• The 6th edition of the Lille Séries Mania festival opens its doors this Friday until March 24th.
  • Opening is Greek Salad, the serial sequel to Cédric Klapisch's Spanish Inn trilogy for Amazon Prime Video.
  • An opening series that sums up the selection of the Lille event, illustrating the vitality and ambition of French series.

Many stars, 54 new series, including 32 world premieres! The 6th edition of Series Mania in Lille opens its doors this Friday until March 24 in the capital of Hauts-de-France with "a very copious program", promises the general director of the event, Laurence Herzberg.

"We start very strong with a highly anticipated French series," says Frédéric Lavigne, the artistic director of the festival, namely "Greek Salad, the serial sequel to the trilogy The Spanish Inn by Cédric Klapisch" for Prime Video. An opening series that sums up the program of the Lille event, illustrating the vitality and ambition of French series.

Two French fictions in international competition

"For the past two years, we have put in place a new regulatory framework for the audiovisual and cinematographic sector that allows the series to flourish in our country with new investment obligations given to platforms," says the president of the CNC, Dominique Boutonnat.

In international competition, two French series are competing against each other: De Grâce, an Arte tragedy about a family of dockers confronted with drug trafficking carried away by Olivier Gourmet and Panayotis Pascot and Les Gouttes de Dieu, a co-production between France Télévisions, Hulu Japan and Apple TV+, based on the best-selling manga of the same name, on oenology.

The icon Brigitte Bardot told on the small screen

In French competition, France Télévisions will present Bardot, a reconstruction of the young years of the icon of French cinema signed by Danièle Thompson and her son Christopher. "A vintage cinephile pleasure", according to Frédéric Lavigne. The public group will also show Split, the first fiction by feminist author Iris Brey, which depicts the trouble between an actress and her understudy on a set.

TF1 will unveil the new drama of Fanny Riedberger (Lycée Toulouse-Lautrec), Les Randonneuses with Alix Poisson, Clémentine Célarié and Camille Chamoux, "a funny and touching portrait of six women with cancer while hiking in the high mountains," according to Frédéric Lavigne.

Bold French comedies

Arte is betting on two comedies, Polar Park, "a very singular police comedy" with Jean-Paul Rouve and Guillaume Gouix and the political satire Sous contrôle which features Léa Drucker in the skin of an "NGO director suddenly promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs".

OCS offers the drama Aspergirl, where a single mother (Nicole Ferroni), is diagnosed with Asperger's at the same time as her son and competing comedies, Rictus, which depicts a futuristic world where laughter is forbidden and Need Love about a declining porn actor.

Des blockbusters made in France

Series Mania also offers out of competition season 3 of HPI in the presence of the flamboyant Audrey Fleurot, season 2 of Young and Golri, prize of the French competition 2021, Les Bracelets rouges, new generation, with a new band of hospitalized teenagers, So far everything is fine, the first series of comedian Nawell Madani, but also the co-production Abysses, blockbuster ecological disaster carried by Cécile de France.

Finally, Series Mania will roll out the red carpet for the favorite actors of French spectators such as the unforgettable interpreter of Thierry La Fronde Jean-Claude Drouot or the iconic boss of Emily in Paris Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu. There is no doubt that Series Mania is a "superb soft power tool" as Anne Bouverot, the festival's new president, points out.

  • Entertainment
  • Series
  • Series Mania
  • Audrey Fleurot
  • Cédric klapisch