Series Mania Spotlight: Top Dramas Set for Global Success at Buyers Upfront!

At the upcoming Series Mania event, attendees will be introduced to ten new international drama series poised to make waves globally, featuring a diverse array of themes including gnomes, WWII-era Nazis, video game enthusiasts, fertility clinics, and the British Prime Minister. The lineup includes a project from the creators of Sherlock, a series supported by HBO, alongside a predominantly European slate, with a Japan-Singapore collaboration and an Australian comedy adding international diversity.

Originally a co-production hub, the Series Mania Forum has evolved into an essential industry event for global scripted series professionals, taking place alongside the public Series Mania festival. The Forum now includes a marketplace for buying and selling shows. Last year, it introduced an exclusive event for buyers, featuring series likely to succeed on an international level. A jury composed of leading buyers awards the Buyers Choice Award, which was last given to the nuclear negotiation drama The Deal.

This year’s lineup showcases ten promising series. From Hartswood Films, the producers behind Sherlock, comes Number 10, written by Steven Moffat of Sherlock fame, who will also present a masterclass at the event. The series delves into the life at 10 Downing Street, residence of the British Prime Minister, with ITV Studios handling its distribution. Also hailing from the UK is the Scotland-based legal drama Counsels, a collaboration between the BBC and Germany’s ZDF Neo, with All3Media handling its sales. This may be All3Media International’s final Series Mania as an independent distributor due to an impending merger with Banijay.

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Several dramas distributed by French companies are set to make a splash. Wild Bunch is behind the Franco-Belgian series Alice, which chronicles the life of cinema’s first female director, Alice Guy. SND Groupe M6 is presenting R91, a French crime thriller set on a nuclear aircraft carrier. Another highlight is The Dark Book: The Secret of the Egerias (a working title), a Spanish thriller about a criminal profiler, brought to you by Studio TF1.

From Germany’s Beta Film comes another Spanish collaboration, In Vitro, which follows a microbiologist at a fertility clinic, produced with HBO Max’s involvement. The aforementioned Japanese-Singaporean drama Lost and Found centers around the gaming world. Meanwhile, from Australia, there’s the comedic Gnomes, dealing with a potential gnome apocalypse, offered by Happy Accidents.

Scandinavia continues to impress with its strong drama offerings. Fremantle introduces the Norwegian thriller The Traitor Within, based on the true story of Norway’s most infamous Nazi collaborator and his assassin. In another gripping tale, OneGate Media presents Blind, a crime drama that begins with a blind bartender named Nathaniel arriving at a police station covered in blood, claiming that a pregnant woman was kidnapped from his bar.

The exclusive Buyers’ event is scheduled to take place at the Lille Chamber of Commerce on March 23.