The 9th edition of SeriesFest, the independent TV series festival, presented by the LA Times as "the Sundance of television," took place in Denver from May 5 through 10, 2023. Long the capital of television in the USA, Denver is the perfect place to host this festival dedicated to the pilots of new series from around the world.
For the first time this year, Unifrance was a partner of the festival. It is within this framework that the organization relayed a call for series and supported, jointly with the Villa Albertine in Los Angeles, the travel of selected artists so they could attend the event.
Out of a total of 36 applications received, two French series were selected in the International Spotlight category:
- Elle’s Kitchen, produced by 24 25 Films and Cinétévé and distributed by HAGO
- The Aerobics Project, produced by Agat Films - Ex nihilo and distributed by France tv distribution
Four French artists traveled to the festival to accompany their series:
- Annabelle Lengronne, an actress among the 10 to Watch d’Unifrance 2023 and the protagonist of Elle’s Kitchen, and Lucie Moreau, who created Elle’s Kitchen
- Géraldine De Margerie and Maxime Donzel, creators of The Aerobics Project
Both teams were delighted with the response from the audience during the screenings, which ended with particularly dynamic Q&A sessions between the artistic teams and the audience.
"The audience reacted a lot during the screening, all stayed afterwards, many asked questions and expressed their enthusiasm for the series." (Maxime Donzel, co-creator of The Aerobics Project)
The teams were all the more enthusiastic because this was their first screening in the United States.
These projections have also helped create or confirm sales opportunities.
"We'd received expressions of interest from the U.S. that were confirmed, as well as leads for adapting the format," Virginie Boireaux (HAGO), Elle’s Kitchen's distributor declared.
In addition, Elle’s Kitchen has already been sold to Belgium and Quebec, and in second window in France on free TV and SVOD.
Julia Schulte, (SVP International Sales, France tv distribution), also expressed her satisfaction after the presentation of The Aerobics Project: "We are proud and happy to have presented The Aerobics Project at the SeriesFest in Denver and to have been able to ensure a good exposure of the series to the American public through this selection. This type of event - foreign series festivals - is becoming a major part of our strategy to launch French fiction on the international market. We also hope that this original, funny, and offbeat production from Agat Films-Ex Nihilo will catch the attention of American buyers."
The Aerobics Project has been sold to Canada, Belgium and Switzerland.
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