Organised as a prelude to the Series Mania Forum, the new Buyers Upfront initiative (read news) has allowed buyers who were invited to this exclusive occasion to view 12 minutes of the first images from 10 series. And a jury composed of Ghislain Barrois (Mediaset Spain), Marina Chiaravelle (Rai Cinema), Rubén Fernández Loa (Movistar Plus+), Julia Fidel (ZDF), Katie Keenan (Sky) and Virginie Padilla (Arte) has handed out the first ever Buyers Choice Award, which was won by Swiss director Jean-Stéphane Bron’s The Deal.

Set to world premiere on 26 March in Series Mania’s international competition, this 6 x 46-minute series was created by the filmmaker together with French director Alice Winocour. Starring Belgium’s Veerle Baetens in the lead role, it takes us back to 2015 when Switzerland was hosting last-ditch nuclear talks between the USA and Iran, in the company of Europe, Russia and China. Swiss diplomat Alexandra Weiss is leading the mission, but growing tensions and the delegates’ hidden agendas pose a threat to this fragile diplomacy. When her former love Payam - an Iranian engineer who’s also at risk - makes an appearance, Alexandra finds herself pushing past the limits to protect him. World peace is under threat… How far will she go?

The Deal [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda series] was produced by Swiss firm Bande à Part Films and by French outfits Les Films Pelléas and Gaumont Télévision (with the latter also steering world sales), in co-production with Arte France, Bidibul Production (Luxembourg), RTS (Switzerland), Versus Production (Belgium) and Inver Tax Shelter (Belgium).