Paris-Set Series Mania Festival Expands to Australia with Series Mania Melbourne

CANNES, France – Series Mania, the Paris-set festival dedicated to drama series which is in its eighth year, is set to expand its footprint in Australia with the launch of Series Mania Melbourne.

The four-day event, co-organized with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Film Victoria, the Australian government agency for film, television, and digital media, will take place July 20-24.

Series Mania Melbourne will screen shows that compete and win awards at this month’s Series Mania in Paris, including one-hour, digital and short format series.

The festival will also play recent French series, such as “Republican Gangsters” (“Baron noir”), “Spiral” (“Engrenages”) or “Versailles.”

Modeled on the Paris-set Series Mania, the Melbourne festival will include a professional sidebar to allow Australian TV industry players to network with international execs.

“We are very enthusiastic about this new partnership with ACMI and Film Victoria. It affords the opportunity for Series Mania to showcase the best international series with a passionate audience and to develop professional relationships with the highly creative Australian industry,” said Laurence Herszberg, the managing director of Series Mania Festival.

Jenni Tosi, the CEO of Film Victoria, said that “Victoria [is] the home of fantastic Australian drama so bringing the best of Series Mania 2017 to Melbourne is a real coup.”

“Film Victoria and ACMI are natural partners for this event, and we know Melbourne audiences and filmmakers will relish the opportunity to view and discuss the best of TV drama from around the world,” added Tosi.

While it’s expanding to Australia, Series Mania in Paris will lose its public funding next year as the French government recently announced it would financially back the creation of another series festival in Lille, located in Northern France.

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