Impossible is not from Lille! The general manager, Laurence Herszberg, and her teams have only had a few months to set up this fourth edition, but the Series Mania festival is making a comeback this evening until March 25th. The previous edition had been postponed to the end of August 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But don’t get me wrong: this slight lack of time won’t prevent Lille’s flagship festival from shining brightly for a week. With an international jury, chaired by Julia Sinkevych, a Ukrainian producer, and nearly 60 series on the program, including 30 world premieres. On the program are cutting-edge works, but also popular programs, as evidenced by the festival trailer which begins with an Audrey Fleurot dressed all in red in the new season of HPI on TF1.
Initially, they were 331; finally, there are 58 left. In total, 46 countries have submitted their programs to the international festival of Séries Mania. From the opening night, the festival hits hard with Funny, the new series written by Fanny Herrero (Ten percent), which takes place in the world of Parisian stand-up, while the closing ceremony will be offered to Disney+ with the presentation ofOussekine, who looks back on the Malik Oussekine affair, through the fight of his family, after his death in 1986.
Among the other events of the edition, just to prove that Series Mania brews wide and is not only aimed at a handful of series voracious who would not be comfortable with the term “popular” or at an audience who would swear only by the platforms , the festival will also preview the new seasons ofIn therapy (Art), of HPI – the megasuccess of TF1 last season, in the presence of Audrey Fleurot –Hippocrates (Canal+) or even Bridgerton Chronicles (Netflix). Not to mention the dissemination of Visitors, the new SF series by and with Simon Astier.
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The new series from David Simon, the creator of TheWire
In international competition, one of the most popular, this year there are nine series for six countries. Among the most anticipated of them, Billy The Kid, the new series by Michael Hirst (present on site), the creator of You sleep and of Vikings. But also We Own This Cityin which David Simon, the creator of the mythical TheWire, plunges its characters back into Baltimore and evokes, still for HBO, police violence. In the cast: Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead), Jamie Hector (already in TheWire), Thaddeus Street (The Deuce), Wunmi Mosaku (Moses Jones) or even Josh Charles (Dead Poets Society, The Good Wife). On the French side were selected the series The world of tomorrow, which looks back on the genesis of the NTM group for Arte, and Sentinelswhich takes place within the 22and infantry regiment in full operation Barkhane in Mali, with in particular Louis Peres, discovered in the Germinal from France 2.
To decide between them, a jury of professionals made up of the writer Marc Dugain, the actress Cécile de France, the Turkish director Berkun Oya, the German actor Christian Berkel, the Israeli actress Shira Haas (Unorthodox) and singer Yseult. At the last minute, and because her name had not yet been revealed, Rodolphe Belmer, president of Séries Mania, and Laurence Herszberg, general manager, entrusted the role of president of this jury to the Ukrainian producer, Julia Sinkevych, justifying their choice by the desire to bear witness to the “role of festivals in a world in crisis”.
TF1 draws E-syndrome
In French competition, the festival, determined to show all its love to young audiences, has set its sights on two FranceTV series. slash : tender flesh, on the daily life of an intersex teenager, and ReuSSS, a musical series about three young girls looking for the culprit of an attack in their city. But it will also be necessary to take into account Out of season, a thriller with Marina Hands and the essential Sofiane Zermani for France 2 and RTS, The Black Butterfliesan Arte thriller with Niels Arestrup and Nicolas Duvauchelle, Doggie, which takes place in the middle of aerobics in the heart of the 1980s (again for OCS), but also with the highly anticipated E-syndrome, adaptation by TF1 of Franck Thilliez’s bestseller with Vincent Elbaz, Jennifer Decker and Emmanuelle Béart. Last season, the amazing series Young and Golri by Agnès Hurstel was rewarded in this category.
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Finally, the Panorama international jury, made up of actress Sofia Essaïdi, screenwriter Sophie Deraspe, director Eshref Reybrouck, producer Greer Simpkin, Roni Alter and chaired by Anne Berest, presented with irony or not, as the Un certain look of the Series Mania festival, will have to choose between The Responder (UK), Kin (Ireland), Magpie Murders (UK), Station Eleven (United States), good people (Belgium), TwoSummers (Belgium), Sunshine Eyes (Germany), The Dark Heat (Sweden), Children in the Woods (Israel), Raspberry Time (Canada), Turbia (Colombia) and Gold Panning (China).
And, as each session must offer a little novelty, this year, the Vidocq prize, launched by the prefecture of the Hauts-de-France and North region, will be awarded to the best French police series of the year. Rich program, therefore, for a festival which seeks to pull the cover of its own by drawing this new edition just two weeks before Cannes Series, which will open its doors for a fifth edition on 1er next April on the Croisette.