Berlin

The Berlinale Special Seriesprogramme, highly successful since its introduction three years ago, will run under the new name Berlinale Series and move to the new venue Zoo Palast for the 2018 festival.

In 2015 the Berlinale was the first A-festival worldwide to create an individual special programme for series within the official programme. In doing so, the Berlin International Film Festival started a new trend and gave the high-quality serial narrative format a prominent platform for presentation.

The premieres of exceptional series such as Top of the Lake (D: Jane Campion) and In the Face of Crime (D: Dominik Graf) were celebrated at the festival as early as 2010, and in 2015, the section Berlinale Special began including selected national and international series. Since then, acclaimed titles such as Better Call Saul, The Night Manager, False Flag and 4 Blocks have celebrated their world or international premieres in Berlin.

The new venue Zoo Palast gives Berlinale Series the opportunity to bring the international world of series closer to Berlinale audiences. Programme manager Solmaz Azizi is the point-of-contact for Berlinale Series and assigned to the European Film Market (EFM).

Trade visitors to “Drama Series Days”, in addition to engaging in the EFM activities taking place at Zoo Palast, will now be able to view series as well as experience the premieres live on the Red Carpet.

Festival Director Dieter Kosslick sees a good connection between the audience programme and EFM in the new venue Zoo Palast and says: “From the start, the inclusion of series was an enrichment of the festival. Audiences enjoy high-quality series as much as they do film.”

EFM director Matthijs Wouter Knol comments: “The ‘Drama Series Days’ have proven an interesting expansion of the market, and the close collaboration with the Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents has given many projects and talents new opportunities.

Being able to further develop the series platform together with Berlinale Series at Zoo Palast is a great opportunity for us to strengthen the programme.”

The selection for Berlinale Series and the “Drama Series Days” market screenings will be released in January. Interested parties may contact series@berlinale.de.

New series projects in the development and financing stage may be submitted by October 23 to the Berlinale Co-Production Market for the “CoPro Series Pitching” event. For more information, please go to: www.efm-berlinale.de/en/copro-market/participation/participation.html#!/subcontent=tab_copro_series

The 68th Berlin International Film Festival will take place from February 15 - 25, 2018. “Drama Series Days” ‒ a cooperative trade initiative of the European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents ‒ and Berlinale Series will take place from February 19 – 21, 2018. Official partner for “Drama Series Days” 2018 at the European Film Market is the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW; the platform is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.