Series Mania’s Coming Next from Quebec Showcase Boosts Top Productions From La Belle Province

Federation Studios has nabbed worldwide distribution rights to French political comedy and Series Mania winner Under Control.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In cricket-mad India the upcoming Indian Premier League tournament could be a watershed for the country’s jostling media empires, according to Singapore-based consultancy and analysis firm, Media Partners Asia. Video rights for the tournament were split between incumbent pay-TV player Disney Star India, which paid close to $3.1 billion for broadcast rights to the five 2023-2027 editions, and Viacom18, which is backed by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Paramount (as a minority stakeholder), in partnership with financier Bodhi Tree Systems. It paid a similar sum for the separate digital rights. Media Partners Asia estimates that advertising revenues spawned by the two-month 2023 competition will end up around $550 million – representing a clear loss on the annualized cost of $1.2 billion, or roughly $600 million per conglomerate, for the tournament rights. (The analysis firm forecasts that RIL will earn $300-350 million in ad sales, while Star’s best-case scenario is $220 million.)

Series Mania, which wraps on Friday, looks like it’s succeeded in solidifying its place as Europe’s premier TV festival.  The fest’s main competition was one of its strongest yet, and attendance at the industry-facing Series Mania Forum reached an all-time record of 3,800 delegates. Yet even Series Mania couldn’t escape the big-picture headwinds such as strikes and protests around France’s pension reform, nor the wider market turbulence as global streamers curb content investment around the world.  Read on for Variety’s top takeaways:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan has become a go-to destination for Chinese language series production over the past few years, as international streamers have taken the initiative and as the local content trend has become entrenched in Asia. While some of Taiwan’s advantage may have been handed to it as a result of regional political factors, the movement has led to greater interest in Taiwan stories, both historical and modern.Five Taiwan TV projects are being pitched at Series Mania, that are deemed to have international appeal according to Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), a government-backed agency that has become noticeably proactive over roughly the same period.

Casey Bloys wants Kate Winslet to be venerated in the States.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While she retired prematurely at the age of 39, Brigitte Bardot has left an indelible mark on France’s popular culture in the 1960’s and 1970’s. With her wild blonde mane, smoky eyes and pouty lips, Bardot became a symbol of a modern and effortlessly sexy French woman, and a style emblem that continues to inspire current trends. The event series “Bardot,” which is penned and directed by Daniele Thompson (“The Queen Margot”) and Christopher Thompson (“La bûche”), world premiered at Series Mania Festival to unanimous praise and has been pre-sold by Federation nearly worldwide. “‘Bardot’ is like the French ‘The Crown’ because Bardot embodied France, and through her journey we reminisce about many parts of France’s history and popular culture in the 1950’s and 1960’s,” Federation’s boss and “Bardot” producer Pascal Breton told Variety.

Amazon Prime Video is exploring more global franchise opportunities following the success of the Russo Brothers’ Citadel.

Sky Studios CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz has called the plethora of shows on the market “really confusing” for viewers.

Amber Dowling Cineflix Productions has confirmed it is in development with comedian Bonnie McFarlane on a scripted comedy series based on her 2016 memoir, “You’re Better Than Me.” The project is inspired by McFarlane’s time as a high schooler in Cold Lake, Alberta, in the mid-1980s. McFarlane serves as the creator and writer for the half-hour series, which takes place on a farm “294 kilometres outside the nearest pizza delivery zone.” There, a 16-year-old Bonnie flexes her smart mouth, hangs out with her BFF bovine, and recognizes that she’s not the easiest person to get along with.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Germany’s Beta Group is a company for our challenged times, Moritz von Kruedener, Beta Group managing director told an audience at Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues on Thursday.  He also broke down Beta’s business model which takes elements which hark back to the past – a powerful, ultra connected territory-by-territory international sales apparatus  combined with Beta’s biggest pivot in recent years: a move from picking up and selling finished shows into far larger production involvement, be its financial support or early upstream input on maximising a project’s international potential. Beta Group and Series Mania has also scored heavily at this year’s festival with the first edition go Seriesmakers, a mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut.

Rodolphe Belmer has made the case for TF1 Group as “the free entertainment reference for French citizens on TV and in streaming.”

France Télévisions boss Delphine Ernotte Cunci is looking to “debunk” and tackle major societal issues such as sexual violence via the public broadcaster’s shows.

“We all have to become a bit more Scandinavian,” Beta Film MD Moritz von Kruedener told a Series Mania audience this morning.

Netflix teased its slate of European series, including part 3 of its hit heist show “Lupin,” starring Omar Sy, during its showcase at Series Mania in Lille. The panel was attended by Katja Hofem from Germany, Damien Couvreur from France and Jenny Stjernströmer Björk from the Nordics, who each discussed their editorial strategies. The streamer also announced season 2 of its off-beat comedy series “Represent” starring Cesar-winning actor-director Jean-Pascal Zadi (“Tout simplement noir”) as an ordinary man from a project becomes President of France. The show, whose French title is “En Place,” launched earlier this year and was one of the service’s biggest local hits. Other new French titles in the pipeline include “Thicker than Water,” “Tapie,” “Fury” and “Anthracite.”

After the launch of its first original content in 2022, Disney+ France is expanding and announced a slate of new productions at the Series Mania festival in Lille Wednesday afternoon.

Paramount+ is well ahead of its target to greenlight 150 non-U.S. originals by 2025 but international boss Marco Nobili wishes the streamer could have rolled out quicker.

A project from Finland and a Belgium-Uruguay co-production have won the Seriesmaker initiative here at Series Mania.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — Paramount+ will be bowing “Drag Race Italia” Season 3 on the streaming service in Italy, followed by the U.S. and Latin America later this year.  The Italian Season 3 follows on the recent announcement of three new “Drag Race” editions in Brazil, Germany and Mexico and a “Global Drag Race All Stars,” which will air on Paramount+ in their respective territories this year, Paramount+ announced Wednesday. “As we expand Paramount+’s global footprint, it was important to recapture ‘Drag Race’ in key international markets and also build an interconnected competition series with a new ‘Global Drag Race All Stars’ – it’s like a global Super Bowl for Drag,” said Chris McCarthy, president-CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios & Paramount Media Networks.

The issues Westworld was exploring went from “sci-fi to documentary film” through the years, according to co-creator Lisa Joy, who hinted at what a fifth season of the HBO smash could have looked like.

Riot officers were dispatched to the violet carpet yesterday in Lille as nationwide protests against pension reforms hit Series Mania.