Serie Series turns 10 with 11 Nordic series on its programme

Finland will be present in full force at Fontainebleau’s European Series summit, with six series and a special presentation from Yle Drama.

As always Serie Series (June 30-July 3) will be offering a wide platform to series from the Nordic region, and nearly 20 Nordic TV dramas specialists will take centre stage to introduce their works - either finished, in production or post-production.

Jarmo Lampela, Head of Drama at the Finnish public broadcaster Yle will be unveiling his upcoming line-up on Friday July 3^rd, together with executive producer Suvi Mansnerus and Executive Producer-Young Adult Drama Hyppe Salmi.

Two brand new projects in works in progress, produced by Mediawan-owned Aito Media for Yle will be pitched by Lampela and producer Eero Hietala.

• Saturday Society is a political drama based on true events that unfolded in Finland in the early 80s. The four-part TV drama is written by Merja Aakko (co-winner of the 2019 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize with Mika Ronkainen for All the Sins), based on an idea by writer/journalist Tuomas Marjamäki and Pasi Kivioja. The limited series is described as a political power play, with the main prize being Finland’s presidency. In it, reporters jeopardize their careers to prevent a Soviet-backed alcoholic from becoming the next president of Finland and along the way, they reveal the truth about their leaders.
  The premiere on Yle is pencilled for 2024.
• 506 Grams of Ural Snow is an eight-part crime show starring Ville Haapasalo and Juha Kukkonen. Written by Topi Koljonen and Lampela from the latter’s original idea, the series follows police officer Tuomo Marttinen and Russian drug king Andrey Kiuru, on a mission to find Tuomo’s son who disappeared 10 years earlier in Russia.

Also part of the ‘What’s Next’ section is the Finnish dystopian show The Astronauts (6x45’) to be pitched by director/co-creator Pete Riski (Bullets), The series is produced by Fire Monkey’s co-founders and producers Roope Lehtinen and Mikko Pöllä (White Wall) for Finnish leading streamer Elisa Viihde/Viaplay. Antti Pesonen (Bullets, Bordertown) serves as writer.

An American astronaut wakes up in the snowy wilderness of the Finnish Lapland. After almost freezing to death, she makes her way to a remote house where she gains access to the Internet, only to find out that almost the entire population of the planet has fallen asleep. With the help of a young boy, the astronaut must solve the mystery of what has happened to the world.

Three Nordic series are ‘In the pipeline’.

• Black Sands (Iceland), produced by Glassriver for Channel 2 Iceland.
  The 8x60’crime show is director/co-written by Baldvin Z; All3Media International handles sales. The local premiere is set for December 26, 2021.

• Dough (Sweden) is produced by Nexiko for SVT. The 8-part female-driven drama starring Helena af Sandeberg and Bianca Kronlöf is co-created by And Then We Danced’s Levan Akin, with Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mattias J Skoglund. The latter will be showing excerpts from the show, handled worldwide by Newen. The premiere on SVT is set for August 2021.

• Transport (Finland) from show-runner Auli Mantila, is co-produced by Finland’s Miia Haavisto of Tekele and Helen Perquy of Jonydepony, Belgium, who will introduce clips and discuss the show set in the illegal food trade business in Europe. Reinvent handles sales. The premiere on Yle is set for March 2022.

Another five Nordic series will be screening and discussed as case studies.

• Swedish/Danish crime drama Snow Angels produced by Yellow Bird and Happy Ending Film for SVT/DR from an idea by Mette Heeno.
• Icelandic comedy drama Journey based on an idea by Vikingur Kristjansson and Olafur Darri Olafsson, produced by Glassriver for Channel 2 Iceland.
• Human trafficking drama Cargo (Finland), created by head-writer/director Matti Kinnunen for Fremantle Yle.
• Finnish psycho thriller Bad Apples produced by Fire Monkey for Elisa Viihde Viaplay.
• Swedish historical drama A Royal Secret, produced by Stella Nova for SVT. The high-profile mini-series headlines Sverrir Gudnason as entrepreneur Kurt Haijby and Staffan Göthe as King Gustav V of Sweden, involved in a forbidden love story, between 1933 and the 1950s. The two first episodes will screen in Fontainebleau as an event evening Thursday July 1st. The premiere on SVT is scheduled or Christmas 2021.

This year’s overall theme at Serie Series headed by Marie Barraco, will be ‘Sharing Knowledge’.

Besides Yle, broadcasters/platforms invited to present their strategy and editorial choices include Netflix Arte. BrutX, TF1, Salto, Canal+ and France Télévisions.Special guests set to give masterclasses include HBO Europe’s Steve Matthews, intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, Israeli-US creator Ron Leshem andMs. Marvel’s head-writer Bisha K. Ali.

For the full programme, check: www.serieseries.fr