Series Mania Wraps Up 2019 Festival, Sets Dates for 2020

The Series Mania Festival saw gains in public and professional attendance, media attention and celebration of its programming during its second year in Lille, France.

Over the course of its nine days (March 22-30), the festival’s total attendance—including 129 screenings in theaters and events set up at Tripostal’s Village Festival and elsewhere in Lille—increased 30 percent over last year to 72,332. Seventy-one unreleased series from 19 countries were presented, 31 of which were world premieres, including that of Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone series for CBS All Access.

Marti Noxon became the first woman to preside over the official competition jury, which also included Julianna Margulies, Audrey Fleurot, Delphine de Vigan, Thomas Lilti and Podz. Celebrities such as Uma Thurman, Anna Paquin, Adam Scott and Freddie Highmore were in attendance at the festival as well.

The Village Festival by Credit Mutuel, set up at Tripostal, presented exhibitions, escape games, VR spaces, immersive sets of series, workshops, concerts, thematic parties and more. The festival also held six screenings and meetings in Hauts-de-France with series teams at Amiens, Arras, Lens, Tourcoing, Roubaix and Dunkerque that welcomed more than 2,500 spectators.

The industry arm and professional event of the festival, Series Mania Forum, hosted 2,700 participants from 57 countries. Highlights of the forum included the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, the Lille Transatlantic Dialogues, the UGC Writers Campus workshop, the all-new VR (Virtual Reality) Co-Production Initiative and the signing of the 5050×2020 Charter for equality and diversity in cinema, audiovisual and animation festivals.

For 2020, the Series Mania Festival will run from March 20-28, while the Series Mania Forum will be held from March 25-27.

Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, said: “It’s a curious, joyful and bold audience that we saw rushing to screenings, meetings, masterclasses and to Tripostal’s Village Festival by Credit Mutuel. This craze proves that the festival’s ambition to reach every audience, of all ages through its eclectic, popular and demanding programming, has succeeded.”