Series Mania’s Laurence Herszberg Outlines Year-Round Initiatives

It was but ten days before the official kickoff of Series Mania last year that the event made the tough decision not to move forward with its in-person gathering. With the world gripped by the coronavirus pandemic and many countries in lockdown, Series Mania quickly pivoted to digital. It was also fast to move on rolling out a slew of new initiatives that will be present throughout the year, all with the same goal of bringing the series industry together.

“We have a leading role in connecting people within the industry,” says Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania. “This has to remain, even if we cannot be connected in person. So, we created a digital platform to offer part of what we had in store for the real event: the video library and introducing more than 50 new shows and the co-pro pitching sessions with the new projects the industry is waiting for, making sure that everyone could see the projects. It worked, and it worked well!”

She adds that Series Mania is positioned as a tool for the industry, “leading the way to make people understand how fiction is important, how it brings people together, how we have the industry behind us. So, we decided to stay active all year long and to make Series Mania a brand that people—the public, the audience and the professionals—can follow all year.” This was already a goal that Herszberg and the Series Mania team had in mind before the pandemic, but the crisis accelerated the movement.

Series Mania has confirmed new dates for the 2021 edition, which is scheduled to take place in Lille, France, and the Hauts-de-France region from August 26 to September 2. The Series Mania Forum is set for August 30 to September 1. The date of the Lille Dialogues, which joins together major political decision-makers and leading industry executives, will be revealed soon. Series Mania Digital, the online platform that initially launched in March last year, will complement the live event, proving especially valuable for those who may still not be able to travel.

The move to the fall this year was driven by a sincere desire to gather the industry in person again and minimize the risk of having another online edition for Series Mania. “We now know that part of our job can be done online: you can watch new series and discuss with the industry and host masterclasses and conferences,” Herszberg says. “What online cannot replace is the human connection. To invest in a TV show or invest in the development of a series, you need to talk with the creator or scriptwriter, having a drink or coffee, to know if you can work together for three or so years to develop the series. For that, you need to have direct contact. All our work of networking—and we are the place where people can network and develop new ideas and new concepts—you cannot do through a screen.”

As part of its efforts to keep the industry connected all year long, Series Mania has developed several new initiatives. This includes the launch of the Series Mania Label. Throughout the year, the Series Mania team watches hundreds of new series coming from all over the world. Going forward, Series Mania will offer its recommendations to the public through its digital presence and online video content, along with organizing premiere screenings in Lille. The selected festival-supported series will be awarded the Series Mania Label with the aim of developing their notoriety and visibility.

Series Mania Digital is now a year-round effort, meant to encourage projects in development through a lively and interactive networking platform. This digital platform brings together members of the industry to strengthen networking ties.

Series Mania Institute is a new initiative devoted to training those who will make the European series of tomorrow. It is based on three fundamental axes: to create a European creative network to encourage the sharing of knowledge and creative emulation across borders; to remove the barriers that exist between TV professions, to unite writers, directors, producers and broadcasters around a common work culture, to improve the flow of the creative process and respond to the increase in production volume; and to open up the industry to more diverse profiles, allowing greater representation in the stories that are told and in who is telling them, by giving them the tools to tell their own stories.

In partnership with La Fémis, this will include Eureka Series, an intensive four-month, full-time, English-language training course for 12 participants (six scriptwriters and six series producers) from all over Europe. Grounded in the belief that those in the European TV series industry can learn from each other, Eureka Series will bring together multiple nationalities to benefit from the support of international teachers and professional speakers, bolstered through partnerships with schools at the forefront of TV-series teaching in their respective countries, including ECAM, the Lodz Film School and IFS. Participants will be working on projects that may eventually become European co-productions. Eureka Series will benefit from the support of the Alliance, a continental audiovisual group comprising France Télévisions, RAI (Italy) and ZDF (Germany).

The second phase for Series Mania Institute will see the launch of a young talent platform in the Hauts-de-France region, to open up the industry to profiles that do not come from traditional academic backgrounds. The program will identify, train and guide these young talents who are looking to develop themselves in this industry.

Series Mania Rendez-vous was developed as an online initiative that includes exclusive, curated content each month and is part of Series Mania Digital. The latest Rendez-vous, entitled “Reinventing Lupin,” featured a case study of the Netflix hit Lupin, produced by Gaumont.

Another edition of the UGC Writers Campus is in the works as well. This year again, 20 upcoming writers will be selected from 150 applicants to take part in the one-week writing training.

All of these initiatives complement the Festival and Forum, which remain calendar events as meeting points to gather the industry together—an especially important proposition this year. “We all know that we have to go back to connect together,” Herszberg says. “You’ll come back to Series Mania because you can discover high-potential projects in development, selected from all over the world; you’ll have books available for series adaptation; you’ll have promising talent to watch, creators and showrunners selected from the best film and TV schools in Europe; and you’ll have brand-new shows available for sale or remake from key territories. What we know, and what no one else can do, is that we have an overview about every new talent and new shows written in Europe, but also in other territories, and we know how to attract new talent. We are the ones who can provide the industry with projects or talent from all over the world.”