One of the highlights of the Berlinale Series Market is the pitch event Co-Pro Series, which looks to match projects with suitable co-producers and financiers.
Ten international series projects from Europe, Canada and Latin America have been selected to pitch at this year’s Co-Pro Series, where they will also have the opportunity of meeting one-on-one with potential partners.
Taking place over two days (Feb. 15-16), and held online once again due to the pandemic, Co-Pro Series has a track record of showcasing drama projects that have not only gone on to be produced, but that have also achieved success.
International hit “Babylon Berlin,” Austrian-German crime series “Freud,” Norwegian-German domestic terrorism drama “Furia,” Icelandic thriller “Blackport” and 1920s-set German drama “Eldorado KaDeWe” have all participated in previous Co-Pro Series pitches. In total, 19 projects have been made since the event launched in 2015.
Co-Pro Series is curated and organized by the Berlinale Co-Production Market, run by Martina Bleis. She says Co-Pro Series looks to select “exciting” and “cinematic” series.
“For us, it’s always very interesting to have people who have made a name for themselves in cinema and are now trying themselves out in a series,” she says.
For example, Slovenian-born Czech director Olmo Omerzu, who won Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s Crystal Globe for director in 2018 for “Winter Flies,” is on board with identity fraud project “The Attachment Theory.”
Elsewhere, “The Promised Land” by San Sebastián award-winning Argentine director and co-writer Emiliano Torres is the first ever Latin American Co-Pro Series project — a thriller set in the Mennonite community in Paraguay.
Hans Herbots, known for international hits “The Serpent” and “Riviera,” is one of the directors aiming to bring surrealist artist René Magritte to life in Belgian whodunit “This Is Not a Murder Mystery.”
Meanwhile, Finnish environmental drama “Spin Control” is to be directed by Alli Haapasalo, whose film “Girl Picture” premiered at Sundance.
Director Isabel Coixet, who has competed for Berlin’s Golden Bear on four occasions, is attached to Spanish project “Picadero,” presented in cooperation with the Series Mania Forum in Lille.
Also striking is the variety of projects — from graphic novel adaptations (“You Are Obsolete” from Canada’s Sienna Films) to political thrillers (“The Report” from Match Factory Productions”) and famous names, including Magritte, being reinvented as crime investigators. Well-known production companies suchn as Nimbus Film, maker of Nordic Noir “The Bridge,” and Hummelfilm (“Occupied”) are behind crime drama “Winterland” and Norwegian drama “Nowheresville” respectively.