South Series winners

Source: South Series

South Series winners

Spanish series Entrevias has won the audience award in the fiction section of the inaugural South International Series Festival which wrapped yesterday (October 12). Music documentary series Macarena won the audience prize in the festival’s non-fiction section.

Entrevias, now in its third season, is produced by Mediaset España and Alea Media for Telecinco. The series centres on a war veteran who takes matters into his own hands when his teenage granddaughter falls victim to the drug dealers overtaking his neighbourhood.

Documentary series Macarena, produced by Producciones del Barrio for Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+, is about the international hit of the song of the same name by Los del Río on its thirtieth anniversary.

The audience prize winners were announced by the festival director, Joan Álvarez, and the president of the event’s organising committee, José Carlos Conde.

South Series brought together talent and execs from the TV and film industries from around twenty countries in Cadiz for seven days. The festival attracted local talent incluging Luis Tosar, José Coronado, María Galiana, Adriana Ozores, Álex García, Los del Río, and international talent such as the Italian actor Daniele Liotti, the Argentine screenwriter and director Armando Bó or the Franco-Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko.

The festival said there were 3,248 accreditations and that half of the theatres hosting screenings were sold out, while the rest recorded an average occupancy of 80%.

“We have covered all the objectives and we are already studying the needs for 2024,” said Álvarez. Among these objectives, he added, was to make “a festival for the public, which has exceeded all our expectations, even though in the last three days we were not able to celebrate the red carpet.”

The red carpet was cancelled after Cadiz City Council decreed three days of mourning on Monday after three people were killed and three others injured when a school bus lost control and hit pedestrians in the Andalusian city.

Álvarez flagged that 120 speakers and more than 3,000 attendees attended the festival industry programme. “It was about opening visions, markets, contacts with the audience, and we have achieved this with the presence of emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic and Israel,” as well as other consolidated ones such as India.

With a budget of €2.9 million, the first edition of South Series was sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalusia, co-financed with European funds, Cádiz City Council, Cádiz Provincial Council. The main media sponsor was Mediaset España . Movistar Plus+, Spain Film Commission, Fundación SGAE, Fundación Bancaria Unicaja and Canal Sur also backed the first edition.