is told via a series of letters between a mother and her niece, which reveal the difficult relationships between gender, power and private feelings."

Paolo Tenna, the CEO of FIP, explains that in recent months he has met several production companies ready to accept the challenge of developing one of the final projects. "The interest shown by the industry has gone well beyond our expectations. We believe we’ve identified a strong link between writing and production, entrusting the international project’s production to Les Films D'Ici and Lume.”