Events round-up: NATPE unveils virtual offering; Series Mania reveals Institute & 2021 dates

Series Mania launches Institute, confirms 2021 dates

Series Mania is to launch a new Institute and will return to Lille, France next year, with 2021 dates confirmed.

The event will run 19-27 March, with the Series Mania Forum taking place in the Lille Grand Palais 23-25 March. The dates were announced by Series Mania founder & general director Laurence Herszberg, who also revealed new initiatives to help promote programming.

Herszberg explained: “In recent years, we have seen a major evolution in the audiovisual fiction landscape. First, is the significant increase in the volume of series.

“Second, is the emergence of new working methods resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic which have both reinforced festivals as essential events and ‘rendezvous’, but also confirmed the importance of online tools. Finally, is the need expressed by the audiovisual sector to bring forward new voices, new talent and new projects.”

The new initiatives include the launch of Series Mania Label, which will see the event’s team offering its recommendations to the public online and via premiere screening year-round in Lille. Selected festival-supported series will be awarded the Series Mania Label with the aim of developing their notoriety and visibility.

Series Mania Digital will also be expanded, with a bigger platform allowing the evolution of projects to be followed and access to exclusive content such as webinars and training courses.

The Series Mania Institute, meanwhile, is being launched to provide training to European professionals. It will be based in Lille and will gather international know-how in the field of series scriptwriting, unify professions to develop a more cohesive working culture, and encourage the emergence of new talent from a diversity of backgrounds and origins.

The Series Mania Institute will be organized in partnership with La Fémis (supported by the CNC) and the Hauts-de-France Region and will offer several training courses for different audiences beginning in 2021. Further information and names of more partners will be released later this fall.

NATPE Budapest

NATPE reveals Virtual offering

Conference organiser NATPE has unveiled a new Virtual strand for two of its forthcoming physical events in Budapest and LA.

NATPE Virtual will enable exhibitors to guide buyers through content licensing, from discovery to screening and to signing terms, all digitally.

The service is being launched to support NATPE Budapest International, which takes place in Hungary 25-27 August, and NATPE Streaming Plus, slated for 15 September in LA. Both events were earlier postponed due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The digital service will offer “customised tools to empower creators and distributors of all background and experience,” NATPE said, with RightsTrade, Vision Events and Perigon supporting the Virtual offer. Private meetings between buyers and sellers with access to meeting concierges will also be on offer.

JP Bommel, NATPE president and CEO, said: “True to our vision to be the one source for global content, Team NATPE is deploying the most comprehensive suite of virtual experiences to complement our physical events and conferences.

“The focus is on content and community. Virtual experiences are not intended to replace the essential face-to-face meetings but serve as an alternative platform to provide for monetization, connectivity and opportunity to distributors and buyers. NATPE VIRTUAL provides a cost-effective alternative for creators, programmers and diverse storytellers and storytellers when the desire for content has never been greater.”