Norwegian series triumph at Canneseries as fest vows to go ‘bigger and better’ in 2026
European drama festival Canneseries wrapped its first year without the parallel Mip TV market earlier this week, with Norwegian dramas taking big prizes and a robust studio and streamer-driven line-up fuelling interest.
Canneseries managed to prove itself as a strong standalone event, with organisers confirming that attendance on the festival side had risen 10% compared to last year’s edition.
“Our industry programme is a boutique, custom-made event where high-end international professionals can meet for quality encounters, not back-to-back meetings from day to night,” the festival’s artistic director Albin Lewi told Broadcast International.
The festival’s programme drew industry heavyweights to lead well-attended masterclasses and panels featuring The Bureau creator Eric Rochant, Severance and House of Cards’ Beau Willimon, and Doctor Who and Succession producer Jane Tranter.
The industry sessions, located inside the Palais adjacent to the festival activity, included its already established Canneseries Writers Club and Producers Club, which bring together commissioners, producers, distributors and streamers.
A new casting club and composers club with a focus on those parallel professions was also on show.
“It’s an entirely new model based on encounters where people working in the industry can meet and network across different professions and different territories,” Canneseries’ managing director Benoit Louvet said, insisting that “we are not a market.”
While other larger-scale events are either specifically festival or market-oriented, Louvet said Canneseries’ industry programme “is completely integrated into the festival – there is a real synergy between the two. The artistic direction team also curates the industry programme – they are one and the same, and that is our difference.”
Plus, he added, “nothing compares to the glamour of Cannes, so talent flock here.”
Place in the crowd
Among France-based audiovisual events, professionals say Mipcom remains very focused on buying and selling, La Rochelle’s autumn fiction festival centred on the local industry, with Series Mania also emerging as a market as it continues its co-production and business-oriented focus.
Canneseries, however, is positioning itself as a boutique event to spotlight talent and foster more intimate interactions.
“Series Mania and Mipcom have a similar intensity, namely we have meetings every half hour with partners from all over the world, at Canneseries, the atmosphere is totally different - there is more time for conversation with the talents,” suggested Thomas Anargyros, president of Mediawan France’s scripted unit, which produces more than 100 hours of fiction per year.
“The heart of all we do is based on writers so when auteur talent see the success of our series in the spotlight at an international festival like Canneseries it showcases our devotion to creation and hopefully incite them to work with us in the future,” he explained.
Mediawan was behind several Canneseries selections including Max’s South of France-set family drama Malditos in competition, Canal+’s mafia thriller The Corsican Line out of competition, the second season of Prime Video’s Escort Boys, and closing night series The Count of Monte Cristo.
The latter has just been snapped up by UKTV for the UK and PBS for the US.
Industry veteran Anargyros added: “Writers are our raw material, the root of everything we produce. We would like for them to want to join our group – it all starts there.
“We want to show them that at Mediawan, anything is possible – we can do a sprawling European co-production like The Count Of Monte Cristo or a French series broadcast around the world on a major streamer like Malditos or Escort Boys.”
“It is wonderful and rare to be able to unite an entire cast of well-known talent in one place at the same time to meet local and international press,” explained Dominique Farrugia, who runs Banijay Entertainment’s Shine Fiction and is in Cannes with Rendez-Vous selection Rien Ne t’Efface. The series will air on TF1 with Banijay Rights handling sales.
Banijay Entertainment was also at the festival with out of competition title The Big Fuck Up and the competition’s How To Kill Your Sister.
Helen Perquy, producer at Banijay-owned Belgian scripted production house jonnydepony, which produced The Big Fuck-Up, added: “It’s more than marketing – it’s a celebration of the industry.
“Canneseries is one of few opportunities when we can see the response of an audience to what we’ve made and celebrate all aspects of the art of making series – not just on-screen talent, but producers, showrunners and writers.”
She explained: “For the audience and the prestige, Canneseries has a unique attraction. We bring our talents to the pink carpet, we screen the show for audiences – it’s an event for the series and for all of the subsequent business like broadcast and sales surrounding it.
“Canneseries is about opening up the industry to your series. It helps to promote and sell the series because it has been selected.”
In addition to longtime event partner Canal+, which highlighted new series The Corsican Line, this year’s event premiered titles from major streamers with Paramount+ spy thriller The Agency, Max’s Malditos and J.J. Abrams’ 1970s crime thriller Duster.
Major talent from overseas was also in town, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan for AMC’s post-Apocalyptic Manhattan-set The Walking Dead: Dead City, Sam Claflin and Billie August for The Count Of Monte Cristo, the cast of Canal+ original creation The Bureau including star Mathieu Kassovitz, who celebrated the series’ 10th anniversary, and Bridgerton actor Nicola Coughlan, who received the festival’s commitment prize.
The festival has announced that its ninth edition will run 23-28 April in 2026, with Louvet promising: “It will be bigger next year with an expanded industry programme complete with more clubs linked to other industry professions. This was a first for us and the test run was a success.”
Taking the prizes
Norwegian series triumphed at Canneseries with psychological thriller A Better Man and inheritance drama Nepobaby taking the top prizes as the French series showcase wrapped its eighth edition earlier this week.
A Better Man, about a toxic masculinist who has to hide in womens’ clothing after hackers expose his identity, was named best series among the eight global titles in the long form competition, while star Anders Baasmo took home the best performance prize. The series also won the student award for best series.
It is produced by Maipo in collaboration with Lithuania’s Artbox and broadcst on NRK. Beta Film is handling international distribution.
Nepobaby, about an average girl who finds out she is the heiress to one of Norway’s wealthiest shipping dynasty families, won prizes for best screenplay and a special performance prize for its ensemble cast.
Oble handles global sales and Nordisk Film Nordic distribution for the series produced by Eldorado Content Club set to air on TV2 Norway. Giving Norway a hat trick at the prize ceremony was The Agent – The Life and Lies of my Father that took best documentary. Belgium’s Oh, Otto! won best short-form series and the Student Award in the same category.
Junoh Lee won the award for best music for South Korean series S Line produced and sold by Sidus.
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