Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania (taking place in Lille, France, March 21-28, 2025), has announced that the Series Mania Forum is launching the Series Mania Buyers Upfront, a prelude to the Forum designed to provide buyers with exclusive access to series and facilitate networking opportunities with the distributors behind these series. This event will debut on March 24, 2025, at the Lille Chamber of Commerce, the festival headquarters. The Forum is set to run March 25-27, 2025.

The invitation-only event for buyers will showcase exclusive excerpts from 12 series that have strong global appeal. Curated by the festival’s artistic team, the selection will include high-potential series about to be released or still in post-production. The selection will be based on both artistic merit and broad audience appeal.

The Upfront will kick-off with an invitation-only brunch followed by the series presentation. The jury — featuring Mediaset Spain’s Ghislain Barrois, Sky’s Katie Keenan, Movistar Plus+’s Rubén Fernández Loa, SVT’s Johanna Gardare and ARTE’s Virginie Padilla — will evaluate the selected series and announce the winner at the Series Mania Forum Welcome Drinks that evening, followed by a red carpet screening.

Series Mania Buyers Upfront will serve as a bridge between industry professionals and the Series Mania Festival, offering a top-lineup of series selected by our Festival team. This new initiative offers buyers a unique opportunity for exclusive screenings, dedicated meetings and networking opportunities, and a full festival experience. We are designing a tailor-made experience just for the buyers,” commented Herszberg.

“Given the recent changes in the international marketplace, Series Mania is now perfectly positioned as the leading European event for scripted content development, as well as a key hub for distributors and buyers looking for content. With our new initiative, we will be better able to connect these distributors and buyers while further strengthening the Series Mania Forum as the must-attend event of the spring for the scripted community” added Francesco Capurro, director of Series Mania Forum.

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