The French TV drama festival in Fontainebleau has selected a dozen new Nordic TV dramas including the anticipated Norwegian show Valkyrien for the opening ceremony on June 29.

This is the second time in its four-year existence that Serie Series opens with a Scandinavian TV show, after Real Humans that set the tone in 2012 for the non-competitive European TV drama event.

“Serie Series focuses exclusively on European creators and producers, unlike other TV drama festivals and markets, says the festival’s managing director Marie Barraco to nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “We want to be close to the industry, use our platform as a think tank. Therefore the input from our steering group comprising several Scandinavian professionals [Nice Drama’s Stefan Baron, director Harald Hamrell, writer/producer Lars Lundström, NRK’s Tone C.Rønning] is extremely valuable.

Valkyrien is a great opening TV drama because it represents the current trend in scripted content which is to tackle current issues - here medical research and experimentation, and combine it with a thriller element.”

Key members of Valkyrien’s creative and production team - writer/director Erik Richter Strand, actor Sven Nordin, Tordenfilm’s producers Eric Vogel and Nina B. Andersson, and NRK’s Tone C. Rønning will be on hand to take part in a case study. "We are thrilled to be selected to open Série Séries with Valkyrien! It’s a great, first festival arena for the series, and a great opportunity for us to have an early feedback. We also look forward to meeting and mingling with television professionals we hold in high regard," said Vogel. 

The 8x45’ series backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond will air on NRK in 2017. Paris-based APC handles sales.

Other Scandi dramas to be discussed  as case studies by their respective key cast and crew include Downshifters (Yellow Film & TV/Elisa/YLE, Finland), The Bonus Family (FLX/SVT), The Day Will Come (Zentropa/TV2) and the innovative web-series Hashtag from Sweden (Zentropa/SVT Play) and Skam/Shame from Norway (NRK Super).

“The two series are very similar in the way they address youth problems and the case studies will be very valuable to French professionals as we lack similar youth-oriented web dramas in France", noted Barraco.

Scandi dramas in post-production selected for ‘In the pipeline’ include the Nordic noirs Before We Die (B-Reel/SVT), Monster (NRK Drama), and Farang (Eyeworks Scandi Fiction/TV4) and the ‘What’s Next’ session with projects in early stage of development include the eco thriller Mayday produced by Denmark’s Fridthjof Film (see story CLICK HERE).

Among keynote speakers invited to give masterclasses are the Swedish producer and Filmlance International MD Lars Blomgren (The Bridge) and Danish scriptwriter Jepper Gjervig Gram (Follow the Money). Series Series will close on Friday July 1st with the screening of the first episode of Marcella, created by Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge) and Nicola Larder. 

For more information, check: http://www.serieseries.fr/en/