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Series projects from countries including the UK, France, Italy and Spain are among the 16-strong line-up selected for Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, the flagship event of the industry-focused Series Mania Forum, which runs March 24-26 in Lille in north-west France.
The projects were selected from 400 applications from 65 countries, including new territories such as Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Uruguay, Panama, and Malaysia.
Scroll down for the full list
The winner will be selected by an international jury led by Jorge Pezzi, head of fiction and entertainment at Spain’s Movistar Plus+, that includes Alexandre Piel, deputy head of drama at Arte in France; Laura Mae Harding, commissioning editor at Germany’s ZDF; Alon Aranya, founder of US outfit Paper Plane Productions; and Johanna Gårdare, head of drama and film at Sweden’s SVT.
One of the projects, Swiss thriller Gold, which was announced earlier this month as part of the Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series Market, will be presented but excluded from the competition for the grand prize. The remaining 15 projects will compete for the Sessions’ Best Project Award worth €50,000.
“It was wonderful for us to see that this year, a wide variety of countries were represented, both in the submissions and in the selected project. This year, we noted a diversity of stories in projects ranging from eco-thrillers to ‘whodunit’, including projects that tell the stories of powerful female characters,” said Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania.
The Forum has previously been the launchpad for series such as France’s No Man’s Land (France), the UK’s Keeping Faith, Belgium’s Tabula Rasa and Italy’s Ever After.
Co-Pro Pitching Sessions line-up 2026
Aurora.Newsroom (6 x 52’) - Latvia
Genre: drama, thriller
Prod: Gints Grube, Inese Boka Grube and Elīna Gedina-Ducena for Mistrus Media (Latvia), Co-Producer Riina Sildos, for Amrion Oü (Estonia) and Petri Kempinnen for Good Hand Film & TV (Finland)
Writers: Katri Manninen, Juris Kursietis, Osvalds Zebris
Dir: Juris Kursietis
Short synopsis: After an explosion in a wind farm, an investigative journalist exposes a New Cold War spy network operating in the Baltics.
Death Of A Diplomat (6 x 55’) - Iceland, Canada
Genre: drama, thriller
Prod: Kristinn Thordarson and Leifur Dagfinnsson for Truenorth (Iceland), and Virginia Rankin & Carolyn Newman for Blink49 Studios (Canada)
Writers: Lynne Kamm
Short synopsis: A murder at a high-profile event in Iceland turns the Canadian ambassador’s wife into an unofficial detective, trying to uncover the truth and solve the crime with an underestimated local investigator.
Dejima (6 x 52’) - France
Genre: Ddama
Prod: François Lardenois & Nathan Franck for Studio 14 Films, and Olivier Wotling for Mintee Productions
Writers: Mehdi Ouahab
Short synopsis: Framed and hunted in 1828 Japan, a French doctor and a Japanese noblewoman of samurai blood must flee — but as the old order begins to crack and the country plunges into turmoil, he wants to escape it, she wants to save it, and falling in love will turn their opposing desires into an impossible choice.
Fagnes (6 x 52’) - Belgium
Genre: drama, thriller
Prod: Catherine Burniaux for Les Gens Studio (Belgium) and Ozga Katarzyna for Iris Productions (Luxembourg)
Writers: Vero Cratzborn, Gilles de Voghel, Maia Descamps, Logan De Carvalho and Judith Perrin
Short synopsis: In Belgium’s Little Siberia, a Yenish teenage girl and a young female sergeant seek a truth that could trigger a war neither of them wanted to fight.
Fit (8 x 40’) - Israel
Genre: drama, comedy
Prod: Alona Refua & Maya Fischer for Green Productions
Writer: Moshe Rosenthal
Short synopsis: The family lives of the conservative residents of a luxury suburban high-rise spin out of control when intimate security footage from the building’s gym goes viral, exposing the affairs of several married women with the adored gym instructor, Osher. What begins as public humiliation quickly spirals into a criminal investigation when Osher goes missing - and the building’s families become prime suspects.
Ignition (6 x 40’) - Germany
Genre: action, dark comedy
Prod: Sebastian Herbst for Arkanum Pictures, Co-Producer Carolin Haasis & Christoph Pellander for ARD Degeto
Writers: Jessica Hoelzl, Susann Schadebrodt, Nadine Gottmann
Short synopsis: To save her family‘s failing garage, a proud East German car mechanic becomes a reluctant driver for outlaw bikers, but when the intoxicating thrill of empowerment behind the wheel ignites a dangerous criminal career, she must confront whether true freedom in a rigged system is worth the ultimate price.Will she stay behind the wheel – or get under it?
Imposter Syndrome (6 x 60’) - United Kingdom
Genre: drama, thriller
Exec Prods: Eve Gutierrez & Paula Cuddy for Eleventh Hour Films
Created, written and exec prod: Tom Stuart
Short synopsis: A failing actor is hired as a security double for a member of a famous family dynasty. When his employer is found dead, he must prove his innocence, reclaim his identity and uncover a dark conspiracy at the heart of the family business.
Konrad (6 x 45’) - Iceland
Genre: crime, thriller
Prod: Andri Ómarsson for Glassriver
Developed for TV by: Andri Óttarsson
Short synopsis: A retired Icelandic detective is pulled back into his dark past, confronting his own personal demons on a painful road to redemption.
Montroc (6 x 52’) - France
Genre: drama, action
Prod: Simon Arnal, Caroline Benjo, Clarence De Fontenay and Eliott Khayat for Haut et Court TV
Writer: Clément Peny
Short synopsis: Chamonix Valley, a quaint ski resort, 1999. Blaise Agresti, 34, has just recently taken command of the PGHM, the High Mountain Rescue Unit, when an avalanche of unprecedented scale hits. Countless are suddenly missing. For Blaise, this marks the beginning of the largest rescue operation the PGHM has ever undertaken. The beginning of a race against time. Against death.
Power Couple (6 x 45’) - Finland
Genre: thriller, drama
Prod: Roope Lehtinen & Mikko Pöllä for Fire Monkey Ltd.
Writer: Laura Suhonen
Short synopsis: Together, they must find a way to survive the secret that is about to destroy them both. A leading presidential candidate learns that her beloved husband is a Russian-born sleeper agent who has just been reactivated. Together, they decide to survive the secret that is about to destroy them both.
Red Pants (10 x 60’) - Kirghizstan
Genre: drama, action
Prod: Erke Dzhumakmatova for Studio Oymo, Co-Producer Pavel Feldman & Alexander Seliverstov for Human Films
Writer: Tilek Cherikov
Short synopsis: In late 1970s Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Aisha a military officer’s daughter, forms the notorious ‘Red Pants’ first female criminal gang to avenge her father’s death and challenge the oppressive regime.
The Glacier Murders (6 x 50’) - Spain, Chile
Genre: drama, thriller
Prod: Arlette Peyret for Brutal Media (Spain), Co-Producer Alvaro Cabello for Fabula (Chile)
Writers: Mariano Baselga and Enrique Videla
Short synopsis: When a young Spaniard inherits a remote Patagonian hotel containing a frozen corpse, he teams with a disgraced cop to unravel a double murder that leads deep into his family’s past, back in Catalonia.
The Transfer Of The Century (5 x 50’) - Italy
Genre: drama, comedy
Prod: Indiana Production & Lucky Red
Writers: Raffaele Iaccarino, Giacomo Zibardi, Filippo Gravino
Short synopsis: The worst club in the league. Eight billion lira of debt. Forty days for a once-in-a-lifetime chance. This is the true story of the man who risked everything to buy Maradona.
Twisted Vines (8 x 60’) - South Africa
Genre: drama, procedural
Prod: Stan Joseph for Ochre Moving Pictures
Writers: Paul Crilley & Thomas Hall
Short synopsis: When her estranged father dies and her brother is arrested for the murder, Tamsin Hope - a crime novelist with writer’s block - is forced to return to the home she fled a decade ago, and a small town steeped in secrets. There, she must unravel the mystery of her father’s murder while teaming up with her reluctant ex, now a police detective, to solve other local crimes along the scenic South African wine route.
Without Standing (8 x 50’) - Spain
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Procedural
Prod: Candela Izquierdo for 100 ACRES
Writer: Jessica Aran
Short synopsis: Madrid, 1981. When Spain legalises divorce, a blacklisted secretary opens a one-woman “law firm” for desperate wives—turning survival into a hustle that leaves a trail of enemies.
The 16th project announced during the Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series:
Gold (6 x 45’) - Switzerland
Genre: Thriller
Prod: Stefan Eichenberger for Contrast Film.
Created by Christian Wehrlin & Pascal Glatz.
Writers: Christian Wehrlin, Pascal Glat, Mariama Djité & Jessica Hagan.
Short synopsis: To save her family’s legacy, a brilliant Swiss gold trader starts compromising her morals – and is pulled into the darkest corners of the global gold trade, where the stakesare no longer just her company, but her family’s very survival.
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