21/03/2024 - The series projects George Blake, The Squatter and Sleeping Swans win the three development grants

The winners, jury members and organisers of the 2024 SERIESMAKERS (© Séries Mania)

Launched last year by Series Mania and Germany’s Beta Group to support the talents moving from cinema to series, the initiative SERIESMAKERS has selected its second round of winners, recognising three projects among the ten which were selected (read the news) and whose teams benefitted from a bespoke training programme delivered by renowned consultants.

A development grant of a value of 50,000 € from Beta went to George Blake, a project carried by Scotland’s Kevin Macdonald (famous in cinema for films such as The Last King of Scotland [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and The Mauritanian [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Dutch producer Femke Wolting. This 6×52’ series will tell the untold true story of one of the most prolific double agents of not just the Cold War, but British history, and will explore what makes a person turn against everything they ever stood for.

The second grant of 50,000 € from Beta went to The Squatter by Filipino director Erik Matti (who was in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2013 with On the Job and in Venice competition in 2021 with On the Job : The Missing 8) associated with fellow Filipino producer Ronald Monteverde. This 8 x 52’ project brings together a dead body in a rural town, a fraudulent London charity, and an East-meets-West crime story. With their hopes and futures at stake, a secretive Filipino maid and a tenacious Ukrainian detective must unravel the mysteries of a crime, just as the crime itself reveals who they truly are.

Finally, a grant of 20,000 € provided by the Kirch Foundation (in collaboration with HFF - University of Television and Film Munich) went to the German project Sleeping Swans which brings together Austrian director Barbara Albert (selected in competition in Venice with Nordrand and Falling [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and in San Sebastián with The Dead and the Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
film profile] and Mademoiselle Paradis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
film profile]), German writer Ulrike Tony Vahl, and German producer Martina Haubrich. This 8×52’ project is set in a coastal town in Eastern Germany, where an idyll turns into a sinister nightmare as children inexplicably fall ill with a mysterious condition. Renowned expert Ellen Lennardsson is called in to decipher the secret. In a desperate race against time, she fights against inexplicable forces and the insurmountable resistance of the community. As the number of affected children rises unstoppably, Ellen uncovers a sinister conspiracy encompassing not only the supernatural, but also the darker side of human nature.

The recipients of this year’s two Beta Development Awards will work closely with Beta’s Content and Co-Production Divisions to develop the pilot script and a complete package.

On the occasion of the awards ceremony, Series Mania Forum director Francesco Capurro (read our interview) announced that the call for projects for the third edition of SERIESMAKERS would open soon. For the record, the first edition had crowned Juho Kuosmanen, César Díaz, and Beatriz Seigner (read the news).

(Translated from French)