Mumbai: With Series Mania 2023 coming to a close, Series Mania founder and general director Laurence Herszberg announced the winners of the Series Mania Festival, and the final number of participants on 24 March.

“We would first like to thank the public and the professionals who attended this edition, which brought together more than 85,000 participants for the Festival and 3,800 participants from 64 countries for the Forum. We are delighted to announce our prize list and figures that have far exceeded our expectations”, commented Herszberg.

The Winners:

International Competition:

The international jury, chaired by the American showrunner, screenwriter and producer Lisa Joy, surrounded by Emmanuelle Béart (actress, France), Anurag Kashyap (director, India), Chris Chibnall (showrunner, UK), Judah Levi (actor, Israel), Lou Doillon (singer, France), awarded 4 prizes among the 9 series presented in world or international premiere in the presence of their teams.

Grand Prize : The Actor (Iran)

Best Actress: Margot Bancilhon in Haven of Grace (France)

Best Actor: Michael Sheen in Best Interests (UK)

Best Writing: John Kâre Raake for The Fortresss (Norway)

International Panorama:

The International Panorama, presided over by the French writer Hervé Le Tellier, surrounded by Lone Korslund (Creative Director, producer, Denmark), Assa Sylla (actress, France), Hugo Bardin (actor, France), Jandiz Cardoso (Director Episodic Program, Sundance Institute, USA), Lila Byock (screenwriter, USA ) awarded 4 prizes among the 12 series presented in French, European, and world previews.

Best Series: Blackwater (Sweden)

Best Directing: Ernesto Contreras for Tengo que morir todas las noches (Mexico)

Best Actress: Rotem Sela and Gal Malka in A Body That Works  (Israel)

Best Actor: Eran Naim in Innermost (Germany-Israel)

Student award for Best Series : Funny Woman (UK)

French competition:

The international press jury composed of Ariana Finos (La Repubblica, Italy), Enric Albero (El Cultural, Spain), Hanna Huge (serienjunkies.de, Germany), Adrian Hennigan (Haaretz, Israel) and Ashanti Omkar (BBC, UK) awarded 4 prizes among the 6 French series presented in World Premiere in the presence of their teams

Best Series: Under Control 

Best Actress: Clémentine Célarié in Six women

Best Actor: Carel Brown  in Aspergirl

Best Original Score: Maud Geffray, Rebeka Warrior for Split

Short Forms Competition:

This competition is awarded by an international jury chaired by US creator, writer and producer Sam Shaw with Madison Walsh (screenwriter, Canada), Jérémy Gillet (actor, Belgium) and Charlotte Abramow (photographer and director, Belgium).

Best Series: Autodefensa (Spain)

Comedies Competition:

Best Series by a high school students Jury of the Hauts-de-France: Rictus (France)

Public Award:

This prize is awarded to the audience's favorite series among all the titles in competition - except for Short Formats, voted on at the end of the screenings.

Best Series:  Little Bird (Canada)

With more than 3,800 participants from 64 countries, this successful and vibrant edition of Series Mania Forum brought together more international industry professionals than ever before to Lille. New participants attending for the first time included Arab Emirates, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Iran, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Turkey and Uruguay. With the Forum now concluded, key conferences, keynotes, and pitching sessions from the week are available on demand at Series Mania+.