Berlin

Co-Pro Series Pitch 2023 © Carlos Collado

On February 20 and 21, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will be organising its tenth Co-Pro Series, consisting of a pitch event, meetings and networking around ten promising international series projects selected for presentation to interested partners.

The pitches will take place at CinemaxX on the morning of February 20, followed by a networking event and several hundred pre-planned one-on-one meetings between the producers and creators of the projects and potential co-producers, financiers and representatives of sales agents, funding institutions, broadcasters and platforms.

Ten top-quality series projects from Europe, Iran, Namibia and Argentina are taking part this time. Witness 36, a new project by Daniel Burman, whose Yosi, the Regretful Spy was selected for Berlinale Series 2022, will be among them. It spotlights invented biographies in the world of secret services and witness protection programmes.

Three new series projects by creator-directors, all of whom have already participated in the Berlinale Co-Production Market with feature film projects, are being eagerly awaited:

The Coroner's Assistant by Elina Psykou is a political thriller set in 1970s Greece and features femicide, cover-up attempts, and corruption.

The Werewolf & Renée tells the story of the Marquise de Sade and her husband as a historical and modern Bonnie & Clyde story. It has been written by Katrin Gebbe, who recently made a name for herself as director of the Emmy award-winning series The Empress.

Last but not least, Carlota Pereda, who presented Piggy at the Berlinale Co-Production Market and then went on to celebrate huge successes at international festivals and in cinemas, now tells a story spanning several centuries about an abandoned vampire who tries to come to terms with the separation from her girlfriend – as it happens, also a vampire - in the dramedy Death to Love.

Spain and Spanish-language series are very well-represented this time. In addition to Death to Love, there is Executioners from the Basque Country, first presented at Series Mania in spring 2023 and now looking for additional partners as part of a collaboration. The project is about a group of teenagers who accidentally come across the victim of a political kidnapping in the 1990s; they are forced to navigate between extremism, their parental generation’s striving for independence, and their own desire for freedom.

Family also plays a key role in The Palm Line from Switzerland, when a journalist attempts to shed light on her father’s role in Italy’s biggest art heist and becomes a mafia target. In Mirrors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, directed by Aida Begić, a family’s self-image is shaken when some secrets from the past come to light after the death of the matriarch, mother and grandmother who was adored by everyone.

Wolves by Sina Ataeian Dena is the first animated series project at Co-Pro Series. Created using rotoscoping technology, it tells the story of a personal reckoning and revenge with a previously unseen glance at the gloomy underworld of Tehran.

The Man with the Crooked Arm is a series from Namibia, in which Perivi John KatJavivi (most recent Berlinale appearance in 2019 with Film Festival Film) revisits colonial history as an extraordinary Western drama.

Finally, the black humour thriller S.O.L. from the UK and Sweden is about climate change and philanthropy, and features a millionaire who wants to improve the world but actually ends up taking it even closer to the abyss. The film and series-proven company Warp Films (This is England) is behind this project.

“The selection this year is remarkably diverse, but all the projects provide a combination of both excellent entertainment and substantial depth. Very experienced series creators and producers have been invited, as well as successful filmmakers venturing into series-making for the first time and with a completely fresh perspective. We are very much looking forward to the Co-Pro Series Pitches with projects and potential partners here in Berlin, and we can hardly wait to see these series completed,” says Martina Bleis, head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market and curator of Co-Pro Series.

Co-Pro Series is taking place for the tenth time this year. International hit series such as Babylon Berlin, Freud or recent successes such as the historical spy series Davos 1917 (Switzerland/Germany), the award-winning sci-fi youth series Dome 16 (Norway/Netherlands), and the high-calibre Austrian-German co-production Snow are among previous pitch participants.

Potential co-producers and interested financing partners have registered already, and the entire event, including pitches, get-together, and meetings, is now fully booked.

More information can be found on the Berlinale Co-Production Market website.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a Berlinale Pro* initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival and is supported by MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union as well as the FFA - German Federal Film Board.

The Berlinale Series Market and its annual conference programme is a joint initiative of the European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, and Berlinale Talents.

Projects selected for Co-Pro Series 2024

(in alphabetical order of production companies):

• The Coroner's Assistant (creator/writer/director: Elina Psykou), Blonde, Greece
• The Palm Line (creators: Thomas Ritter (head-writer), Maria Rosselini, Mattia Lento; director: Fulvio Bernasconi), hugofilm features, Switzerland
• The Werewolf & Renée (creator/writer/director: Katrin Gebbe), Junafilm, Germany
• Wolves (writer/director: Sina Ataeian Dena), Ma.ja.de, Germany & Europe Media Nest, Czechia/Iran
• Death to Love (creator/writer/director: Carlota Pereda), Morena Films & Buendía Estudios, Spain
• Witness 36 (writers: Natacha Caravia, Juan Matías Carballo, Daniel Burman; director: Daniel Burman), Oficina Burman, Argentina
• The Man with the Crooked Arm (creator/head-writer/director: Perivi John Katjavivi), Old Location Films, Namibia
• Mirrors (creators: Amra Bakšić Čamo, Aida Begić; director: Aida Begić), SCCA/pro.ba, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• S.O.L. (creator: Ruth McCance; director: tba), Warp Films, United Kingdom & Rainy Days, Sweden

Project in cooperation with Series Mania

• Executioners (creators/writers: Rodrigo Martín Antoranz, Pedro García Ríos; director: tba), Vertice 360, Spain
•  

On February 20 and 21, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will be organising its tenth Co-Pro Series, consisting of a pitch event, meetings and networking around ten promising international series projects selected for presentation to interested partners.

The pitches will take place at CinemaxX on the morning of February 20, followed by a networking event and several hundred pre-planned one-on-one meetings between the producers and creators of the projects and potential co-producers, financiers and representatives of sales agents, funding institutions, broadcasters and platforms.

Ten top-quality series projects from Europe, Iran, Namibia and Argentina are taking part this time. Witness 36, a new project by Daniel Burman, whose Yosi, the Regretful Spy was selected for Berlinale Series 2022, will be among them. It spotlights invented biographies in the world of secret services and witness protection programmes.

Three new series projects by creator-directors, all of whom have already participated in the Berlinale Co-Production Market with feature film projects, are being eagerly awaited:

The Coroner's Assistant by Elina Psykou is a political thriller set in 1970s Greece and features femicide, cover-up attempts, and corruption.

The Werewolf & Renée tells the story of the Marquise de Sade and her husband as a historical and modern Bonnie & Clyde story. It has been written by Katrin Gebbe, who recently made a name for herself as director of the Emmy award-winning series The Empress.

Last but not least, Carlota Pereda, who presented Piggy at the Berlinale Co-Production Market and then went on to celebrate huge successes at international festivals and in cinemas, now tells a story spanning several centuries about an abandoned vampire who tries to come to terms with the separation from her girlfriend – as it happens, also a vampire - in the dramedy Death to Love.

Spain and Spanish-language series are very well-represented this time. In addition to Death to Love, there is Executioners from the Basque Country, first presented at Series Mania in spring 2023 and now looking for additional partners as part of a collaboration. The project is about a group of teenagers who accidentally come across the victim of a political kidnapping in the 1990s; they are forced to navigate between extremism, their parental generation’s striving for independence, and their own desire for freedom.

Family also plays a key role in The Palm Line from Switzerland, when a journalist attempts to shed light on her father’s role in Italy’s biggest art heist and becomes a mafia target. In Mirrors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, directed by Aida Begić, a family’s self-image is shaken when some secrets from the past come to light after the death of the matriarch, mother and grandmother who was adored by everyone.

Wolves by Sina Ataeian Dena is the first animated series project at Co-Pro Series. Created using rotoscoping technology, it tells the story of a personal reckoning and revenge with a previously unseen glance at the gloomy underworld of Tehran.

The Man with the Crooked Arm is a series from Namibia, in which Perivi John KatJavivi (most recent Berlinale appearance in 2019 with Film Festival Film) revisits colonial history as an extraordinary Western drama.

Finally, the black humour thriller S.O.L. from the UK and Sweden is about climate change and philanthropy, and features a millionaire who wants to improve the world but actually ends up taking it even closer to the abyss. The film and series-proven company Warp Films (This is England) is behind this project.

“The selection this year is remarkably diverse, but all the projects provide a combination of both excellent entertainment and substantial depth. Very experienced series creators and producers have been invited, as well as successful filmmakers venturing into series-making for the first time and with a completely fresh perspective. We are very much looking forward to the Co-Pro Series Pitches with projects and potential partners here in Berlin, and we can hardly wait to see these series completed,” says Martina Bleis, head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market and curator of Co-Pro Series.

Co-Pro Series is taking place for the tenth time this year. International hit series such as Babylon Berlin, Freud or recent successes such as the historical spy series Davos 1917 (Switzerland/Germany), the award-winning sci-fi youth series Dome 16 (Norway/Netherlands), and the high-calibre Austrian-German co-production Snow are among previous pitch participants.

Potential co-producers and interested financing partners have registered already, and the entire event, including pitches, get-together, and meetings, is now fully booked.

More information can be found on the Berlinale Co-Production Market website.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a Berlinale Pro* initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival and is supported by MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union as well as the FFA - German Federal Film Board.

The Berlinale Series Market and its annual conference programme is a joint initiative of the European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, and Berlinale Talents.

Projects selected for Co-Pro Series 2024

(in alphabetical order of production companies):

• The Coroner's Assistant (creator/writer/director: Elina Psykou), Blonde, Greece
• The Palm Line (creators: Thomas Ritter (head-writer), Maria Rosselini, Mattia Lento; director: Fulvio Bernasconi), hugofilm features, Switzerland
• The Werewolf & Renée (creator/writer/director: Katrin Gebbe), Junafilm, Germany
• Wolves (writer/director: Sina Ataeian Dena), Ma.ja.de, Germany & Europe Media Nest, Czechia/Iran
• Death to Love (creator/writer/director: Carlota Pereda), Morena Films & Buendía Estudios, Spain
• Witness 36 (writers: Natacha Caravia, Juan Matías Carballo, Daniel Burman; director: Daniel Burman), Oficina Burman, Argentina
• The Man with the Crooked Arm (creator/head-writer/director: Perivi John Katjavivi), Old Location Films, Namibia
• Mirrors (creators: Amra Bakšić Čamo, Aida Begić; director: Aida Begić), SCCA/pro.ba, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• S.O.L. (creator: Ruth McCance; director: tba), Warp Films, United Kingdom & Rainy Days, Sweden

Project in cooperation with Series Mania

• Executioners (creators/writers: Rodrigo Martín Antoranz, Pedro García Ríos; director: tba), Vertice 360, Spain