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Unspooling in Cadiz over Oct. 25-31, the South International Series Festival is a bellwether on trends and highlights for the current season. What could be some of its star performers? Following, 10 titles to track, which also often say something about the way the market is going.

“The Big Jump” (Atresmedia International Sales)

One of Atresmedia’s biggest bets at Mipcom, a biopic series about the rise to Olympic Gold Medals at Sydney and Athens of Spanish gymnast Gervasio Deferr and, in a second timeline, his descent into drugs and alcohol, incapable of accepting failure in competition and lost when retired. Oscar Casas plays Deferr, with “Gangs of Galicia” helmer Roger Gual directs. An Atresplayer Original Series, bowing on Nov. 17.

“La Favorita 1922” (Mediterraneo)

From “Grand Hotel” through “Velvet” and “Cable Girls,” Ramon Campos’ Studiocanal j.v. Bambu Producciones has carved out its international reputation, creating modern gender-agenda melodramas that make...

Toledo, Spain — Less than a decade ago, the number of international premium series, beyond its telenovelas, coming out of Portugal each year could be counted on one hand. Following, 20 titles from Portugal being moved at this week’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment where Portugal is one of its Focus Countries. Wide raging and ambitious, the titles confirm Portugal’s TV revolution.

“Aquarium,” (West Coast, Portugal)

From the Azores-based doc producer West Coast, driving into fiction from 2023, a social dramedy inspired by the 2003 best-seller “Tomorrow at the Same Time, Diary of a Portuguese Stripper).” Leila, 30, abandons days as a marine biologist for nights as the first Portuguese stripper at the prestigious Medusa Club. Written by Brazil’s Marina Schneider, “‘Aquarium’ questions what it is to be a woman today, through the critical and oneiric eyes of two young Brazilian authors,” say directors Stella Carneiro, writer of comedy “Golden Shower,” and Portugal’s Saul Neves and Virgílio Ferreira.

Martin Scorsese is going down as one of the most consistent directors ever, for no matter how you receive a movie of his, he still maintains his vision and his passion for the craft. The director has cemented himself in film culture with movies like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, etc. At 81 years old, Scorsese is still garnering acclaim and accolades for his latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is also featuring a breakout performance by Golden Globe-winner Lily Gladstone. Scorsese would recently receive a special Best Director Award from the National Board of Review, which would bring his former Gangs of New York star, Daniel Day-Lewis, into the public spotlight.

Variety is reporting that Scorsese is set to be honored at the Berlin Film Festival next month with a Golden Bear Award. His ceremony will also be screening his film The Departed. Interestingly, The Departed is also...

When Martin Scorsese is lauded with Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear next month, the awards ceremony will be accompanied by a screening of his 2006 film “The Departed.”

The crime thriller, which won four Oscars including best picture and director, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. The film tells the story of an Irish mob boss who plants a spy within the Massachusetts State Police just as the police assign an undercover cop to infiltrate the gang. What follows is a race to expose the other’s identity first.

The Berlinale on Wednesday also announced that Levan Akin’s “Crossing” will open this year’s Panorama section, which will focus on “bridges between lived experiences and cinematic possibilities.” “Crossing” follows an unlikely duo who travel “from Batumi, Georgia to the urban, labyrinthine Istanbul in search of a young trans woman named Tekla,” according to the fest’s description.

At last week’s Iberseries, Movistar Plus+ Internacional unveiled “Natural Law,” one of its first forays into third-party acquisitions.

Produced by Arquipelago Filmes, it is co-created by Edgar Medina, whose previous series, “Sul,” received the Portuguese Film Academy Sophia award for best fictional series and the Portuguese Society of Authors award for best fictional program.

“Natural Law” sees Medina, co-creator Rui Cardos Martins, and director Joao Nuno Pinto weave crime noir with courtroom drama to craft a narrative spanning seven episodes.

The series follows the impact of a teenager’s murder, as it reverberates throughout a tightknit community. It focuses on a small town judge, Ana, played by Margarida Vila-Nova, also seen in “Sul,” as she faces a dilemma which threatens her family. The criminal investigation unfolds with detectives Mario and Maria, played by Nuno Lopes and Caterina Wallenstein respectively.

The early episodes are steeped with foreboding, as the town...

Portuguese producers are looking to strike gold with a hit series that could follow in the footsteps of European shows such as “Money Heist,” “Hierro,” “The Bridge,” “Trapped” or “Skam.”

They have several advantages: Portugal has competitive production costs which can compensate for more limited budgets; they’re fast learners, as shown by the rapid development of a successful domestic telenovelas industry in the early 2000s; and they are good at international networking, as confirmed by the solid network of foreign co-productions in place for film and TV productions.

Still, challenges remain, including difficulties in raising financing, as well as the need for greater investment in script development.

ONSeries Lisboa has highlighted three genre categories where there has been strong series production in Portugal: Historical fiction, romance and crime drama.

Of these, crime drama has been the strongest area for co-production. Rtp’s Jose Fragoso explains that this is because...

A showcase for new Portuguese TV series aiming to attract international broadcasters and buyers, the first edition of ONSeries Lisboa, running Nov. 25-26, could hardly have come at a more opportune time.

Over recent years Portugal has been renowned for either niche auteur films or high-energy telenovelas. But a new strand of higher budget TV series has begun to emerge, driven by investments by local broadcasters and streaming-platforms, co-productions, production subsidies and an incentive scheme that now offers an up to 30% of spend cash rebate.

ONSeries aims to tap into this new energy. Produced by Géraldine Gonard’s Inside Content, the company behind Conecta Fiction in Spain, the two-day event brings a cluster of high-profile streamers, production companies, sales agents, television buyers and commissioning editors to Lisbon.

The event’s opening session includes the international premiere of crime drama, “Natural Law” (“Causa Propria”), produced by Arquipélago Filmes for Portuguese pubcaster,...

Eight new drama series projects among co-pro line-up.

Source: X-Filme

Babylon Berlin

For the fourth time, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will invite producers, commissioning editors, distributors, and other drama series financiers to the Zoo Palast for the pitch event CoPro Series, mounted as part of the Drama Series Days 2018 (February 19 – 21).

Scroll down for line-up

In previous years, CoPro Series has hosted drama series projects looking for partners that have since become successful series, such as Babylon Berlin created by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Henk Handloegten, as well as Das Verschwinden (The Disappearance) by Hans-Christian Schmid, or Norway’s Valkyrien by Erik Richter Strand.

This year, eight new series projects have the chance to find co-production and financing partners. The creators will present a short pitch, followed by an opportunity to meet both at an informal get-together and in one-on-one meetings with interested partners to talk in concrete terms about a possible collaboration.

Two German projects...