Serielizados Barcelona Dramatic growth, Catalan TV wave

On November 3, with Movistar Plus+ and Arte France’s historical drama ‘The Anatomy of a Moment’, the Serielizados festival in Barcelona impresses with its 12th edition.^e edition, with a strengthened industry section and a robust series program to cater to their 10,000+ on-site and 200,000+ online Spanish fan base.

In the industry field, more than 250 decision makers (150 from Spain) will be present at the Serielizados Pro Industry Day on November 6, such as Alexandre Piel from Arte France and Susanna Herreras from Movistar Plus+ who will discuss ‘Arte and Movistar: a Co-Production Love Story’, a session moderated by Variety’by John Hopewell.

Other industry highlights include case studies on the upcoming HBO Max Catalan shows ‘Ravalejar’, ‘Pubertat’ (‘Puberty’) and the Icelandic/French ‘The Danish Woman’ (RÚV/SVT/Yle/Arte France). The State of Distribution will be unpacked by Javier Esteban from Mediapro Studios, Rebecca Ransley from BBC Studios, Christian Jockel from Beta Film, while Pío Vernis from 3Cat, Jarmo Lampela from Yle and Alberto Fernández from RTVE will speak on the Pubcasters Collaborating and Making Series panel.

10 notable European series will be pitched during the first co-production session of ‘Mind the Gap’, and showrunners Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under”, “True Blood”), Henriette Steenstrup (“Nepobaby”, “Pørni”) Benedikt Erlingsson, (“The Danish Woman”), Leticia Dolera (“Pubertat”), will give masterclasses. Other expected stars include Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Trine Dyrholm, Javier Cámarra, Joaquín Reyes and Emma Vilarasau.

On the festival front, 52 new shows will take place in Barcelona, where the festival will take place from November 3 to 12, and around 30 online (November 10 to 23) via Spanish streamer Filmin, six of which will be for the best international series (“The Danish Woman”, “A Better Man”, “A Life’s Worth”, “Reykjavik Fusion”, “Empathy”, “Riot Women”) and four for the best Spanish series (“The Anatomy of a Moment”, “The 39”, “Jakarta”, “Argi Gorriak”).

In the run-up to Serielizados, co-founders Víctor Sala and Betu Molero talk Variety how the festival has grown from a university project into a full-fledged international festival, online magazine, talent lab and podcast showcase for Catalan – and Spanish – viewers.

This year you are expanding your international line-up and reach. Can you first tell us how Serielizados came into being and what the DNA of the festival is?

Betu Molero: We started as an online magazine in 2013 as the final year of a university project. The original idea was to have an online magazine focused on TV series, with small events, masterclasses etc. so that showrunners could come and present their shows. Then we decided to get to know our online audience through a festival. Then Victor and I founded Serielizados.

At that time there was no Netflix, Prime Video, HBO in Spain. We didn’t even know another series festival like Series Mania existed. In 2015 we invited Dan Harmon [“Rick & Morty, “Community”]. That was a turning point for us because we attracted a lot of media attention and public awareness. Netflix then landed in Spain at the end of 2015 and HBO a year later. Today we work with every platform in Spain and offer a curated indie program of series that people can watch physically during the festival and a few days later online through Filmin.

Victor Sala: It is important to emphasize that we offer much more than just premieres, masterclasses and Q&As. We present a broader program of classics, docuseries, in addition to podcasts, because our goal is to elevate TV series to the category of high culture.

Can you describe your selection process and collaboration with Filmin?

Sala: One of the main criteria is that the shows have a Spanish – or Catalan – premiere for the national series, and international shows must be distributed in the home country within a year. We select the best of the best shows from around the world, with a special focus on storytelling, regardless of genre, and visionary works.
The selection is made hand in hand with broadcasters/platforms to promote upcoming shows and build word of mouth. But we also pick up series that have no distribution in Spain. This year, two of the international competition series have been acquired for Spain. Filmin bought ‘A Better Man’ and AMC ‘Reykjavik Fusion’.

Molero: Our collaboration with the streamer Filmin started in 2020 due to COVID. We wanted to ensure that the festival would continue despite the pandemic. Thanks to Filmin we have discovered a new way to run a festival – both on site and online – not only for people in Barcelona, ​​but all over Spain. We quickly became one of the biggest festivals in Spain, with over 205,000 online viewers, in addition to around 9,000 on location.
Sometimes it is difficult to attract the audience to the cinema to watch two episodes of an unknown Danish or South African series. The Filmin partnership has allowed us to make bolder editorial choices.

Sala: The online showcase has been a great way to democratize the festival.

You seem to have a special taste for Nordic content, as four of the six competing international shows – ‘The Danish Woman’, ‘Reykjavik Fusion’, ‘A Better Man’ and ‘A Life’s Worth’ – are wholly or partly Nordic.

Sala: Last year we had three Scandinavian series in competition and “Pressure Point” from Sweden won the best series. After Thomas Vinterberg last year, we are happy this year to have master classes with Benedikt Erlingsson [“The Danish Woman”] and Henriette Steenstrup whose series “Nepobaby” is shown in the Panorama section out of competition. We are also happy to organize the Mind the Gap co-production pitch in collaboration with the Gothenburg Film Festival, the Swedish Institute and the Swedish Embassy in Spain.

Having Alan Ball in a masterclass is quite a coup…

Sala: Yes, it is an absolute pleasure and honor, especially to celebrate 20^e anniversary of the finale of “Six Feet Under.” The invitation was shared with the Geneva International Film Festival. We make it a point to work closely with other European and Spanish film and TV festivals.

What can you say about your Spanish line-up?

Sala: During the early days of Serielizados, our focus was on international shows and showrunners. We were fortunate to welcome Dan Harmon, David Simon, Vince Gilligan and Jesse Armstrong. But now that Spanish drama has grown exponentially in storytelling and visually, it is crucial for us to focus on Spanish content as well.

Molero: Netflix’s phenomenal ‘La casa de papel’ (‘Money Heist’) was a turning point in 2019. After that, we simply followed the spectacular growth of Spanish series.

Sala: This year we have selected 10 Spanish shows and four are participating in the Spanish official competition. We wanted to open with ‘The Anatomy of a Moment’, a very stylish political biopic that reflects the very successful collaboration between Arte France and Movistar Plus+ that has given us so many good series in recent years. Then “Jakarta” comes from one of our favorite showrunners: Diego San José. Last year he won Best Screenplay here with ‘Celeste’. We close with “Sense FilTRES” (3Cat), a Catalan show for young adults that revolves around the life of a young trans man, his physical identity and self-realization, using social media or video game avatars.

Another novelty this year is the presence of two Basque series, showcasing the efforts of the regional broadcaster EITB and the fruitful results of the stimulus measures in the Basque region. We world premiere ‘Argi Gorriak’ (with Itziar Ituño from ‘Money Heist’) in a quirky comedy about a dubbing professional, and screen ‘Zeru Ahoak’ (‘Mouths of Sky’), to San Sebastian.

I believe that documentaries also have a special place at Serielizados…

Sala: Yes, the focus on docuseries has grown at the festival. It reflects the growing interest in the format on streamers. We highlight five titles: “The Agent” (NRK), “The Black Swan” (DR), “La Fugida” (3Cat), “Nazi Cartel” (Sky Showtime) and “Missing in Murcia” (Movistar Plus+).

You’ll expand the scope of your industry from Serielizados Pro with the first Mind the Gap co-pro pitch session. What prompted this decision?

Sala: Our ambitions with Serielizados are twofold: on the one hand, we want to grow the number of people who physically visit the festival and enjoy it at home on Filmin. Our other goal is to be more relevant to the Spanish – and Catalan – audiovisual industry.

Molero: The Catalan government has increased funding for Catalan series and co-productions [ as reported by Variety]. We felt it was an opportunity to build on this momentum and not create a massive Series Mania style event, but a bespoke boutique Pro event to empower people to develop a quality conversation.

Sala: Unlike other areas in Europe and even the US, where Originals have fallen by 20% or more, in Spain we are still experiencing a boom. It is interesting to see, for example, that HBO Max is collaborating with 3Cat for three new Catalan shows: “Ravalejar”, ​​​​“Pubertat” and “In Vitro” [currently filming].
Another specificity of the Spanish market – which will be discussed by the Spanish commissioners at the Pro-Industry Day – is co-productions between the national channel RTVE and regional channels. At our festival two years ago we had “This is Not Zweden” [co-produced with Catalonia’s TV3 – now 3Cat]. Last year we had “Dieciocho” [co-produced with Valencia’s À Punt Media and the Balearics’ IB3] and this year we present the Basque series ‘Zeru Ahoak’.

What’s next for Serielizados?Molero: Our next step could be to go into production. We do have projects in mind, including documentaries. It’s still early.

(This interview has been edited for clarity)