Spanish marital drama ‘Querer’ wins international competition at Series Mania

Spanish marital drama Querer was awarded the International Competition grand prize at the 2025 Series Mania festival on Friday night (March 28) in Lille, France.

Created by Alauda Ruiz de Azua, Eduard Sola and Julia de Paz, the series is broadcast, co-produced and sold by Movistar Plus+ and centres on a family grappling with accusations of marital rape. The producers are Kowalski Films, Feelgood Media and Moviestar Plus+ and Arte is broadcasting in France.

The International Competition jury, presided over by US actress, screenwriter, producer and director Pamela Adlon, also gave its writing award to Moshe Zonder and Ronit Weiss Berkowitz for Israeli-American series The German about the 1970s hunt for Nazi criminals, sold by Lionsgate TV.

The jury gave a special mention to Jean-Stephane Bron and Alice Wincourt’s Switzerland-France-Luxembourg-Belgium co-production The Deal about the 2015 US-Iran nuclear talks that also won the Buyers Choice award at the inaugural buyers upfront ahead of the Forum’s kickoff.

Lili Reinhart won the best actress prize for Cooper Raiff’s self-financed Sundance-premiering family drama Hal & Harper and Luca Marinelli won best actor for playing the titular Benito Mussolini in Joe Wright’s Mussolini: Son Of The Century, sold by Fremantle and broadcast on Sky.

The International Competition audience award went to Quebecois series Empathy about a young borderline psychiatrist working in a prison hospital.

The French Competition’s top prize went to Arte series 37 Secondes, sold by ITV studios, based on the true story of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Breton trawler and its crew. Elsa Guedj took best actress for Max series Reformed (Le Sens Des Choses), Arthur Dupont won best actor for La Famille Rose, and Anthony D’Amario and Edouard Rigaudière won best score for Log Out.

Another Spanish series Celeste won the best series award in the International Panorama competition with Belgian series Putain getting a special mention. Celeste star Carmen Machi took best actress, and Matthew Gurney earned the best actor prize for BBC series Reunion. Ida Panahandeh won the best directing award for Iranian series At The End Of The Night that dissects the separation of a married couple.

The short form competition’s top award went to Danish young adult romance drama One Of Us Is Trembling.

Both the festival and Forum attracted a spate of talent and top executives to the northern French event with some 5,000 professionals accredited for the Forum, up 20% from last year, including 500 buyers from 75 countries.

The festival attracted more than 108,000 spectators, 10,000 more than last year, thanks to a bevy of international stars like Amanda Seyfriend, Christina Hendricks and Charlie Brooker plus local legends Alain Chabat, Audrey Fleurot, Gilles Lellouche and even former French president François Hollande. “It was a record edition beyond our expectations,” director of Series Mania Forum Francesco Capurro told Screen.

Festival founder and general manager Laurence Herszberg applauded the jury’s selection saying the selection committee chose series “that were very open to the world, and we’re delighted that the prizes reflect these choices by rewarding, among others, an American independent series, an Israeli series, an Algerian series and an Iranian series.”

• Nine talking points from Series Mania 2025: “The scripted TV market is not going down any further”