“Falke Motors,” from “Pusher” co-scribe Jens Dahl, “Stick ‘Em Up” by means of the creators of Sequence Mania winner “Blackport” and “The Superb Golem,” from “The Cakemaker” director Ofir Raul Graizer, determine amongst a usually high-caliber, talent-studded lineup at this 12 months’s 3rd version of Sequence Mania Seriesmakers.
A singular mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV writer debut – or searching for when it comes to “Blackport’s” creators to hone their craft – 2025 additionally sees Seriesmakers adopting a brand new industrial edge as creators and Sequence Mania itself seeks to vanguard presentations which, with out forsaking their creative ambition, search to chop thru a nonetheless immensely aggressive TV drama sector in a consumers’ marketplace.
Audio system at this 12 months’s version have featured display runners, writers or manufacturers of iconic titles that have formed trendy TV fiction: writer Christian Schwochow (“The Crown”), Quoc Dang Tran (“Name My Agent!”), more than one award winner Frank Doelger (“Sport Of Thrones”), showrunner Bryan Elsley (“Skins”), Frank Spotnitz (“The X-Recordsdata”) and Lila Byock (“Watchmen”).
Fashionable on Selection
Seriesmakers is led by means of the Sequence Mania Discussion board, the business zone of Europe’s best TV pageant, supported by means of Eu film-TV powerhouse Beta Team.
Dahl, who wrote “Pusher” with Nicolas Winding Refn, is growing “Falke Motors,” a gritty, humor-laced circle of relatives crime drama set in Denmark’s windswept Western Jutland.
Written and directed by means of “Blackport” creators Gísli Örn Garðarsson and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, circle of relatives biopic “Stick ‘Em Up” is ready in its similar Nineties Icelandic fishing the town universe of “Blackport, part circle of relatives saga, part tragic farce which took best honors at 2021’s Sequence Mania.
After arthouse hit “The Cakemaker,” and braiding melodrama and conflicted identification in “The usa,” in “The Superb Golem,” Graizer returns to one among his first loves, horror fiction, with a style bending sequence, operating with “Eyes Broad Close” manufacturer David C. Barrot.
Of recognized sequence, there could also be a just right phrase at the reportedly daring AI-themed Spanish political mystery “The Interregnum,” from Oscar winners Tornasol Media; on “Pigs Disco,” a display admired for its authenticity from categorisation-defying British duo Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore; “Unequal,” from Brazil’s unexpectedly development TV scene of creative ambition which has flowered within the ultimate decade; and on “Le Bouton d’Or,” Mika Kaurismaki’s first mission into the just about at all times horny global – for audiences a minimum of – of French haute delicacies.
(L-R) Gabriel Iciness, Claudia Jouvin, Tongue_Marc Bechar and Anna Andersson Courtesy of Beta Movie
Seriesmakers 2024-25 will climax at Lille’s Sequence Mania Discussion board this 12 months on March 26 with the presentation to 1 profitable staff of a Beta & Kirch Basis Award in collaboration with HFF Munich, wearing a hefty money prize of €50,000 ($54,000). The profitable staff will then paintings carefully with Beta’s Content material and Co-Manufacturing Department to broaden a pilot script and a complete bundle
Over the past 12 months, director-producer or director-writer groups from everywhere the sector were carefully mentored and guided by means of skilled and awarded creatives whilst operating on their sequence and growing a complete pitch deck.
Mentors for 2024-25’s version noticed the go back of Germany’s Janine Jackowski, a manufacturer on “Toni Erdmann” and “Spencer”; the French-Danish building manufacturer Isabelle Lindberg Pechou, an inventive manufacturer on Faroes Noir mystery “Trom” and previous France Televisions and REinvent Studios govt; Brazil’s Felipe Braga, an envelope-pushing TV display writer (“Sintonia”) and writer-producer (“Lov3”) who has simply moved again to movie with “Nico,” and Israeli writer-script physician Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, writer of “The Lady From Oslo” and co-creator of “The German,” some of the buzz titles in 2025’s Sequence Mania festival.
The ingenious initiative Seriesmakers is headed by means of Sequence Mania Common Director Laurence Herszberg and Ferdinand Dohna, head of content material & co-production at Beta Team. Seriesmakers used to be initiated by means of Laurence Herszberg and Koby Gal Raday, CEO Janeiro Studios, and used to be first introduced in 2022.
A temporary breakdown of decided on tasks:
“A Particular person of Passion,” (writer-director Michael Kinirons and publisher Fergal Rock, Eire, crime mystery)
After an auspicious function debut, “Sparrow” – exquisitely crafted, expertly carried out, mentioned The Irish Instances – Kinirons takes on a procedural, penned with Rock (“Then Got here You” starring Asa Butterfield). The boyfriend of a murdered girl vanishes, proving his guilt, thinks Detective Laura Aspel. Retired detective Martin McDaid hyperlinks the case, alternatively, to an unsolved triple murder, sparking “a deadly sport — chasing a fugitive who is also a assassin or the one one that can disclose the actual killer,” says the logline.
“Le Bouton d’Or,” (director Mika Kaurismäki and co-writers Anastasia Pashkevich and Anna Andersson, Finland, 6×45’ drama-comedy)
Every other world undertaking and primary mission into drama sequence from the cosmopolitan Mika Kaurismäki (“Tigrero,” “L.A. And not using a Map”). A failed Finnish meals influencer enrols in an haute-cuisine culinary college in France, assembly a girl she at all times concept lifeless – her mom. “A comedy with the Kaurismäki contact, interesting for any target audience given its chef college in France, feminine protagonist and lighter tone,” says Capurro.
“Cow’s Tongue,” (director Aly Muritiba, creator-writer Marc Bechar, Brazil, crime mystery)
Maíra returns to her lawless Amazon fatherland to search out her brother’s assassin, uncovering a ruthless, politically entrenched crime syndicate at the back of the disappearance of masses of truckers, in conjunction with stunning secrets and techniques about her personal identification. Impressed by means of true occasions, “Cow’s Tongue” explores “the price of silence and complicity — and the blood-soaked trail to revenge in a cycle of violence that refuses to die,” say Brazil’s Bechar at the back of indie internet sequence hit “The Messenger,” and famend social centered auteur and massive fest common Aly Muritiba (“Rust,” “Personal Desolate tract”), additionally a notable TV director (“The Evandro Case”).
(L-R) Aly Muritiba, Michael Kinirons and Mika Kaurismäki. Courtesy of Beta Movie
“Dying Turns into Him,” (director Joseph a. Adesunloye and publisher Gabriel Iciness, Nigeria, fable darkish comedy)
Some of the authentic ideas in the entire lineup, a Lagos-set part hour through which Jaye, described as “haphazard,” is killed by means of a automobile and resurrected with the powers of Jesus Christ. Having solid apart get-rich-quick temptations, he wishes the ones powers to forestall the devilish Lekan taking on Isale Eko, Lagos’ banking and industrial middle. “Dying Turns into Him” is directed British-Nigerian filmmaker Joseph a.Adesunloye’s whose “Vanilla,” starring and co-written by means of Iciness, performed Locarno First Glance in 2023. Adesunloye used to be additionally nominated for a BIFA for his debut “White Color Black.”
“Falke Motors,” (director-writer Jens Dahl and manufacturer Anders N.U. Berg, Denmark, 6×45’, crime/drama)
22 year-old YouTuber Camilla battles to distance herself from her circle of relatives and father’s start-up used-car dealership, a entrance for a stolen automobiles and medicine industry subsidized by means of ruthless gangsters. As Camilla’s on-line status grows, she’s pressured to make a choice from circle of relatives loyalty and her personal long run. From Dahl, additionally writer of “Lulu & Leon.” Produced by means of Berg at Copenhagen’s Fredo Footage which goals to create commercially-oriented style sequence and auteur-driven movies, each Danish and world.
“The Interregnum,” (creator-director-writer Simón Casal, manufacturer Mariela Besuievsky,Spain, 6×50’, political mystery)
Increasing on Casal’s film “Justicia Synthetic,” additionally from Besuievsky at Spain’s Oscar profitable Tornasol Media (“The Secret in Their Eyes”). 2031: the E.U. calls a referendum to legalize an AI machine to exchange human judges. “As Inma and Lyda, the ‘Sure’ and ‘No’ marketing campaign managers, struggle for victory, a gloomy secret surrounding the loss of life of the A.I. machine’s writer, Alicia, threatens to revolutionize no longer best the marketing campaign however the whole lot they believed themselves to be,” says the logline.
(L-R) Christophe Barrot, Simón Casal, Fergal Rock, Anastasia Pashkevich and Anders N.U. Berg Courtesy of Beta Movie
“Pigs’ Disco,” (writer-director duo Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore, U.Ok., 4 x 60’, drama-biopic)
Actual-life impressed, set in early ‘90s Belfast, a coming-of-age story through which a tender British paratrooper has to make a choice from the ferocity of army lifestyles and the euphoria of the burgeoning rave scene which unites Catholic and Protestants teenagers. The primary sequence from the duo whose works span summary and narrative cinema, profitable lovers for 2015’s “Blood Cells,” its visually textured British street film scored by means of Seomore. “A miniseries the place the tune of this particular time performs a truly central function. If it’s completed neatly, the sequence will have a robust persona,” says Capurro.
“Stick ‘Em Up,” (writer-director duo Gísli Örn Garðarsson and Björn HlynurHaraldsson, Iceland, 8×40’, dramedy-biopic)
In “Stick Em Up,” as Iceland’s govt seeks to reclaim not too long ago privatised fishing quotas, Reykjavík fishing corporate proprietor Harpa Sigurðardottir realizes that the one solution to protected her quota is to grab regulate of a financial institution. It’s a tall order. Garðarsson and Haraldsson “are improbable skills. They’ve a capability to inform very native tales with common attraction,” says Capurro.
“Unequal,” (director-producer Carolina Jabor, publisher Cláudia Jouvin, Brazil, 6×45’, mystery/heist/drama)
“When a tender lady from a humble background, professional in small cons towards the rich, encounters the millionaire who ruined her lifestyles, she makes a decision to make use of her skills to hunt revenge.” Teaming with best writers – Lucas Paraizo on “Liquid Reality,” Clarice Falcão on “Elected” – Jabor has consolidated as one among Brazil’s predominant feminine administrators. Right here, she’s joined by means of Jouvin, a publisher on damage “Beneath Power” and a writer-director on L.O.C.A. “‘Unequal’ offers with a subject matter which is essential to combat populist proper actions: social justice,” says Dohna.
“The Superb Golem,” (writer-director Ofir Raul Graizer, manufacturer David C. Barrot, (U.Ok, 8×60’, drama/fable)
Simon Low, a 26-year-old British runaway in Prague, awakens an historical creature of immense energy. “But, amid the upward push of a brand new tyranny, Simon makes use of his monster to give protection to town, discovering himself on the middle of a war a ways higher than he can take hold of,” says the logline. “We had been in search of a fable sequence and right here you’ve gotten a well known delusion modernized – that may regularly achieve success – in a ravishing Prague surroundings,” says Dohna. “It’s a fable sequence with an excessively recent political message,” Capurro provides.
(L-R) Joseph Bull, Mariela Besuievsky, Luke Seamore and Carolina Jabor. Courtesy of Beta Movie
Selection additionally chatted to Dohna and Capurro within the run-up to the Sequence Mania Discussion board.
“Presently, the marketplace may be very a lot inquisitive about attaining audiences.” Jens Richter, Fremantle CEO industrial and world, commented not too long ago to Selection. I sense that this has at all times been a venture at Sequence Mania however is particularly glaring on this 12 months’s lineup…
Francesco Capurro: Undoubtedly some of the greatest variations between movie and TV is that TV is a lot more inquisitive about target audience, one thing Seriesmakers explains in its program. Infrequently movie administrators, particularly from arthouse motion pictures, haven’t utterly taken on that viewpoint. It’s vital and in difficult occasions like the present ones, much more vital.
Dohna: In cinema, the target audience involves you as in cinema’s predecessor, theater. When you’re making movies you create one thing which you’d be expecting the target audience coming to you. In serial TV it’s the opposite, you’re coming to the target audience because it used to be with TV sequence’ predecessor, the unconventional. That calls for a unique roughly storytelling. The primary version of SeriesMakers used to be a novelty. Now filmmakers know the ingenious inititiative and are extra conversant in TV storytelling.
On the similar time, this 12 months’s variety has way more administrators who could have been at primary gala’s however may well be described as open arthouse – Aly Muritiba, Ofir Raul Graizer, Carolina Jabor – or Jens Dahl, who co-wrote a field administrative center hit, “Pusher.”
Capurro: That displays a transformation of standards. Within the two first editions, it used to be necessary to were decided on earlier than in some of the so-called A-list gala’s. This 12 months we’ve opened as much as submissions from filmmakers that experience had a minimum of one function movie commercially launched however no longer essentially decided on in a pageant. It’s modified slightly bit the type of programs we won which might be extra against the mainstream, in tasks and abilities.
A lot of sequence showcased on the London TV Screenings may well be described as crime thrillers. There are a minimum of 3 within the Sequence Mania lineup….
Capurro: We’ve tried at Seriesmakers to have a just right variety, we have now science fiction, slightly bit extra ancient sequence, some extra political thrillers. We strive a minimum of to have a just right stability. “Crime mystery” is this kind of massive style that it may be handled in many various techniques and thrillers are connected to the character of sequence themselves as a result of you wish to have suspense to inspire audiences to look at the following episode.
The problem with crime thrillers, as Eagle Eye manufacturer Walter Iuzzolino commented on “Bookish,” starring Mark Gattis, is to carry one thing authentic to the desk. May you drill down at the originality of “A Particular person of Passion,” “Cow’s Tongue” and Unequal”?
Dohna: “A Particular person of Passion” is a extra vintage crime display however its characters truly leap out at us, and we all know they’re able to bringing them to lifestyles as a result of they’ve proved that earlier than. In “Cow’s Tongue,” the ancient background [of spiralling violence in the Amazon] is truly distinctive.
Capurro: “Unequal” is also against the law mystery nevertheless it’s very a lot centered at the lead personality who’s a tender girl. Its pitch deck is truly entertaining and it’s a lovely display. It’s intercourse revenge.
Crime thrillers also are anticipated to mention one thing about actual human nature when many nice sequence are necessarily personality thrillers, exploring why other folks do what they do, and what are the results….
Dohna: That’s why the opposite style that at all times works in sequence are circle of relatives family members, relational dramas, in an excessively massive sense of a gaggle of people who are strongly similar. That is basic for each TV sequence. In theater and cinema, you’ll be able to have a robust personality, however they are able to be fairly a loner. In a TV sequence, you must determine how characters are similar to one another and will play with and divulge the family members. They must be multifold, differently a TV display will get dull. And that’s why mafia dramas paintings really well for TV sequence as a result of there you’ve gotten each the circle of relatives family members and the crime.
