The 16th edition of the Series Mania Forum opened its doors today in Lille, France, and will run until March 26, 2026.
Organizers are expecting 5,000 participants from 75 countries, with about 100 exhibiting companies, spread across three floors of the Lille Grand Palais.
In addition to distributors exhibiting at meeting tables and pavilions, large distribution companies have dedicated stands on the fourth floor of the Palais. These include: BBC Studios, FOX Entertainment, Fremantle, Inter Medya, Studiocanal, Banijay, Beta Film, Gaumont, Federation, France TV, ITV Studios, Mediawan, Movistar, Studio TF1, The Mediapro, UGC, and ZDF Studios.
The conference segment of the Forum kicked off this morning with a panel titled “Key Trends in TV and VoD Markets,” which explored the latest data on TV series commissioning in Europe. The presentation highlighted a decrease in streamers’ investments in U.S. series and an increase in investments in European series, despite an overall reversal in the trend in the total number of commissioned series.
Afternoon sessions included a keynote from HBO Max’s Sarah Aubrey, who announced a first-look deal with Domingo Corral — formerly content director at Movistar Plus+ — and a showcase with Prime Video’s Nicole Morganti and Thomas Dubois.
The traditional Co-Pro Pitching sessions were also held today with 16 projects competing for a 50,000 euro prize. The award went to ten-part drama series Red Pants from Kyrgyzstan. The project is co-produced by Erke Dzhumakmatova for Studio Oymo and Pavel Feldman and Alexander Seliverstov for Human Films.
At the award ceremony, held today at the Theatre Barriere, the winner of the second edition of the Series Mania Buyers Upfront was also announced: France’s thriller R91 from SND Groupe M6/Next Episode.
Photo: Arnaud Loots
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