Myriam Ullens, a Belgian entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art collector has died. She was 70 years old. The story is tragic, as she was shot in her car, and her stepson is the suspect.
22.03.2023 - 18:25 / deadline.com
A project from Finland and a Belgium-Uruguay co-production have won the Seriesmaker initiative here at Series Mania.
The projects, Yours, Margot and The Invisible Ink, both bag €50,000 ($54,000) each after winning the Beta Development Awards.
They were announced minutes ago at Lille’s Series Mania Forum event, which is into its second day.
Yours, Margot is an eight-part drama from Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen and producer Jussi Rantamäki. The logline is: “After discovering her father’s letters to an unknown lover, Vilja unearths her family’s traumatic past in 1980s East Berlin.”
Kuosmanen’s 2021 road movie Compartment No 6 won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival official competition, and his biographical film The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki won Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival.
The Invisible Ink comes from director César Díaz and producer Fernando Epstein, and also runs to eight parts. It follows a former Uruguayan revolutionary leading a peaceful life in Belgium who is forced back to confront his past in his home country after he receives a visit from his old torturer, who threatens to kill his wife and daughter if he doesn’t hand him a hidden loot.
Meanwhile, The Kirch Foundation in collaboration with HFF (University of Television and Film Munich) Award for €20,000 has gone to Brazilian series Amigas, a six-parter from director Beatriz Seigner and writer Maíra Bühler.
It follows five high school girl friends who meet again at their 25th graduation anniversary. The encounter triggers a traumatic experience they lived together as teenagers and which they will need to face in order to free themselves in the present.
The winners of this year’s Beta Development Award will work closely
Myriam Ullens, a Belgian entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art collector has died. She was 70 years old. The story is tragic, as she was shot in her car, and her stepson is the suspect.
Federation Studios has nabbed worldwide distribution rights to French political comedy and Series Mania winner Under Control.
With Series Mania 2023 coming to a close, the event’s founder and general director Laurence Herszberg announced the winners of the Series Mania Festival today.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Headed by a commanding performance from Navid Mohammadzadeh, superbly shot and packing arguably the best opening scene of any series in Series Mania main competition, Navid Javidi’s “The Actor” won the Grand Prize at Series Mania on Friday night. The top Series Mania award for the “The Actor” also proves vindication for the Festival which this year has broadened its geographical reach in an effort to discover new narrative modes and styles. Consistently subordinating narrative to mood, “The Actor” certainly wins on that score. Main scribe John Kåre Raake (“The Quake”) and co-scribe Linn-Jeanethe Kyed (“Bø”) scooped best writing for “The Fortress,” a banner upcoming Viaplay title produced by Norway’s Maipo Film and sold by TrustNordisk, which delivers a telling political cautionary tale for our times, a chic isolationist parable thriller set in an alternative Norway which has built a wall to keep foreigners out. When a virus strikes, it becomes a prison.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan has become a go-to destination for Chinese language series production over the past few years, as international streamers have taken the initiative and as the local content trend has become entrenched in Asia. While some of Taiwan’s advantage may have been handed to it as a result of regional political factors, the movement has led to greater interest in Taiwan stories, both historical and modern.Five Taiwan TV projects are being pitched at Series Mania, that are deemed to have international appeal according to Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), a government-backed agency that has become noticeably proactive over roughly the same period.
Casey Bloys wants Kate Winslet to be venerated in the States.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While she retired prematurely at the age of 39, Brigitte Bardot has left an indelible mark on France’s popular culture in the 1960’s and 1970’s. With her wild blonde mane, smoky eyes and pouty lips, Bardot became a symbol of a modern and effortlessly sexy French woman, and a style emblem that continues to inspire current trends. The event series “Bardot,” which is penned and directed by Daniele Thompson (“The Queen Margot”) and Christopher Thompson (“La bûche”), world premiered at Series Mania Festival to unanimous praise and has been pre-sold by Federation nearly worldwide. “‘Bardot’ is like the French ‘The Crown’ because Bardot embodied France, and through her journey we reminisce about many parts of France’s history and popular culture in the 1950’s and 1960’s,” Federation’s boss and “Bardot” producer Pascal Breton told Variety.
Amazon Prime Video is exploring more global franchise opportunities following the success of the Russo Brothers’ Citadel.
Sky Studios CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz has called the plethora of shows on the market “really confusing” for viewers.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Germany’s Beta Group is a company for our challenged times, Moritz von Kruedener, Beta Group managing director told an audience at Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues on Thursday. He also broke down Beta’s business model which takes elements which hark back to the past – a powerful, ultra connected territory-by-territory international sales apparatus combined with Beta’s biggest pivot in recent years: a move from picking up and selling finished shows into far larger production involvement, be its financial support or early upstream input on maximising a project’s international potential. Beta Group and Series Mania has also scored heavily at this year’s festival with the first edition go Seriesmakers, a mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut.
Rodolphe Belmer has made the case for TF1 Group as “the free entertainment reference for French citizens on TV and in streaming.”
France Télévisions boss Delphine Ernotte Cunci is looking to “debunk” and tackle major societal issues such as sexual violence via the public broadcaster’s shows.
Ben Croll LILLE, France – Producers, commissioning editors and creative talents from across La Belle Province took the spotlight at a Series Mania showcase of the best of recent Quebecois scripted offerings. Below are the seven series that drew whoops and appreciative hollers from a room full of international buyers. Late summer doldrums, young adult love, and the generally placid rhythms of suburban life take on additional heft and resonance for a group of friends all suffering from cystic fibrosis – especially once one’s condition takes a turn for the worst. Far from jerking tears, the offbeat comedy “Thin Air” finds irreverent and life-affirming humor following young adult characters that feel the pangs of mortality more acutely than most. Produced by Urbania and created by acclaimed writer Jean-Christophe Réhel, the bittersweet series offers another plum role to “Mommy” star Antoine Olivier Pilon.
“We all have to become a bit more Scandinavian,” Beta Film MD Moritz von Kruedener told a Series Mania audience this morning.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — “Yours, Margot,” from “Compartment No 6’s” Juho Kuosmanen, Guatemalan Cannes Camera d’Or winner César Díaz (“Our Mothers”) and Brazil’s Beatriz Seigner (“Los Silencios”) have won the three prizes on offer at the first edition of Seriesmakers. A mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut, after an inaugural edition delivering one of the most talent-packed project lineups at any festival, film or TV, in 2023, Seriesmakers backers Beta Group and Series Mania opened on Wednesday a call for admissions for a second edition. Though all three series range hugely in setting and creators, all three see their protagonists go back to a recent past to explore events that have impacted their family (“Yours, Margot”), their modern-day country (“The Invisible Ink”), or traumas in the present (“Amigas”).
Netflix teased its slate of European series, including part 3 of its hit heist show “Lupin,” starring Omar Sy, during its showcase at Series Mania in Lille. The panel was attended by Katja Hofem from Germany, Damien Couvreur from France and Jenny Stjernströmer Björk from the Nordics, who each discussed their editorial strategies. The streamer also announced season 2 of its off-beat comedy series “Represent” starring Cesar-winning actor-director Jean-Pascal Zadi (“Tout simplement noir”) as an ordinary man from a project becomes President of France. The show, whose French title is “En Place,” launched earlier this year and was one of the service’s biggest local hits. Other new French titles in the pipeline include “Thicker than Water,” “Tapie,” “Fury” and “Anthracite.”
After the launch of its first original content in 2022, Disney+ France is expanding and announced a slate of new productions at the Series Mania festival in Lille Wednesday afternoon.
Paramount+ is well ahead of its target to greenlight 150 non-U.S. originals by 2025 but international boss Marco Nobili wishes the streamer could have rolled out quicker.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Paramount+ will be bowing “Drag Race Italia” Season 3 on the streaming service in Italy, followed by the U.S. and Latin America later this year. The Italian Season 3 follows on the recent announcement of three new “Drag Race” editions in Brazil, Germany and Mexico and a “Global Drag Race All Stars,” which will air on Paramount+ in their respective territories this year, Paramount+ announced Wednesday. “As we expand Paramount+’s global footprint, it was important to recapture ‘Drag Race’ in key international markets and also build an interconnected competition series with a new ‘Global Drag Race All Stars’ – it’s like a global Super Bowl for Drag,” said Chris McCarthy, president-CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios & Paramount Media Networks.
The issues Westworld was exploring went from “sci-fi to documentary film” through the years, according to co-creator Lisa Joy, who hinted at what a fifth season of the HBO smash could have looked like.