17/02/2023 - International series leaders will meet from 21-23 March for the professional section of the Lille event, from the Co-Pro Pitching Session to the Lille Dialogues

Stijn Deconinck, whose project Hijacking Paradise has been selected (© Zeb Daemen)

After the festival part (read the article), Series Mania has unveiled its selection for its highly popular Co-Pro Pitching Sessions which will take place on 21 March in Lille as part of the Series Mania Forum.

Selected from 450 proposals from 6 countries, 15 projects will be in competition. The 16th project will be revealed on 21 February and presented out of competition in partnership with the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

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The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions jury will be chaired by Britain's Caroline Hollick (Channel 4), who will be supported by Italy's Michele Zatta (RAI), France's Françoise Guyonnet (StudioCanal) and Finland's Jarmo Lampela (YLE).

As usual, the Forum will also provide space for reflection on the major issues facing the industry, with numerous conferences and panels, notably on winning over the young adult audience, the transition of established filmmakers to the series, the author/producer relationship in Europe, impactful communication campaigns, the war for attention, or the convergence of series and gaming, and not forgetting, among others, zooms on Sky Studios and Disney+, as well as Coming Next From sessions for France, Spain, Finland, the Balkans and Germany.

Finally, on 23 March, the Lille Dialogues will bring together audiovisual industry leaders and decision-makers to discuss and build a common reflection on the major strategic, economic and legislative issues facing the sector. The writer, director and environmental activist Cyril Dion will be the patron of this day which will address the subjects of the battle of the narratives, the strategies of large groups, the Europe of the audiovisual sector by 2030, creativity, etc., and will feature keynotes by Jan Mojto (Beta), Rodolphe Belmer (TF1), Casey Bloys (HBO Max), Cécile Frot Coutaz (Sky Studios). Also to be mentioned are David Donoghue (Screen Producers Ireland), Delphine Ernotte Cunci (France Télévisions) Romain Bessi (Newen Studios) and Susan Newman-Baudais (Eurimages).

The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions projects:

Asma - 8 x 52’ (France)
Genre: Biopic
Produced by Patricia Boutinard Rouelle for Nilaya Productions
Written by Antoine Vitkine

Cooper - 8 x 45’ (Australia/South Africa)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Produced by Kylie du Fresne for Goalpost Pictures and Nimrod Geva for Quizzical Pictures
Written by James McNamara, Amy Jephta and Malla Nunn, after the books by Malla Nunn

Dust and Coal - 8 x 52’ (Israel/France)
Genre : Psychological thriller
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and Morgane Le Moine for First Love
Written by Ronen Ben Tal, Ron Ninio, Ofer Seker and Eleanor Sela

Executioners - 6 x 60’ (Spain)
Genre: Coming of age, Thriller
Produced by Alberto Rull for Vertice 360
Written by Pedro Garcia Rios and Rodrigo Martin

Fort Apache - 8 x 50’ (Italy)
Genre: Action, Crime
Produced by Fabrizio Donvito, Marco Cohen, Benedetto Habib, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli for Indiana Production Company
Written by Ivano Fachin, Giovanni Galassi and Tommaso Matano

Hijacking Paradise - 6 x 52’ (Belgium)
Genre: geopolitical thriller
Produced by Dimitri Verbeeck for Caviar
Created by Stijn Deconinck
Written by Stijn Deconinck and Nathalie Teirlinck

Yop - 8 x 45’ (Sweden)
Genre: Drame
Produced by Moa Westeson, Cindy Hanson and Anni Faurbye Fernandez for Nevis Productions
Written by David Jassy

Letters To Leonard - 5 x 50’ (Greece)
Genre: Drama, LGBTQIA+
Produced by George Linardakis for Stefi Productions
Written by Fotis Dousos and John Samaras on an idea by Pierros Andrakakos

Monitor - 6 x 60’ (Germany)
Genre: High-tech thriller
Produced by Fabian Massah et Marc Malze for Endorphine Production
Created by Nikolai Müllerschön

Our Father - 8 x 55’ (Ireland/Canada)
Genre: Comedy
Produced by Aaron Farrell for ShinAwiL and Dominic Scheiber for Reel One Entertainment
Written by John Cairns and Michael McCartney

The Bronte Girls - 6 x 60’ (United Kingdom)
Genre: Historical, Coming of age
Developed by Parsonage Productions Ltd. with ZDF Studios
Written by Caroline Kelly Franklin

The Salvatore Mundi Case - 6 x 52’ (France)
Genre: Thriller
Produced by Florent Gellie for Incognita and Nathanaël La Combe for Wonder Films
Written by Angela Soupe and Antoine Vitkine

The Unquiet Dead - 6 x 60’ (Canada)
Genre: Crime, drama
Produced by Shaftesbury
Written by Abdul Malik, based on the book series by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Unspoken - 6 x 30’ (Ukraine/Poland)
Genre: War thriller
Produced by Anna Rozalska, Dmytro Sukhanov and Natalia Liber for Match&Spark, Toy Cinema and 2Brave Productions
Written by Zhanna Ozirna and Filip Syczyński

Vanished - 6 x 45’ (Germany/Iceland)
Genre: Crime, Historical
Written by Mikael Torfason
Produced by Britta Hansen and Franziska Lindner for Red Pony Pictures and Ragnheidur Erlingsdottir for Zik Zak Filmworks

(Translated from French)