Festival In Focus: How Series Mania Has Grown Into A Key Event In The Global TV Calendar

deadline.com:

When Laurence Herszberg first launched Series Mania back in 2010 in Paris, the former Forum des Images director was keen to apply her deep knowledge of film and the film festival model to the television sector.

At the time, says the French exec, no one was doing any kind of TV festival “solely dedicated to series.”   “No one was really talking about TV series,” the festival general director tells Deadline. “So, I decided to do something for the public just to try and see and imagine how it would work in the television sector.”  Little did she know how much the industry would shift, with much of the balance (and money) now lying in the scripted television sphere rather than the independent film space.

As a result, across the last 13 years Herszberg and her team have been able to nurture and grow Series Mania into one of the most attractive events in the global TV calendar.

It’s largely looked at as an event where writers, distributors and producers can liase with each other in a less formal setting than compared to a TV sales market.  “We want people from the industry to look at Series Mania as a place where they can understand where the business is going and connect with each other in a meaningful way,” she says.