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With Series Mania 2023 coming to a close, the event’s founder and general director Laurence Herszberg announced the winners of the Series Mania Festival today.

”We would first like to thank the public and the professionals who attended this edition, which brought together more than 85,000 participants for the Festival and 3,800 participants from 64 countries for the Forum. We are delighted to announce our prize list and figures that have far exceeded our expectations,” said Herszberg.

With the rise of streaming across the world, Series Mania has become one of the most attractive events in the global TV calendar. It’s largely looked at as a place where writers, distributors and producers can liase with each other in a less formal setting than compared to a TV sales market. It includes not just the festival, the Forum, key conferences, keynotes, and pitching sessions.

This year the festival screened 54 unreleased series, with 32 world premieres and 10 international premieres.

Lille, France — Headed by a commanding performance from Navid Mohammadzadeh, superbly shot and packing arguably the best opening scene of any series in Series Mania main competition, Navid Javidi’s “The Actor” won the Grand Prize at Series Mania on Friday night.

The top Series Mania award for the “The Actor” also proves vindication for the Festival which this year has broadened its geographical reach in an effort to discover new narrative modes and styles. Consistently subordinating narrative to mood, “The Actor” certainly wins on that score.

Main scribe John Kåre Raake (“The Quake”) and co-scribe Linn-Jeanethe Kyed (“Bø”) scooped best writing for “The Fortress,” a banner upcoming Viaplay title produced by Norway’s Maipo Film and sold by TrustNordisk, which delivers a telling political cautionary tale for our times, a chic isolationist parable thriller set in an alternative Norway which has built a wall to keep foreigners out. When a virus strikes,...

Viaplay’s next Norwegian original series “The Fortress” is currently shooting in Bergen with a cast including Tobias Santelmann (“Kon-Tiki”), Selome Emnetu (“Luka and the Magical Theater”) and British star Russell Tovey (“Years and Years”).

Directed by Cecilie Mosli and Mikkel Brænne Sandemose (“State of Happiness”), the ambitious eight-part dystopian drama is set in 2037 in Norway. The country has decided to build an enormous wall around its borders to isolate itself and its citizens from the rest of the world. When a deadly pandemic breaks out, the inhabitants soon realize that the wall intended to protect them is instead holding them prisoner.

The show was written by Linn-Jeanethe Kyed (“Bø”) and author John Kåre Råke (“The Quake”). It will launch on Viaplay in 2023.

“Cecilie has directed most of the scenes involving my character, and she is talented, generous and committed,” said Santelmann. “My experience is that both Mikkel and...

The eight-part Norwegian series, staged by Maipo Film, is set to start filming later this year. A new eight-episode thriller series entitled The Fortress is in the works. The Norwegian production, commissioned by Nent Group's Viaplay, is set to begin filming later this year. Mikkel Brænne Sandemose (Ragnarok) and Cecilie Mosli (the TV series Thin Ice) are attached to direct. The Fortress is a dystopian TV series set in the near future and co-created by screenwriter and novelist John Kåre Raake and Linn-Jeanethe Kyed (the Oscar nominated short film Tuba Atlantic). In this story, Norway has chosen to sever all ties with the rest of the world. Surrounded by an enormous wall, the nation has become entirely self-sufficient. The fortunate inhabitants enjoy a life of well-being and safety. However, when there’s an outbreak of a fatal disease, they soon find themselves trapped behind the very wall...

Maipo Film, the well-established Norwegian company behind critically acclaimed series “State of Happiness” has unveiled details of “The Fortress,” an eight-part dystopian thriller drama which has been ordered by leading Scandinavian streaming service Viaplay.

Produced by Maipo Film’s Synnøve Hørsdal and Ales Ree, “The Fortress” is one of the buzzy projects set to be presented at Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

Created and written by John Kåre Raake (“The Wave”) and Linn-Jeanethe Kyed (“Børning 2”), “Fortress” is set in the near future in Norway which has chosen to sever all ties with the rest of the world. Surrounded by an enormous wall, the nation has become entirely self-sufficient. Its inhabitants enjoy a life of well-being in safety, but when an outbreak of a fatal disease occurs, they find themselves trapped behind the very wall that was built to protect them.

The series will follow Solveig Winter, an ambitious...

Leading Norwegian company Maipo is developing “Fortress,” an ambitious dystopian thriller, and is preparing the second season of “State of Happiness” (“Lykkeland”), the historical series which is competing this week at Canneseries.

“Fortress” is created and penned by two high-profile Norwegian screenwriters: John Kåre Raake, whose track record includes Nordic blockbusters such as “The Wave,” Roar Uthaug’s disaster movie, and “Ragnarok, a family film based on Viking mythology;” and Linn-Jeanethe Kyed, who notably co-wrote “Børning” and “Børning 2,” a action-comedy movie franchise set in the world of illegal sports car racing, and Benjamin Ree’s critically acclaimed documentary feature about the Norwegian chess prodigy, Magnus Carlsen.

“Fortress” takes place in a near future in Norway which is now secluded from the rest of the world by a wall built by the nationalistic government. Norwegians live in absolute sovereignty, relying only on their own homegrown resources and caring solely about national affairs.