• The Séries Mania festival closed its doors in Lille this Friday evening.
  • Nearly 85,000 festival-goers and some 3,800 professionals attended the event.
  • The Grand Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian series, "The Actor".

Nearly 85,000 festival-goers and 3,800 professionals in Hauts-de-France to celebrate the series! The fifth edition of Series Mania in Lille closed its doors this Friday during a closing ceremony hosted by comedian Alex Ramirès, who made a thunderous entrance on the stage of the New Century, dancing in the manner of Jenna Ortega on the hit of the Cramps, Goo Goo Muck, in the cult sequence of Tim Burton's series, Wednesday. Review of eight intense days of screenings and meetings around more than 54 new series and the list of Series Mania unveiled this Friday.

Iranian series 'The Actor' wins Grand Prix

The jury, chaired by Westworld creator Lisa Joy, chose to award the Grand Prix to The Actor, the first Iranian series to be presented in international competition at Series Mania. "As far as I know, this is the first time that an Iranian series has won an award, I want to dedicate this award to the Iranian people, and especially to Iranian women," said Nima Javidi, the creator of this fiction about two brilliant unemployed actors, embroiled in schemes that will soon surpass them. The portrait of an Iranian society where art is an act of resistance, carried by Ahmad Mehranfat and Navid Mohammadzadeh, seen among others in The Law of Tehran.

Norwegian ecological dystopia The Fortress won Best Screenplay. The prize for best actress was awarded to Margot Bancilhon for her role as a lawyer in the Le Havre family drama De grâce, which will be available this autumn on Arte, and best actor to Michael Sheen for his role as a father courage in the BBC series, Best Interests.

Clémentine Célarié, actress at the top

The prize for the best series in French competition was awarded to Arte's political satire, Sous contrôle, worn by Léa Drucker. Clémentine Célarié was crowned best actress for her performance in Les Randonneuses, a fiction of TF1, which features six women with cancer or in remission who embark on a hike in the high mountains. "Cancer should no longer be taboo. Cancer is not death, it's a fight! ", she launched on stage, in a particularly poignant speech.

The award for best actor went to the formidable and young Carel Brown, who plays a child with autism spectrum disorder in the OCS drama, Aspergirl. The prize for best original music was awarded to Maud Geffray, Rebeka Warrior who signed the soundtrack of Split, the series of feminist essayist Iris Brey for France.tv slash.

"Blackwater", Nordic Noir in broad daylight

The jury of the international panorama, chaired by the writer Hervé Le Tellier, crowned the Swedish series Blackwater, a pure Nordic Noir taking place in broad daylight. Mexican director Ernesto Contreras received the award for best direction for Tengo que morir todas las noches, a Paramount + series that plunges us into the LGBT milieu in Mexico City in the 1980s struggling with AIDS.

Rotem Sela and Gal Malka were awarded Best Actress for their composition in A Body that Works, an upsetting Israeli series about surrogacy, while former Israeli cop Eran Naim received Best Actor for his performance in Innermost, a drama that blurs the lines between reality and fiction by filmmaker Yaron Shani.

The student jury crowned the British series Funny Woman, adapted from the novel Funny Girl by Nick Hornby, soon to be broadcast on OCS.

"Rictus" questions "the place of humor"

The Spanish series Autodefensa, an uncompromising portrait of Gen Z, was crowned best series in the short format category. The high school student prize went to an OCS signature series, Rictus, an acid comedy about a dystopian world where laughter is forbidden. "The series that best questions the place of humor in the world of tomorrow," summarized the president of the short formats jury, Sam Shaw, one of the writers of Masters of Sex.

Finally, the public fell in love with Little Bird, a drama that tackles the controversy of the "1960s Scoop" in Canada where the government snatched thousands of children from Indigenous communities.

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