CANADA
HERE.BIG.
SERIES MANIA FESTIVAL: MARCH 15-22
SERIES MANIA FORUM: MARCH 19-21
LOCATION: Canada Pavilion Stand DH #2
With its three days of program presentations, panels and networking, Series Mania Forum, taking place from March 19 to 21, 2024, brings together series professionals – producers, distributors, directors and content writers – in a privileged working space, conducive to meetings and creativity. The Series Mania festival will run from March 15 to 22, 2024.
This year, Telefilm Canada and its partners will offer to Canadian companies a shared meeting space at the delegate hall (main floor of the event). Come visit us!
Canada will shine bright at Series Mania this year with many projects nominated in multiple awards and categories, Canadian talent is HERE. Canadians will also pitch their coproduction projects and companies during two sessions (Canada-France Series Lab Pitch and Canada’s Producers to Watch). Our Canada-France Series Lab – Year 2 cohort will also be looking for their partner of choice during networking activities.
Check out the various nominations, sessions and selection below.
FESTIVAL SELECTION
Discover below the series selected this year at the festival and the screening agenda here.
- International Competition, SO LONG, MARIANNE, Produced by: Redpoint Productions (Norway), C3 Media (Canada), Tanweer Productions (Greece)
- Panorama International, DISTINCT SOCIETY (Société Distincte), Produced by Blachfilms
- Comedy Competition, PEASANTRIES (Les oubliettes), Produced by Productions St Laurent Web
- Short Forms Competition, THE FADES OF PAPINEAU (Ça prend pas la tchas à Papineau), Produced by Trio Orange
Tuesday, March 19 from 3:15-4:15 pm – Room 3.2
Launched in 2022, the Canada-France Series Lab is a joint venture between Series Mania Forum, Telefilm Canada, and the CNC. Its main goal is to encourage the coproduction of fiction series between Canadian and French producers, while at the same time fostering their international potential in a competitive environment. For almost a year, the producers selected in pairs have taken part in professional workshops and mentoring sessions with experts to guide them through the co-development of their series and prepare its positioning to the international markets.
Here are the 4 projects that will be presented during the pitch:
BRAVE – 6 x 48’ – France-Canada
- Genre: Drama, Inspired by true events
- Series written by Michelle Allen and Katherine Dupont
- Produced by: Louis-Philippe Drolet and Marie-Hélène Lebeau-Taschereau for KOTV and Tatiana Maksimenko EFFERVESCENCE FICTION
- During a trip to Paris, Emily, a young Canadian, accuses four high-ranking French police officers of rape. Throughout the legal battle, her mental health is weaponized to destroy her credibility.
THE FOLEYS – 6 x 48’ – Canada-France
- Genre: Drama
- Series written and created by Renée Blanchar & Annie-Claude Thériault
- Produced Chantal Lafleur for Avenida, Renée Blanchar for Ça Tourne and Edyta Janczak-Hiriart for Kometa Films.
- A biologist lands on a small island in eastern Canada, where her recently deceased mother was born. Upsetting the islanders, she discovers secrets from her female lineage. Seeking to end a cycle of inherited violence, she tries to reconnect with her daughter, who lives in France with her father.
RADISSON – 6 x 52’ – Canada-France
- Genre: Drama
- Series created by Grégoire Bénabent & Denoal Rouaud
- Produced by Jason Brennan for Nish Media and Hugo Brisbois for Oble
- In 17th century Quebec where war rages on between French and British settlers, a young orphan becomes the “white Indian” and fights to find his place in a torn world.
TEMPLE – 7 x 60’ – France-Canada
- Genre: Inspired by real events
- Series created by Stéphane Miquel and Vivien Desouches
- Produced by Marc Andreani and Vivien Desouches for L’Étoile Noire Production and Valérie d’Auteuil for Caramel Films
- June 1995. In the mid-1990s, in Quebec, France, and Switzerland, an immersion into the bloody drift of the Order of the Solar Temple through the high-risk investigation conducted jointly by a French infiltrator, Jean-Marc Larrieux, and a Quebecois criminologist, Vanessa Villeneuve.
Tuesday, March 19 from 4:30-5:30 pm – Room 2.3
Meet the future of Canadian television content. Get to know Canada’s up-and-coming producers, watch their best Digital Short Form Series/Web series and discover the company behind the stories. Presented by Telefilm Canada in partnership with APFC, Canada Media Fund (CMF), Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), Ontario Creates and Sodec.
Host: Nathalie Clermont, Canada Media Fund (CMF)
Speakers:
- Paola Arriagada-Nunez: Pimiento Médias
- Dominic Desjardins: Zazie Films
- Sébastien Iannuzzi, François Robidoux-Descary: Productions Bien Joué
- Heidi Lynch: Bone Vault
- Rabiya Mansoor, Shreya Patel: Window Dreams Productions
- Kerry Swanson: Indigenous Screen Office (ISO)
FORUM SELECTIONS AND INITIATIVES
Reconducting the initiative for a second year, the Canada-France Series Lab is a joint venture between Series Mania Forum, Telefilm Canada, and the CNC. Its main goal is to encourage and facilitate co-productions of fiction series between Canadian and French producers. The Canada-France Series Lab offers them new meeting opportunities and will foster the development of projects with strong international potential in a competitive environment.
The Canada-France Series Lab is created in partnership with the French Embassy in Canada and the Canada Media Fund and in collaboration with the Alberta Film Commission, the Alliance des producteurs francophone du Canada, the Black Screen Office, the Indigenous Screen Office, Creative BC and Ontario Creates.
Canadian Companies selected:
- BAROQUE FILMS – Nicolas Canuel, producer and Luc Boulanger, creator and writer
- FAE PICTURES – Shant Joshi, producer
- FAMILIAR FILMS – Jessica Landry, producer
- MARGIN FILMS – Quentin Lee, producer and creator
- PELEE ENTERTAINMENT – Heidi Lasi, producer
- PLAY MEDIA – Andrew McCann Smith, producer
- REIGN FILMS – Magali Gillon-Krizaj, producer
- VITALITY MEDIA PRODUCTIONS – Jeffrey Kopas, producer
- YZANAKIO – Daniela Mujica, producer and Eric Idriss-Kanago, producer
- ZAZIE FILMS – Dominic Desjardins, producer
Tuesday, March 19 between 10-11:30 a.m. in the Grand Théâtre, Grand Palais
The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions are Series Mania Forum’s founding premise and the most anticipated part of the Forum. Each year, 15 series projects seeking international financing are selected and their producers are invited to come to Lille to pitch their series to an audience of key industry decision-makers (producers, broadcasters, financiers, etc.). A prize of 50,000 euros is given to the best project chosen by a professional jury.
This year, one Canadian project has been selected:
- THIRST – 6 x 60′ – Canada
- Genre: Thriller, Science fiction
- Produced by Julia Ferreira Langlois and Annie Sirois for Trio Orange and Written by Sylvain Neuvel
For the 7th year in a row, the Writers Campus launches its call for applications: 16 professional writers from around the world with a project in development will be selected to take part in this one-week intensive workshop at the Creative Bazaar and at Series Mania Forum in Lille, March 15-21, 2024.
One Canado-Ukrainian writer, Anastasia Starova will be part of the participants with her project Veles.
