To some the fact that Series Mania is still among the young events in the international TV industry calendar could sounds surprising given the huge success of both the Festival and Forum, held in Lille, in recent years which has turned it into a must-attend event not only for European executives but also from North and Latin America and now even more from Asia.

This year, the Series Mania Forum will be held between March 25 and 27 and besides the well-known segments will feature the new introduction focused on buyers who will get an exclusive first look at ten new productions available to acquire immediately. Francesco Capurro, head of Series Mania Forum, unveils more details about this year's event in this interview with Georgi R. Chakarov.


Francesco, Series Mania and the Forum have been growing with each year and it's now one of the flagship events of the international TV industry. What are the expectations for this year's edition?

Yes, it's true that the event is going very fast and even if it's still quite young because started in 2018, and two years were complicated because of COVID, so it's still a very young event, but it's growing and becoming more and more global. This year we expect to have even more participants and more exhibitors than last year. We expect around 4.500 participants from all over the world. We have at least 20 official delegations, coming from all northern European countries, but also from Taiwan, Korea, Canada, Brazil and different countries in Africa. So, we see that the event is getting more and more global and in terms of exhibitors. We have all the big players in the market. This year we will have some new ones, like StudioCanal, Movistar+ and Lionsgate.


How big is your team? Is it also growing?

We have a small team who are on full contract, but the team gets bigger and bigger when we approach the events. We have a lot of collaborators, and we have also some volunteers during the event. The whole team is about 40 people when we are in full capacity, but we have volunteers, and we have also providers and suppliers and the staff we are working with but not directly.


What will be the highlights this year and what changes might people see who have been coming since the beginning?

The big change that we launched this year is the Buyers Upfront which will take place on the day before the start of the Forum, so on Monday, March 24, at the Chambre des Commerces de Ville, in the city center, where we will invite one hundred buyers from all over the world. They will watch ten series presented by their distributors that are available for sales of the international market. There will also be a jury who will give the Buyers Choice Award to the best series. At the beginning of the afternoon, there will be a Beta brunch, and in the evening, a drink offered by UniFrance.

This event will position the Forum on the distribution and sales business, because we were known as a content development market, mainly, which we are still we are. We have a lot of projects in development. We do a lot of co-production, etc. but we are more and more shifting also towards distribution and sales. Especially with the MIPTV in Cannes gone, there is a need for distributors to sell their content.

It is an invitation-only event and we expect around 100 top buyers from big channels and platforms for the first edition


What have you prepared for the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions this year?

They are the most awaited event and the oldest one because everything started with the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. We haven’t changed a lot in the format because it’s working very well. We have selected 15 projects out of more than 400 submissions from all over the world which will be announced officially on February 21. I think it is a very strong selection, and I hope that the commissioners will be happy with what they will be offered. And of course, our jury will give the 50.000 euros award for the development of the best project.

They are all at different stages of development, but they have at least one Bible and even some episodes written, and some already have some financing in place and they are looking to complete the funding through co-production, distribution deals, etc.


What will be the main topics that will be discussed during the Lille Dialogues?

This is the most strategic and even political summit within the Forum where we invite the key decision makers in the industry in order to address big issues. This year the main theme is post-peak TV, AI, financing and audiences, or in other words what are the main challenges that the industry is facing. The lineup up includes top executives like Gerhard Zeiler, Ruth Berry, the CEOs of the main French broadcasters, and we also expect the confirmation from some political decision makers, but they always arrive at the last minute.


What have been some of the success stories of Series Mania in its still young history in terms of series projects?

We do have a lot of series that have been produced and sold internationally. It takes time, but we have examples like The Fortress from Norway or Blackport from Iceland… we actually have a transformation rate which is about 25% among the projects which have taken part in the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions and producers also tell us that even getting selected helps them to convince clients to take the project.


What trends have you observed during the selection process of series? What are the stories that the creators want to tell this year?

This is always hard to say but most of the series are driven by investigation with a lot of thrillers, but it is such a huge genre that you can treat it in many different ways. So, within this frame we have more dark series but also more and more lighter elements. We have also noticed that we have more and more dramedies or thrillers with some comedy elements. There are also quite a lot of geopolitical stories – about the world we are living in, or our recent past. And this year I noticed that there is less period drama, maybe because it is very expensive to produce and also less sci-fi stories. Another trend is to have female leading characters focusing on female empowerment.


We see especially the US giants significantly cutting their budgets. Can we say that this also forces producers to make stories with a more manageable budget?

I can’t say that the budgets are smaller but maybe less projects get commissioned and that makes it harder to stand out. Having said that, I see that there is more and more need for co-production and co-financing, so there is more and more interest to meet partners from different countries, and this is one reason why Series Mania is getting more and more global. At the same time, there are more and more collaborations between the traditional broadcasters and the platforms. We also have the emergence of new models with broadcasters forming co-financing partnerships like the Alliance or New8 which is good for us because Series Mania accelerates these processes. And more and more film centers are supporting such projects across Europe because there is a political willingness to do that.

If we talk about Eastern Europe, the Czech Film Center contacted us because now they will be supporting series productions for the first time and they will have a special presentation at the Forum.


As head of Series Mania Forum, what is your long-term vision for the event?

This year will open a new chapter in the Forum history with the Buyers Upfront and we will now cover the whole chain from the content creation to the international distribution side. I hope that it will remain relevant as the reference event for the scripted industry, and the best legacy that we can leave are the projects that get born during Series Mania. It is not a goal in itself for us to grow in numbers, but if we manage to bring more people outside of Europe the event will surely grow in the years to come. But our focus will also remain on creative people meeting financiers.