The €50,000 development prize associated to Seriesmakers, will allow Kuosmanen and his producer Jussi Rantamäki of Aamu Film Company, to develop a series pilot script and a full package, on top of access to Beta’s Content Division, headed by CCO Koby Gal Raday.

Kuosmanen, Rantamäki and the other winning teams, will also be able to pitch their series projects to potential co-financiers at next year’s Series Mania Forum.

As announced recently in our story Juho Kuosmanen makes drama series debut with Yours, Margot, selected for Seriesmakers - the 8x45’ project Yours-Margot is based on the eponymous debut novel by Finnish journalist and author Meri Valkama. It will be adapted for the screens by the writing duo Andri Feldmanis and Livia Ulman behind Kuosmanen’s 2021 Cannes Grand Prix winning film Compartment No6.

The other two talented filmmakers making the jump to long-form fiction thanks to the financial and skills boost from Seriesmakers -Belgian/Guatemalan César Díaz and Brazilian Beatriz Seigner - are also former Cannes participants.

Díaz won a camera d’or in 2019 for Our Mothers, and Seigner attended the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2018 with Los Silencios.

Díaz first series The Invisible Ink which won the €50,000 Beta Development Award is being produced by Fernando Epstein. It’s the story of a former Uruguayan revolutionary, whose peaceful life in Belgium is rocked by a visit from his old torturer.

Seigner’s project Amigas, winner of the €20,000 Kirch Foundation award, tells of five former high-school girlfriends, now in their 40s, who meet up for their 25th graduation anniversary. Their reunion brings back memories of a traumatic experience they shared as teenagers.

SERIESMAKERS - SECOND EDITION
Seriesmakers co-founders Series Mania and Beta Group also announced on Wednesday that their joint-creative initiative is been confirmed for a second edition.

Applications now open can be submitted until June 15, 2023: CLICK HERE.

For the 2nd Seriesmakers tailor-made training programme, top screenwriters Chris Brancato (Narcos), and Lisa Joy (Westworld) have joined the existing team of mentors including Frank Doelger (Game of Thrones, The Swarm), Stefan Arndt (Run Lola Run, Babylon Berlin), and Michael Polle (Babylon Berlin, Furia).

Series Mania Forum which closes March 23 also announced that the Polish/Ukrainian series Unspoken won the sought-after €50,000 Co-pro Pitching Prize. The reality-based war thriller co-written by Zhanna Ozirna and Filip Syczyński tells the story of a man trying to save his family from the grave danger of the Russian invasion.

The jury consisted of Finland’s Jarmo Lampela (Yle Drama), Italy’s Michele Zatta (RAI), France’s Françoise Guyonnet (StudioCanal), the UK’s Caroline Hollick (Channel 4 Drama) and Lindsey Martin (CBS Studios Int’l).

Among the 15 competing series selected out of 460 applications from 66 countries was the Swedish project in development YOP produced by Nevis Productions.

The 8x45’ series is the extraordinary story of Swedish artist and music producer David Jassy, whose life came to a halt aged 34 following an altercation at a crosswalk in L.A., which resulted in the death of a man. He was given a life sentence for second degree murder and spends the subsequent years struggling to survive in L.A. County Jail, Solano and San Quentin, one of California’s most over-crowded and dangerous prisons. Jessy himself is attached as writer.

Meanwhile the winners of Series Mania’s official series competition will be announced March 24 at a closing ceremony.