The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions are one of the founding premises and most anticipated events of Series Mania Forum dedicated to series making and financing.
The Forum has been the launchpad for the release of such series as Unspoken (Ukraine), Off Season (Switzerland / France), No Man’s Land (France), Banking District (Switzerland), Eden (France), Keeping Faith (Great Britain), Manor House (Czech Republic), Stella Blomkvist (Iceland), Tabula Rasa (Belgium), Trepalium (France), Warrior (Denmark), Devils (Italy), The Head (Spain), Ever After (Italy), The Last Socialist Artefact (Slovenia, Finland) and We Got This (Sweden).
Each year, 15 series projects seeking international financing are selected, and their producers are invited to Lille to present their series to an audience of key industry decision-makers including producers, broadcasters, and financiers.
This year, 15 projects were selected from 400 submissions received from 65 countries, including six new territories represented for the first time: Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Uruguay, Panama and Malaysia.
A €50,000 prize will be awarded to the Best Project, selected by a jury composed of leading audiovisual industry professionals.
THE 2026 JURY
Jorge Pezzi
The Jury President
Head of Fiction and Entertainment, Movistar Plus+ (Spain)
Alexandre Piel
Deputy Head of Drama, ARTE
(France)
Laura Mae Harding
Commissioning Editor, ZDF
(Germany)
Alon Aranya,
Founder Paper Plane Productions
(United States)
Johanna Gårdare
Head of Drama & Film, SVT
(Sweden)
The following list of selected projects (in alphabetical order) will be pitched by their producers to a panel of potential financiers and are eligible for the Best Project Award of €50,000.
The selected projects :
AURORA.NEWSROOM. – 6 x 52′ – Latvia
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Produced by Gints Grube, Inese Boka Grube and Elīna Gedina-Ducena for Mistrus Media (Latvia), Co-Producer Riina Sildos, for Amrion Oü (Estonia) and Petri Kempinnen for Good Hand Film & TV (Finland)
Written by Katri Manninen, Juris Kursietis, Osvalds Zebris
Directed by Juris Kursietis
Short synopsis: After an explosion in a wind farm, an investigative journalist exposes a New Cold War spy network operating in the Baltics.
DEATH OF A DIPLOMAT – 6 x 55′ – Iceland, Canada
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Produced by Kristinn Thordarson and Leifur Dagfinnsson for Truenorth (Iceland), and Virginia Rankin & Carolyn Newman for Blink49 Studios (Canada)
Written by Lynne Kamm
Short synopsis: Based on the debut novel by former First Lady of Iceland Eliza Reid, Death of a Diplomat follows the Canadian ambassador’s wife after a murder at a high-profile event in Iceland pulls her into an unexpected role as an unofficial detective, scrambling to uncover the truth and solve the crime alongside an underestimated local investigator. Together they uncover buried secrets, diplomatic deceit, and the lies propping up her own marriage.
DEJIMA – 6 x 52′ – France
Genre: Drama
Produced by François Lardenois & Nathan Franck for Studio 14 Films, and Olivier Wotling for Mintee Productions
Written by Mehdi Ouahab
Short synopsis: Framed and hunted in 1828 Japan, a French doctor and a Japanese noblewoman of samurai blood must flee — but as the old order begins to crack and the country plunges into turmoil, he wants to escape it, she wants to save it, and falling in love will turn their opposing desires into an impossible choice.
FAGNES – 6 x 52′ – Belgium
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Produced by Catherine Burniaux for Les Gens Studio (Belgium) and Ozga Katarzyna for Iris Productions (Luxembourg)
Written by Vero Cratzborn, Gilles de Voghel, Maia Descamps, Logan De Carvalho and Judith Perrin
Short synopsis: In Belgium’s Little Siberia, a Yenish teenage girl and a young female sergeant seek a truth that could trigger a war neither of them wanted to fight.
FIT – 8 x 40′ – Israel
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Produced by Alona Refua & Maya Fischer for Green Productions
Written by Moshe Rosenthal
Short synopsis: The family lives of the conservative residents of a luxury suburban high-rise spin out of control when intimate security footage from the building’s gym goes viral, exposing the affairs of several married women with the adored gym instructor, Osher. What begins as public humiliation quickly spirals into a criminal investigation when Osher goes missing – and the building’s families become prime suspects.
IGNITION – 6 x 40’ – Germany
Genre: Action, Dark Comedy
Produced by Sebastian Herbst for Arkanum Pictures, Co-Producer Carolin Haasis & Christoph
Pellander for ARD Degeto
Written by Jessica Hoelzl, Susann Schadebrodt, Nadine Gottmann
Short synopsis: To save her family‘s failing garage, a proud East German car mechanic becomes a reluctant driver for outlaw bikers, but when the intoxicating thrill of empowerment behind the wheel ignites a dangerous criminal career, she must confront whether true freedom in a rigged system is worth the ultimate price.Will she stay behind the wheel – or get under it?
IMPOSTER SYNDROME – 6 x 60′ – United Kingdom
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Executive Produced by Eve Gutierrez & Paula Cuddy for Eleventh Hour Films
Created, Written and Executive Produced by Tom Stuart
Short synopsis: A failing actor is hired as a security double for a member of a famous family dynasty. When his employer is found dead, he must prove his innocence, reclaim his identity and uncover a dark conspiracy at the heart of the family business.
KONRAD – 6 x 45′ – Iceland
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Produced by Andri Ómarsson for Glassriver
Developed for television by Andri Óttarsson
Short synopsis: A retired Icelandic detective is pulled back into his dark past, confronting his own personal demons on a painful road to redemption.
MONTROC – 6 x 52′ – France
Genre: Drama, Action
Produced by Simon Arnal, Caroline Benjo, Clarence De Fontenay and Eliott Khayat for Haut et Court TV
Written by Clément Peny
Short synopsis: Chamonix Valley, a quaint ski resort, 1999. Blaise Agresti, 34, has just recently taken command of the PGHM, the High Mountain Rescue Unit, when an avalanche of unprecedented scale hits. Countless are suddenly missing. For Blaise, this marks the beginning of the largest rescue operation the PGHM has ever undertaken. The beginning of a race against time. Against death.
POWER COUPLE – 6 x 45′ – Finland
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Produced by Roope Lehtinen & Mikko Pöllä for Fire Monkey Ltd.
Written by Laura Suhonen
Short synopsis: A leading presidential candidate learns that her beloved husband is a Russian- born sleeper agent who has just been reactivated. Together, they decide to survive the secret that is about to destroy them both.
RED PANTS – 10 x 60′ – Kirghizstan
Genre: Drama, Action
Produced by Erke Dzhumakmatova for Studio Oymo, Co-Producer Pavel Feldman &
Alexander Seliverstov for Human Films
Written by Tilek Cherikov
Short synopsis: In late 1970s Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Aisha a military officer’s daughter forms the notorious ‘Red Pants’ first female criminal gang to avenge her father’s death and challenge the oppressive regime.
THE GLACIER MURDERS – 6 x 50′ – Spain, Chile
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Produced by Arlette Peyret for Brutal Media (Spain), Co-Producer Alvaro Cabello for Fabula (Chile)
Written by Mariano Baselga and Enrique Videla
Short synopsis: When a young Spaniard inherits a remote Patagonian hotel containing a frozen corpse, he teams with a disgraced cop to unravel a double murder that leads deep into his family’s past, back in Catalonia.
THE TRANSFER OF THE CENTURY – 5 x 50′ – Italy
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Produced by Indiana Production & Lucky Red
Written by Raffaele Iaccarino, Giacomo Zibardi, Filippo Gravino
Short synopsis: The worst club in the league. Eight billion lira of debt. Forty days for a once in a lifetime chance. This is the true story of the man who risked everything to buy Maradona.
TWISTED VINES – 8 x 60′ – South Africa
Genre: Drama, Procedural
Produced by Stan Joseph for Ochre Moving Pictures
Written by Paul Crilley & Thomas Hall
Short synopsis: When her estranged father dies and her brother is arrested for the murder, Tamsin Hope – a crime novelist with writer’s block – is forced to return to the home she fled a decade ago, and a small town steeped in secrets. There, she must unravel the mystery of her father’s murder while teaming up with her reluctant ex, now a police detective, to solve other local crimes along the scenic South African wine route.
WITHOUT STANDING – 8 x 50′ – Spain
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Procedural
Produced by Candela Izquierdo for 100 ACRES
Written by Jessica Aran
Short synopsis: Madrid, 1981. When Spain legalizes divorce, a blacklisted secretary opens a one-woman “law firm” for desperate wives—turning survival into a hustle that leaves a trail of enemies.
The 16th project announced during the Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series:
GOLD – 6 x 45’ – Switzerland
Genre: Thriller
Produced by Stefan Eichenberger for Contrast Film.
Created by Christian Wehrlin & Pascal Glatz.
Written by Christian Wehrlin, Pascal Glat, Mariama Djité & Jessica Hagan.
Short synopsis: To save her family’s legacy, a brilliant Swiss gold trader starts compromising her morals – and is pulled into the darkest corners of the global gold trade, where the stakes are no longer just her company, but her family’s very survival.