SERIESMAKERS Reveals Winners & Opens Second Edition

SERIESMAKERS, led by Series Mania Forum and supported by Beta Group, has unveiled the three winners of its first edition and put out a call for submissions for its second edition.

The two Beta Development Awards of €50,000 each were awarded to Finland’s Yours, Margot and Belgium/Uruguay’s The Invisible Ink. Yours, Margot, from director Juho Kuosmanen and producer Jussi Rantamäki, follows Vilja as she unearths her family’s traumatic past in 1980s East Berlin after discovering her father’s letters to an unknown lover. The Invisible Ink, from director César Díaz producer Fernando Epstein, sees a former Uruguayan revolutionary’s peaceful life in Belgium, interrupted when he receives a visit from his old torturer, who threatens to kill his wife and daughter.

The recipients of the Beta Development Awards will work closely with Beta’s Content Division, led by CCO Koby Gal Raday, to develop a pilot script and a full package. They will also be invited to Series Mania Forum 2024 to present their projects.

An award of €20,000, courtesy of the Kirch Foundation in collaboration with HFF (University of Television and Film Munich), went to Brazil’s Amigas, from director Beatriz Seigner and writer Maíra Bühler. The series sees five high school girl friends meet again at their 25th graduation anniversary. Now in their 40s, they must confront a shared traumatic experience they shared as teenagers in order to move on in the present day.

Following the success of the first edition, a second edition of SERIESMAKERS has opened, with submissions allowed through June 15. Directors who have had at least one feature film screened in the official selection of an A-list film festival are eligible. They can submit as teams of either director-producer or director-writer. Ten teams will be chosen to participate in the training program.

For the second edition, Chris Brancato (Narcos, Godfather of Harlem, Pushing Daisies) and Lisa Joy (Westworld, The Peripheral, Pushing Daisies) will join the speakers and mentors who participated in the first edition, including Frank Doelger (Game of Thrones, The Swarm), Stefan Arndt (The White Ribbon, Run Lola Run, Babylon Berlin, Goodbye Lenin) and Michael Polle (Babylon Berlin, House of Promises, Furia).