Fifty new series, twenty-six previews, sixty countries represented and a nice cast of stars to celebrate an increasingly fertile series production.
This is the program of the Séries Mania Festival which, this year, in Lille, is offering film concerts, screenings, exhibitions or master classes (Laurent Lafitte, Kelly Rutherford, Camélia Jordana, etc.) to its approximately 85,000 festival-goers.
Notable among the must-sees of this edition: the master class by Patricia Arquette, guest of honor, a “Fiction vs documentary” conference by director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (
Sambre
), or the anticipated preview of season 4 of the ultrapopular
HPI
, in the presence of Audrey Fleurot.
To discover
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Chaired by Zal Batmanglij, the creator of the series
The OA
, the jury (Bérénice Bejo, Sofiane Zermani, etc.) will distribute the prizes for the international selection at the end of a week of competition.
If many series this year are interested in family ties, desire and artificial intelligence, it is the corridors of power (political, scientific, religious, etc.) which, according to the programming, have recently most inspired the screenwriters.
Small non-exhaustive review of the genre.
In the dark
After exploring the mysteries of power in the cinema with
The Exercise of the State
or
A People and Their King
, Pierre Schoeller adapts
In the Shadow
, a political thriller written by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and Gilles Boyer, in 2011 The series begins in December 2024: Paul Francoeur, former Minister of Justice and moderate candidate of the Republican right (Melvil Poupaud), wins the primary by a hair against the radical branch of Marie-France Trémeau (Karin Viard.) But when the apparatchik of the winning camp (Swann Arlaud) learns that the election was rigged, the path to the presidential election is full of obstacles.
In competition at Séries Mania, this France 2 fiction explores behind the scenes of an election: the negotiations hidden from view, the media positioning, the role of each person on the political scene (press attaché, campaign director, young well-born advisor…) Ambitious and captivating.
In the Shadow
(with Melvil Poupaud (seated) and Swann Arlaud) takes us behind the scenes of a presidential campaign.
Thibault Grabherr/SP
On France 2, in 2024.
The Vatican
Although it has only 800 inhabitants, the Vatican State, seat of the papacy and the Catholic Church, watches over 1.4 billion believers around the world.
Supporting testimonies (Cardinal Barbarin, for example), the daily life and organization of this micro-state are told in
The Vatican
, presented in special sessions at the Festival.
After a short history, this Belgian documentary series in six episodes revolves around the notable figures of the State (the pope as well as the anonymous servants), and especially the challenges faced by the scandals (pedophilia, corruption, etc.) and socio-political movements of the time confronted him.
And the investigation shows how the opacity of the organization, its refusal to look at and embrace these developments or to examine its conscience have little by little shaken its power.
The documentary series
The Vatican
is an investigation into the heart of the Catholic Church, shaken by scandals.
Renaat Lambeets/Panenka/SP
To be discovered soon.
The 3-body problem
This is the preview event of the festival: the new series from the creators of
Game of Thrones
, David Benioff and DB Weiss, will be presented at the opening of Séries Mania, before being broadcast on Netflix on March 21.
The multidimensional plot (between past and future, virtual reality and real world) begins in China, during the Cultural Revolution and repression, in 1966. After the public killing of her father, a young physicist escapes work forced by agreeing to be a prisoner for life in a secret scientific base.
By establishing the first contact with extraterrestrials, she will jeopardize the future of humanity which, years later, will rest in the hands of a handful of scientists.
It is thus the power of science that this saga explores, adapted from a Chinese best-seller, whose fantastic approach evokes both
Lost
and the German series
Dark.
For fans of video games, multiverses and science fiction.
In
The 3-
Body
Problem , Zine Tseng plays a physicist with full powers.
Cr.
Ed Miller/Netflix 2024
On Netflix, March 21.
Mary & George
From
Marie-Antoinette
to
Versailles
via
Sissi
, History never ceases to inspire series writers.
If the setting of
Mary & George
, anchored in early 17th century England, is worthy of the best productions of the genre, its tone stands out: it is deliciously nasty, cynical and irreverent.
Julianne Moore slips into the corsets of Mary Villiers, a countess who intrigued to put her second son, George, in the bed of King James I in order to gain a place of choice at Court.
The actress's performance as a woman of Machiavellian and calculating ambition is largely the spice of this production, presented in special screenings at Séries Mania.
To be discovered soon.
And also :
Apples Never Fall,
American series with Annette Bening and Sam Neill as heads of families with well-buried secrets.
Insoupçonnable,
documentary series (France 2) in which Daniel Zagury, psychiatrist expert in serial killers, is passionate about the cold case of the “Grêlé” affair.
Ourika
(on Prime, March 28) or the fictional debut of rapper Booba, creator and actor of this series in the spirit of Les
Misérables,
by Ladj Ly.
The World Does Not Exist
(Arte) with Niels Schneider as a journalist who investigates to exonerate his childhood sweetheart, accused of a crime.
Pyramid Game
, Korean series on school bullying, adapted from a popular webtoon among teenagers. Mania series, in Lille, from March 15 to 22.
seriesmania.com