Political thriller ‘The Interregnum’ wins series makers
Spain’s “The Interegnum” was named the winner of Seriesmakers and received the Beta & Kirch Foundation Award that bears a cash prize of € 50,000 ($ 51,000).
Seriesmakers is a creative initiative led by Laurence Herszberg, general director of Series Mania, and Ferdinand Dohna, head of content and co -production of beta. It was launched in 2022.
The winning team gets the chance to work closely with Beta’s content and co-production division to develop a pilot script and a full package. Co-development means that it is very likely that the beta film would handle international distribution if the series were going into production.
Made by Simón Casal and produced by Mariela Besuirevsky on Oscar winning Tornasol-Media (“The Secret in their eyes”), the show jumps to 2031 with six episodes, when the EU is confronted with a decisive referendum to approve an AI system that would replace human jury members.
When Inma and Lyda threaten the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaign managers, Battle for Victory, a dark secret around the death of the maker of the AI system, Alicia, not only to revolutionize the campaign, but everything they believed they were.
Casal had already directed a film about AI called ‘Justicia Artificial’. Also produced by Besuizeky, was released in 2022.
“We didn’t have time to tell the whole story because it was a movie. However, the film was quite accessible and had very good reviews. But it was a bit short for what we wanted to do,” said Besuizevsky, who accepted the prize with Casal.
Casal noted that thanks to serial makers he had learned how he could tell a story in episodes and the journeys from the design characters, the separation of storylines and mix them together to build tension. He also got a better understanding of “how to build and manage the project to be attractive to international public.”
“The makers of ‘The Interegnum’ impressed by a political thriller that reflects the complexity of some of the most urgent issues of our time: AI and Justice,” said Ferdinand Dohna.
“The multi-layer aspects of these issues are told in a moving thriller that introduces the ticking clock of a fictional EU referendum where the viewer has to decide where he is.”
Other selected projects were ‘a person of interest’, ‘Le Bouton d’Or’, ‘Cow’s Tongue’, ‘Death becomes him’, ‘Falke Motors’, ‘Pigs’ Disco, ” Stick ‘Em Up’, ‘Uneven’ and ‘The Wonderful Golem’.
Laurence Herszberg said: “When we started serial makers three years ago, our goal was to become the best mentor program for filmmakers who debut their TV maker. As the ten projects show [making] Part of this year’s event and with the prize to ‘The Interregnum’, we could no longer be satisfied with our results. “
John Hopewell has contributed to this article.
