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INDUSTRY France

Rodolphe Belmer elected president of Series Mania Lille Hauts-de-France Festival

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- With the TV industry booming, the former managing director of Canal+ heads up the team behind the new event in Lille

Rodolphe Belmer elected president of Series Mania Lille Hauts-de-France Festival
Rodolphe Belmer

La Rochelle TV Fiction Festival (which ran from 13-17 September) often takes on the role of the platform for announcements in French TV at the start of the autumn season. This year’s edition of the festival was particularly notable due to the announcement that Rodolphe Belmer is to become president of Series Mania Lille Hauts-de-France Festival (first edition set to run from 27 April-5 May). Eutelsat's current CEO and the former managing director of Canal+, Belmer’s guidance is only set to strengthen the team behind the northern festival, chosen by the French government to become a major international event dedicated to television series originating in France. The event, which is due to receive a budget of €5,000,000, has already played a major strategic move this summer by taking on the brand and main players of Series Mania, the Parisian festival whose first eight editions have only seen it go from strength to strength. Along for the ride in Lille are Laurence Herszberg as managing director, Frédérique Lavigne as artistic director, Jeffrey Bledfoe as production manager and Francesco Capurro who will be in charge of the market. It's also worth noting that the Series Mania Lille Hauts-de-France Co-Production Forum will be held from 2 to 4 May 2018. An experienced team that will nevertheless have to face competition from the first edition of Canneseries, which is set to take place from 4 to 11 April 2018 on the Croisette (at the same time as MIP TV) and whose artistic direction has been entrusted to Albin Lewi, the former Minister of Culture, and Fleur Pellerin, who will be taking on the presidency.

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A strategic factor in the growth of French audio-visual programs in exportation (read the annual survey from CNC and TV France International here) with excellency in 2016 coming from Dix pour cent (lit. Ten Percent), Versailles and Le Bureau des légendes [+see also:
interview: Frédéric Lavigne
series profile
]
(lit. Office Legends). TV series production is currently booming in France and many filmmakers are now taking on two films at once. This is particularly true for Arte, the Franco-German channel putting particular emphasis on Thomas Cailley (Love at First Fight [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Cailley
film profile
]
) who co-wrote and is set to co-direct Ad Vitam, a 6x52 minute series featuring Ivan Attal as the main character, mixing the sci-fi and detective genres (production: Kelija - Lagardère Studios). Also in the pipeline for Arte is Il était une seconde fois (lit. Once Upon A Second Time) by Guillaume Nicloux with Gaspard Ulliel in the main role (Production unit) Thanksgiving by Nicolas Saada (co-written with Anne-Louise Trévidic; Capa Drama) or the French adaptation of BeTipul (known as In Treatment in the United States), which is due to be produced by the duo Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (Les Films du Poisson), as well as the European co-productions Il Miracolo (with Italian companies Wildside and Sky, co-produced by Kwaï), Hierro (with Spanish companies Portocabo and Movistar) Eden (with German company Lupa Film), and season 2 of Occupied with Norway, as well as Ride Upon the Storm (read the news here) with Denmark. Links with other European countries make up an essential component of Arte's DNA, who recently announced in La Rochelle that it will be launching a fund in collaboration with the SACD for French authors writing TV series with a European focus.

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(Translated from French)

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