Netflix France Campaign for ‘Sex Education’ Season 4 Wins Series Mania Best Marketing Initiative Prize

EXCLUSIVE: MGM+ has cast Jessica Frances Dukes (Ozark) as the female lead opposite Alexander Ludwig in Earth Abides, a limited series that promises to offer an imaginative new take on George R. Stewart’s classic sci-fi novel of the same name.

Selome Hailu Netflix is at or near the top of both Nielsen and Luminate‘s streaming rankings every week, but achieved that with some titles that differ from its usual fare during the March 29-April 3 viewing window. As expected, “3 Body Problem” remained the most-watched streaming original series of the week per Luminate with 964.1 million minutes watched (an estimated 3.6 million views) — unsurprising, as the title is the follow-up from “Game of Thrones” helmers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who created the show alongside Alexander Woo.

Anna Marie de la Fuente While a number of films have been made about Panama’s Indigenous communities, few are by native filmmakers themselves. To date, perhaps only three Indigenous Panamanian filmmakers have ventured into filmmaking. Duiren Wagua, whose documentary feature debut “Bila Burba” plays at this year’s 12th Panama International Film Festival (IFF Panama), running April 4-7, is hoping to change the status quo.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Gato Grande, an Amazon MGM Studios company, has upped Megan Espinoza and Moises Amsel to the positions of VPs of Film & TV Development in the company’s newly-launched English-language division. Espinoza and Amsel will assume responsibility for the daily operations of the new unit, focusing on the creation of original intellectual property in English for both TV and film, sourced from Latin American IP.

Series Mania was Warner Bros. Discovery’s European roll-out timeline for Max, announced Thursday at the climax of the Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues. The most keenly anticipated session was nearly Series Mania’ Forum first: a Netflix showcase hosted by a confident Larry Tanz who significantly proved the only goal streamer exec to drill down on volume commitment.

Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette chaired a career masterclass this afternoon at Series Mania in Lille, France, where she served as this year’s guest of honor. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Underscoring the growing ties between France and Taiwan in the film and television sector, French and Taiwanese producers CinéFrance, Alef One and Yoosonn Entertainment have presented two new series co-productions at Series Mania. “Fly,” co-produced by Paris-based CinéFrance and Taipei’s Yoosonn Entertainment, is a spy drama series adapted from Taiwanese author Chang Kuo-Li’s original IP that is set to shoot in France and Taiwan.

The wait for Max‘s European launch is nearly over.

French commercial broadcast giant TF1 is taking its streaming service international. CEO Rodolphe Belmer told Series Mania on Thursday that TF1+ will start rolling out in the middle of this year before a wider series of launches in 2025.

Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, the CEO of France Télévisions, has called the collapse of the French broadcaster-backed streamer Salto “a strategic mistake.”

Scottish actor Peter Mullan, whose credits include The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Westworld, Harry Potter, and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, passed through Series Mania in Lille this week, where he participated in what turned out to be one of the festival’s most raucous masterclass sessions. 

Ben Croll Of the many politically-tinged projects premiering at this year’s Series Mania, French thriller “In the Shadows” could very well claim the best pedigree. While showrunner Pierre Schoeller has spent a career tracing his country’s corridors of power through films like “Versailles” and “The Minister,” he found a most opportune creative partner working with politician Edouard Philippe to adapt the latter’s 2011 novel. Perhaps the name rings a bell.

HBO was built on the back of showrunners such as David Chase, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and Jesse Armstrong but is now facing a new dilemma involving directors.

Sony Pictures Television‘s President of International Production, Wayne Garvie, has said the scripted TV landscape in the post-peak TV era is like “going back to the future” — especially with his Netflix hits The Crown and Sex Education coming to an end.

Disney+ unveiled new originals out of France, Germany and Spain at Series Mania, with period drama and a pair of true crime projects added to a 70-part Spanish novella that will be stripped through the week.

Slovakian drama series Our People has won the Series Mania Co-Pro Pitch and taken home a €50,000 ($55,000) development prize.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor A panel moderated by the European Audiovisual Observatory at Series Mania Tuesday looked at four key trends in series production in Europe. Warning Signs?Gilles Fontaine, EAO’s head of department for market information, said there were warning signs of a downward trend in the number of seasons being produced, first in the U.S.

Ben Croll An explosive political drama retracing the 2018 murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, “Our People” claimed the best project award at this year’s Series Mania Forum. Winning €50,000 ($54,318) in prize money and earning an enhanced international stature, the unflinching miniseries should now see an easier path forward – particularly given the chilly reception it found with funding authorities in native Slovakia. “We thought it impossible,” said director Tereza Nvotova as she claimed the Series Mania prize.

A small pro-Palestine protest formed outside Series Mania in France on Tuesday.

EXCLUSIVE: AGC Television is dropping a hot TV project into this week’s Series Mania market in Lille.