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European Film Market & Co-Production Market

For the eighth time, the Berlinale Co-Production Market is inviting producers, editors, distributors and other series financiers to pitches and meetings at “Co-Pro Series” on February 15 and 16. “Co-Pro Series” is curated and organised by the Berlinale Co-Production Market under the direction of Martina Bleis and is also part of the “Berlinale Series Market” programme (Feb 14-16). Successes such as Babylon Berlin, Freud, Furia, Blackport or Eldorado KaDeWe have participated in previous “Co-Pro Series” pitches.

This time around, ten outstanding international series projects from Europe, Canada and Latin America are looking for suitable co-producers and financiers. After the pitch, their creators and producers will meet with interested partners. Potential co-producers and interested financing partners have registered in large numbers, and can soon book their one-on-one meetings with the projects.

From Germany comes The Report, the first series project by Match Factory Productions, based on a political murder case in Lebanon that is to be solved by an international team of investigators. Author Ben von Rönne is known for writing the Emmy-nominated film Toter Winkel (2017).

Spin Control from Finland is a series project to be directed by Alli Haapasalo, whose current film Girl Picture premieres at Sundance and is part of the Generation programme at the Berlinale. The lead role as an environmental PR consultant is played by Seidi Haarla, who drew attention to herself this year as a European Shooting Star and leading actor in Compartment No. 6, which is currently on the shortlist for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Winterland from Denmark is based on the bestseller of the same name by the successful crime novelists Janni Pedersen and Kim Faber. It is produced by Nimbus Film, who created one of the great Nordic Noir cult series with The Bridge.

The Promised Land by San Sebastián award-winning Argentine director and co-writer Emiliano Torres is the first ever Latin American “Co-Pro Series” project - a thriller that brings turmoil to a Mennonite community in Paraguay.

You Are Obsolete comes from Canada’s Sienna Films, the producers of Cardinal: in this adaptation of the Aftershock graphic novel, a young woman travels to an isolated island to uncover a mysterious new climate saving technology created by a teenage prodigy who will stop at nothing to implement her plans.

Coming from Belgium is This is not a Murder Mystery, a whodunit in genuine Agatha Christie style, but riddled with surrealist motifs and elements. Hans Herbots, known for - among other things - the international series successes The Serpent and Riviera, is one of the directors aiming to bring René Magritte to life in 1930s London.

The Italian series Belcanto takes us to the world of early opera and the Napoleonic era, while The Attachment Theory from the Czech Republic (to be directed by Olmo Omerzu) recalls a real and yet scarcely comprehensible case of manipulation, identity fraud and human confusion.

In Nowheresville in the Norwegian hinterland, young female podcasters chase a cat-killer and struggle with growing up in the provinces. The series is produced by Hummelfilm, whose best-known series Occupied was a worldwide success.

Picadero from Barcelona, partly to be directed by Isabel Coixet, will be presented in cooperation with the Series Mania Forum in Lille, where the project was first pitched in August. And, one of the “Co-Pro Series” projects can continue its journey at Series Mania in March to pitch there and meet more partners.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 16, 2022) is supported by MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the European Union’s Creative Europe - MEDIA programme.

The “Co-Pro Series” pitches will take place online again this year on February 15 - in cooperation with the Norwegian Film Institute, which will host the presentation.

The “Berlinale Series Market” and its annual conference programme is a joint initiative of the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents; it is organised in close cooperation with Berlinale Series.

More information is available on the website of the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Projects Selected for “Co-Pro Series” 2022
(in alphabetic order of production companies presenting them):
• The Promised Land (writers: Paula Eleod, Marcelo Chaparro & Emiliano Torres; director: Emiliano Torres), Gaman Cine, Argentina
• Nowheresville (creators: Caroline B. Arnesen & Rebecca W. Kjellmann; director: Rebecca W. Kjellmann), Hummelfilm, Norway
• Belcanto (creators: Mariano Di Nardo, Antonio Manca & Federico Fava; director: tba), Lucky Red, Italy
• The Report (writer: Ben von Rönne; director: tba), Match Factory Productions, Germany
• Winterland (writers: Pauline Wolff & Jörgen Hjerdt; director: tba), Nimbus Film, Denmark
• This Is Not A Murder Mystery (original idea: Matthias Lebeer & Christophe Dirickx; writers: Christophe Dirickx & Paul Baeten; directors: Hans Herbots & Matthias Lebeer), Panenka, Belgium
• The Attachment Theory (showrunner: Radovan Síbrt; creators: Miro Šifra & Lucie Vaňková; director: Olmo Omerzu), Pink, Czech Republic
• You Are Obsolete (creator: Steve Cochrane; director: tbd), Sienna Films, Canada
• Spin Control (writer: Kaisa Pylkkänen; director: Alli Haapasalo), Tuffi Films, Finland

Project in cooperation with Series Mania:
• Picadero (writers: Almudena Monzú & Mauricio Leiva Cock; director: Isabel Coixet), Amor Y Lujo & Zeta Studios, Spain & Fidelio Films, Colombia

Press Office
January 18, 2022