…French Embassy sponsors trip to showcase African talent, networking
After sponsoring a Nigerian delegation to the MIPCOM (Cannes, France) last year, the French Embassy in Nigeria has invited 10 top Nigerian TV series producers to Lille in Northern France, to attend Series Mania Festival, the biggest TV series market in Europe.
The festival is scheduled from March 25-27, 2025, offering three days of pitching, networking and high-level conferences.
The sponsorship is part of French Embassy’s commitment to the Nigerian film industry development, support, and elevation efforts.
At the festival, Nigerian producers will meet other top-level TV industry leaders from studios, channels, and platforms, share their views on subjects that structure the global audiovisual industry and work to promote international cooperation.
The event also features showcases of series from all over the world, round table discussions and impactful masterclasses.
Based in Lille since 2018, Series Mania has become the biggest event dedicated uniquely to television series in Europe. Its festival offers exclusive world premieres of the greatest international series on the big screen, giving its audience (up to 85,500 spectators), eight days of discoveries, parties and masterclasses with some of the most renowned personalities in the series world.
At the same time, Series Mania welcomes French and foreign professionals of the TV industry at Series Mania Forum. In 2024, it welcomed 4,200 professionals from more than 72 countries and from 5 continents. It has become a must-attend event to fully support drama series, from writing to broadcasting, and in particular its best-and-coming writers. Many intensive writing workshops, as well as programmes aiming at breaking the silos of series production and encouraging international collaboration are undertaken throughout the year before being presented to professionals during the forum.
Over three days, participants will network, share insights, and collaborate to elevate Nigerian content on the global stage.
Industry professionals and TV series producers will convene to explore new opportunities and tackle industry challenges.
“Séries Mania offers several opportunities for African creators,” says Christophe Pecot, audiovisual attaché of the French Embassy in Nigeria, “notably through programmes such as AuthenticA Series Lab and the Creation Africa pavilion. This initiative of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs showcases African talent and facilitates meetings with industry professionals. Two networking events (Industry Breakfast with African Talents and a conference about how to initiate projects in Africa: opportunities and success stories) are also organized to foster collaborations.”
Moses Babatope, CEO of Nile Entertainement Group, added “Nollywood’s journey to Series Mania is key in our industry’s global narrative. The French Government’s initiative demonstrates remarkable consistency in strengthening creative industry ties between our nations, despite cultural and language differences. For Nigerian producers, Series Mania offers invaluable networking opportunities and opens doors to content development and production collaborations that were previously unimaginable. This is a strategic gateway to partnerships that will elevate our content. This sustained diplomatic investment in creative exchange is all we need to craft a future where global television will be written with African ink.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian companies attending the festival include: Nile Media Entertainement Group, BAP Productions, FilmOne Limited, Kap Motion Pictures, LaVida Studios, Bluhouse Studios, Raconteur Productions, Blackverse Studios, Anakle Films and Inkblot Productions.
Moreover, the support to Nigerian audiovisual industry was made possible courtesy of specific funds. This year again, the programme called “Creation Africa” enables to support entrepreneurship in the sector of cultural and creative industries. The fund has been entrusted for a period of 18 months by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
