European drama event Series Mania will return to Lille next March

Disney’s Jan Koeppen speaking at Series Mania (photo: Alexandra Henry)

SERIES MANIA: The 2022 edition of Series Mania will once again be held in Lille, France, in March after its recent hybrid event attracted more than 54,000 participants.

The Series Mania Festival, which is open to the public, will be held between March 18 and 25 next year, with the industry-focused Series Mania Forum taking place on March 22, 23 and 24.

The most recent edition of the event, which shifted from Paris to Lille in 2018 and went online-only in spring 2020 due to the pandemic, was held in-person and online between August 26 and September 2, having initially been planned to take place earlier in the year.

Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, said 54,000 people took part in the festival, while 2,500 were accredited for Series Mania Forum.

This featured the Lille Dialogues, a one-day summit bringing together European lawmakers and international TV industry execs to discuss the challenges facing the industry and promote cooperation. This will be held on March 24 next year.

Content quotas and coproductions were hot topics at the event, while a gay-themed Russian drama won the copro pitch and Disney’s Jan Koeppen and WarnerMedia’s Priya Dogra and Christina Sulebakk discussed their plans for European originals on their respective streaming services, Disney+ and HBO Max.

Herszberg said: “As we close the doors to this fantastic 2021 edition, we warmly thank the public and the professionals who came in large numbers here, but also want to salute the tremendous welcome from the city of Lille and the unwavering support of the Hauts-de-France Region, a territory committed to the audiovisual sector.”