French TV festival and industry event Series Mania has unveiled the line-up for its 2024 edition, which runs from March 15-22.
Series Mania returns to the northern French city of Lille with 52 unreleased series, 26 world premieres, 15 international premieres, hailing from 21 countries including three new territories – South Africa, Latvia and New Zealand.
Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem opens the festival. The adaptation of the best-selling book series by Cixin Liu from David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Alexander Woo follows a group of brilliant scientists to join forces with a detective to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.
Series Mania organisers say the US strikes and international crises have affected content submissions this year. For example, there are no Israeli productions selected since production in the country shut down following the start of the Israel-Hamas war and there are fewer US premieres than is typical for the festival.
AI will be front and centre at both the festival and its industry-focused Forum both in terms of the themes of series selected and a slew of panels and conferences devoted to the issue.
Series Mania’s industry Forum section is expecting over 4000 professionals from 60 countries, representing the five continents for its 7thedition running March 19-21.
New to the 2024 Forum is an IP Market focusing on literary adaptations, podcasts, and short formats. Conferences and panels will also focus on the marketing of series and innovation such as using AI in marketing tools, turning IPs into a brand and a close look at local hits with international potential.
Major companies returning to showcase their latest content include BBC Studios, Disney+ EMEA, Netflix and Max Original. Keynotes include Movistar Plus+’s Domingo Corral and Sony Pictures Television’s Wayne Garvie.
The Forum’s central Co-Pro Pitching Sessions allow rising talents to pitch projects to top TV decision-makers with a top €50,000 prize to help develop the series.
The fest will end with the sixth edition of its Lille Dialogues, a day-long international summit bringing together European lawmakers and key industry leaders devoted to a 2024 theme: “Gen AI, the technology we’d love to like”.
Among the series launching at Series Mania is Yan England’s sports series Rematch from Arte France and Unité with Federation Studios. The series is a psychological thriller about the 1997 historical battle between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and IBM’s supercomputer.
The line-up also includes Peacock’s US-Australian series Apples Never Fall in Competition about a family matriarch gone missing, Prime Video France original Ourika from French rapper Booba set against the backdrop of 2005 police violence and MGM+’s crime thriller Hotel Cocaine.
French-American director and screenwriter Zal Batmanglij will preside over the international competition jury. US author Douglas Kennedy has been named president of the international panorama jury.
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