Ukrainian Film Academy Co-Founder Julia Sinkevych Named Series Mania Jury President

Marta Balaga Returning barely six months after its 2021 edition, which wrapped in September, French TV festival Series Mania welcomed Jury President Julia Sinkevych,who arrived in Lille from war-torn Ukraine.“I didn’t know if I would be lucky enough to be here tonight,” said Sinkevych to a standing ovation, with Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania general director, observing that culture cannot be insensitive to what is happening.“The whole world is now admiring our resistance, the resistance of the Ukrainian people. But there is another battlefield, which is culture, and I want us to be noticed, recognized and admired on the cultural battlefield, too,” added Sinkevych.“This [conflict] has been going on for a long time and there have been many episodes in this TV series.

Series Mania boasts a plethora of riches, including, just for starters, the latest series from “The Wire’s” David Simon, and “Vikings’” Michael Hirst and “The Responder,” starring Martin Freeman, which is already being talked up as the European series of the year. And it bowed on BBC One in January. The following selection may well not rep the best 10 titles at this year’s Series Mania. Some of those will only be revealed in a final jury verdict, if then.

Marta Balaga Thanks to fresh takes on established genres and highlighting local elements, Finnish drama is commanding attention from international buyers. A Series Mania Focus on Finland will teasing more series to come, from “Nordic blue” to horror for kids and a Christmas fairytale crime story.

Tim Dams It may only be six months since 2021’s pandemic-delayed edition of Series Mania took place, but the annual Lille, France-based drama festival returns once again but this time in its traditional slot of March 18-25.It’s been “challenging” for the Series Mania team to pull together 2022’s program so soon after last year’s event, says general director Laurence Herszberg.However, it hasn’t been hard to attract projects to the festival. In a reflection of both Series Mania’s growing stature and the buoyant state of the scripted TV market, the event had 331 submissions from 46 different countries to the competition program.

Marta Balaga Ukrainian producer Julia Sinkevych, named main jury president at French TV festival Series Mania, is still hoping to come to Lille this week despite the ongoing war.“Last night, there was bombing not far from Lviv, so you never know. [Producer] Dariusz Jabłoński and the Polish Film Academy are helping out Ukrainian filmmakers and they will pick me up when I am in Poland,” she tells Variety during a conversation interrupted by a siren.“Usually, it means you have to hide.

A group of theater owners from giant Regal to independent cinemas have signed on to screen Ukrainian director Oles Sanin’s 2014 feature film The Guide starting Friday with proceeds going to relief efforts for the war ravaged country.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s TV industry will make history at Series Mania Forum 2022, with its biggest panel and sneak peek series presentation presence ever at a major TV market. The Spanish conference attendance – alongside Finland’s panel spread – also weighs in as the biggest from any single country at the upcoming edition of the most important co-production event for scripted TV series in Europe.Series Mania Forum runs on-site over March 22-24 in Lille, northern France, under the larger Series Mania Festival umbrella.Organized by ICEX Spain Trade & Investment, the country’s export and inward investment board, the Spanish pavilion at the Lille Grand Palais will host a record-breaking delegation for Spain of around 20 companies and more than 50 executives. That’s a sign of just how much Series Mania has grown as an industry forum in the last few years, and of Spain’s ambition to ramp up exports of Spanish movies and TV content via a Spain AVS Hub plan whose total investment through 2025 is tabbed at $1.8 billion in state incentives and government-engineered financing.

Naman Ramachandran Seven senior figures of the Ukrainian film industry, including 84-year-old doyenne Ada Rogovtseva, have spoken out against the Russian invasion of their country and have joined the numerous calls for a boycott of Russian culture. Ada Rogovtseva, actor (“Taras Bulba”), professor at the National University of Culture. Remains in Ukraine.I volunteer at home.

Speakers Unveiled For Mip TV & Series Mania

Marta Balaga Dutch Features has acquired international rights to Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde’s crime series “Evilside,” a six-hour Archipelago thriller set in the Oulu region of northern Finland.Filming took place from Dec. 2021 through Feb.

Holly Jones An idyllic private island retreat sees a set of estranged, longtime companions reunite after nearly 30 years of jobs and distance pulling them in opposite directions. Amidst the celebration, nefarious footage of a transgression against a female friend mysteriously resurfaces.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentMo Abudu, CEO of Nigeria’s The EbonyLife Group, will be celebrated by France’s upcoming Series Mania festival with its Women in Series Award. The prize, given in tandem with the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA Network) and advocacy group Pour Les Femmes Dans Les Médias (PFDM), honors a remarkable woman from the audiovisual industry for her vision and leadership.

Naman Ramachandran Ukrainian film producer and co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy Julia Sinkevych (“Heat Singers”) has been selected as jury president for this year’s Series Mania Festival and its international competition. “She has always been committed to supporting Ukrainian artists and the culture of her country from Kyiv, where she lives,” the festival said in a statement.

Naman Ramachandran The European Film Academy (EFA) has issued an unequivocal condemnation of President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and excluded Russia from the European Film Awards.In a statement released on Tuesday, the EFA said: “The Academy strongly condemns the war started by Russia – Ukraine’s sovereignty and territory must be respected. Putin’s actions are atrocious and totally unacceptable, and we strongly condemn them.”“What concerns us most is the fate of the Ukrainians, and our hearts are with the Ukrainian filmmaking community. We are fully aware that several of our members are fighting with arms against the aggressor.

The European Film Academy (EFA) has joined growing calls in the international cinema community for a boycott of Russian films.

Naman Ramachandran The European Film Academy (EFA) has issued an unequivocal condemnation of President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine after Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa expressed his dissatisfaction with their earlier statement and resigned his EFA membership.On Feb. 24, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EFA had issued a statement pledging their support to the Ukrainian filmmaking community.

Russian film and TV organization Roskino has been banned from next month’s Series Mania and Millennium Media exec Yariv Lerner has issued a call to help Ukrainian film professionals, as the media world continues to react to the conflict.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentRussia’s Roskino, the government-backed advocacy organization for the nation’s film and TV industry, has been barred from participating in Series Mania, the international TV showcase that will unfold in Northern France next month, Variety has confirmed.The Russian org was expected to host a presentation of buzzed-about content at Series Mania’s industry showcase in Lille, which runs from March 18-25. The festival disinvited Roskino after the French culture ministry vetoed its presence at at the event in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The news of Series Mania’s stand against Roskino was first reported by Screen.Roskino has in recent years ramped up its presence at key industry events, reflecting the emergence of new generation of Russian filmmakers on the international scene.

Change.org petition created Friday, the Academy asked several European and international filmmaking institutions, producers and distributors to terminate business dealings with the Russian Federation. “The outbreak of war in Ukraine is an attack on a civilized world with a democratic system, a crime committed in the heart of Europe,” reads the statement.

Manori Ravindran International EditorUkrainian film and TV bodies have begun calls for a boycott of Russian media and the severing of business ties with Russian entities.Russia’s film and TV industry has been steadily growing in recent years, with events such as the Key Buyers Event — an annual content showcase organized by Russian film promotion body Roskino — drawing 200 international buyers last year. Now, many of those relationships will be tested on a global stage as Ukraine’s media orgs ask for a boycott of all business dealings with Russia.The organizers of Kyiv Media Week, a 10-year-old international film and TV market serving Eastern Europe, has called for a ban on Russian propaganda.