‘Eurovision Murder Mystery’ & Vatican Drama Selected For Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions

Jesse Whittock and Sara Merican
·8 min read
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Drama series set in the worlds of Eurovision and the Vatican are among the selected projects for Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions next month.

Among the 16 titles are European six-parter Eurovision Murder Mystery, which is from France’s APC Stories and Germany’s Friday Film. Plot details were thin, but synopsis reads: “When you have 72 hours to solve a murder, save Eurovision and the fate of Europe. Fabienne Hurst and Bertrand Soulier are writing.

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Vatican, from Italy’s Fabula Pictures, follows a father investigating the suspicious death of his only son. he discovers his child was involved in a prostitution ring inside the church used by unscrupulous bishops to control the Vatican policy. Flavio Bernard, Ciro Di Maso and Marcello Olivieri are attached to write.

Fifteen of the 16 Series Mania titles were previously unannounced for the event, which takes place on March 19 as part of the Series Mania Forum. They included titles from Japan, Europe, Israel and Argentina, and several co-productions. See the full list below.

The sixteenth project, Witness 36, from The Mediapro Studio and creator Daniel Burman, took its place by winning the Series Mania aware at the Berlinale Series Market’s Co-Pro Series event in Germany earlier this week. It will be presented but excluded from the competition for the grand prize.

The shows will be fighting it out for Best Project Award is up for grabs, which will provide €50,000 ($54,000) to help develop the winning series.

Sony Pictures Television’s EVP of Global Scripted, Development and Programming Nina Lederman will lead the jury, which also comprises Fifth Season EVP of EMEA Sales and Acquisitions Jennifer Ebell, Federation Studios Co-General Manager Marco Chimenz, NRK Head of Drama Marianne Furevold-Boland and Starz VP of Program Acquisitions and Co-Productions Karin Marelle.

This year, the 15 projects were selected from 413 applications from 57 countries, including four new territories: Mexico, Cameroon, Panama and Chile.

“Since its inception in 2013, the goal of the Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions has been to help high-end European and International drama projects find potential financial partners,” said Laurence Herszberg, founder and General Director of Series Mania.

Series Mania Forum has previously helped propel series such as Viaplay’s Icelandic thriller Stella Blomkvist, Welsh drama Keeping Faith and Sky’s European co-production Devils into production.

“Given the illustrious list of titles which have received their start at the Forum, we know for a fact that this works,” said Herszberg. “This year we have seen a significant increase in projects coming from South America, especially from Brazil and Mexico and have noted the emergence of Asia as a newcomer highlighted by the presence of two Japanese companies in this year’s selection.”

Herszberg added: “Also, this year we received a number of stories inspired by true events and many projects based on strong IPs. While we saw a decline in dystopian themes in favor of more realistic projects and found that the submissions favored more traditional thrillers with an increasing number of dramedies.”

List of selected projects for Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions

ANTILIA – 6 x 52′ – France

Produced by Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin et Vincent Mouluquet for Ego Productions
Written by Maxime Crupaux & Baptiste Fillon
Directed by Vincent Maël Cardona
Short synopsis: Hell and Paradise are on the same island.

A TRUE NOVEL – 8 x 60′ – Japan, USA

Genre: Historical drama
Produced by Satoko Ishida and Meri Koyama for Shochiku and Jonathan Kier and Matt Brodlie for Upgrade Productions 
Written by Riko Sakaguchi 
Short synopsis: While investigating the life of reclusive Japanese industrialist Taro Azuma, a famous novelist begins to uncover a complex puzzle of love and obsession which spans decades.

EUROVISION MURDER MYSTERY – 6 x 52′ – France, Germany

Genre: Murder mystery
Produced by Emmanuelle Guilbart and Agathe de Lorme for APC Stories and Henning Kamm and Johann Buchholz for Friday Film
Written by Fabienne Hurst & Bertrand Soulier
Short synopsis: When you have 72 hours to solve a murder, save EUROVISION and the fate of EUROPE.

FOOD, LOVE, FAITH – 8 x 50′ – Israel

Genre: Drama
Produced by Efrat Shmaya Dror for United Studios IL 
Written by Yossi Madmoni
Short synopsis: An ultra-orthodox Jewish mother smuggles her gay son from Jerusalem to London, to save him from being forced into an arranged marriage. In the big city, when he experiences freedom of choice, he becomes torn between who he is and everything he knew before that shaped him.

ISSAK – 6 x 45′ – Japan, Germany

Genre: Historical Drama
Produced by Itaru Mizuno from Nippon TV and Lasse Scharpen from Studio Zentral
Written by Itaru Mizuno and Richard Kropf, based on the manga “Issak” by Shinji Makari and DOUBLE-S, published by KODANSHA LTD.
Short synopsis: 1620: In the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War, 11-year-old orphan Zetta finds companionship in the mysterious Japanese samurai Issak, who fights on the side of the Protestants – carrying a dark secret with him…

JUDGEMENT OF SOLOMON – 6 x 45′ – Bulgaria

Genre: Mystery/Drama
Produced by: Katya Trichkova for Contrast films LTD and Mirrormind LTD
Written by Teodora Markova and Nevena Kertova
Short synopsis: A 6-year-old Bulgarian girl starts recalling moments from her past life, which leads her family to cross paths with a Swedish couple, who have lost their daughter.

KISS MY FEET – 6 x 50′ – Finland, Netherlands
Genre: Drama
Produced by Aleksi Bardy for Helsinki-Filmi Oy and Fleur Winters for Big Blue, Netherlands.
Written by Daan Gielis & Mark Van De Grift
Short synopsis: Max, a successful marketer, finds himself in a spiritual community in Finland, to help his brother Lucas. As he discovers the secrets of the community, Max and his girlfriend Daphne’s view on family drastically changes.

NANGA PARBAT – 6 x 52′ – France

Genre: Drama, Adventure
Produced by Amaury Ovise for Kazak Productions
Written by Caryl Férey
Short synopsis: Elisabeth Revol’s story of survival and tragedy on Pakistan’s “Killer Mountain” and the daring rescue operation that resounded the world over.

THE ART OF MAGDALENE – 6 x 45′ – Poland, Ireland

Genre: Drama
Produced by Wiktor Piatkowski for Bahama Films and Jonathan Farrelly for PIO Media LTD
Written by Wiktor Piatkowski
Short synopsis: A hard-working and religious immigrant is fed up with being used and humiliated. She builds an international art dealing empire based on ignorance, superficiality and greed of rich people. Her financial pyramid grows faster when drug dealers start using it for laundering money.

THE LEFT HAND OF VENUS – 6 x 45′ – Greece

Genre: Historical Comedy
Produced by Ioannis Kostas, development producer Dimitra Barla, for Arcadia Media
Written by Nikos Panayotopoulos, based on the novel by Takis Theodoropoulos
Short synopsis: When French naval officer Olivier Voutier finds the love of his life on the face of the French consul’s wife of Milos Island, his only hope to conquer her is to steal the statue of Venus that has just been discovered on the island before other suitors beat him to it.

THE ODESA WRESTLERS – 6 x 45′ – Norway

Genre: Drama
Produced by Cathrine Simonsen for Monster AS
Written by Joachim Førsund and Thorbjørn Harr
Short synopsis: In a quaint rural town in Norway, two recently arrived young Ukrainian refugees seize the opportunity to shape a brighter future as they meet a local sports icon – a world champion wrestler with a mission to forge an unstoppable team of champions.

THIRST – 6 x 60′ – Canada

Genre: Thriller, Science fiction
Produced by Julia Ferreira Langlois and Annie Sirois for Trio Orange
Written by Sylvain Neuvel
Short synopsis: What if Quebec’s greatest resource, water, contaminated the entire region in less than a week. Thirst is the story of a woman shadowed by death who chooses to fight to save humanity.

OUR PEOPLE – 6 x 55′ – Slovakia

Genre: Political Drama
Produced by Jakub Viktorín and Tomáš Hrubý for nutprodukcia
Written by Miro Šifra
Directed by Tereza Nvotová
Short synopsis: The murder of a journalist overthrows the balance of power in Slovakia.

VATICAN – 6 x 50′ – Italy

Genre: Drama, Thriller
Produced by Nicola De Angelis for Fabula Pictures
Written by Flavio Bernard, Ciro Di Maso and Marcello Olivieri
Short synopsis: A father investigates the suspicious death of his only son just to discover he was involved in a prostitution ring inside the church used by unscrupulous bishops to control the Vatican policy.

WHITE TIES – 6 x 45′ – Germany

Genre: Drama, Inspired by true events
Produced by Laura Von Portatius for Wüste Film GmbH
Written by Oke Stielow and Uwe Flade
Directed by Viviane Andereggen
Short synopsis: As post-war Berlin is in a state of unrestrained chaos, teenage-gangster Werner Gladow declares himself to become the Al Capone of Berlin – and succeeds. Gladow really existed. He’s a true legend of Berlin – this is his story.

The 16th project, announced on February 20 during the Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series:

WITNESS 36 – 8 x 45’ – Argentina

Genre: Espionage thriller
Produced by Michael Nozik for Oficina Burman (The Mediapro Studio)
Written by Natacha Caravia, Juan Matías Carballo, Daniel Burman
Directed by Daniel Burman
Short synopsis: A female writer specialises in creating fictional identities for an international witness protection programme and becomes entangled in a romance with a mysterious man whose past resembles one of her creations.

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