Fifth European Series Day on 2 October in Cologne

Trends in the European series market, new productions and opportunities for distribution are in the focus of the fifth European Series Day on  2 October in Cologne. The event is being held for the first time in the largest cinema at Cologne’s Filmpalast. Market analyses, case studies and keynotes will be concentrating on the development of European series in the areas of documentary and fiction drama. The event is being organised again by Film Festival Cologne, Creative Europe Desk NRW, ifs international film school cologne and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

Words of welcome by the Filmstiftung’s CEO Petra Müller and ifs CEO Nadja Radojevic will be followed by Guy Bisson, co-founder and research director of the London-based media analyst Ampère Analysis, giving an insight into the impact of social change on serial formats.  He will also take this opportunity to address the potential of European co-production for German producers. Show runner Annette Hess („Weissensee“, „Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo“) will speak about the development of historical series. Writer and producer Christian Beetz and show runner Georg Tschurtschenthaler, who also serves as a writer and co-director  (both from gebrueder beetz filmproduktion) will be presenting „A Perfect Crime“, Netflix’s first German Original documentary series. This will be followed by sneak previews of high-end drama series from Germany. The writer Andreas Linke will be joined by director Andreas Senn and producer Susanne Flor (Network Movie) for the presentation of the new ZDFneo drama series „Unbroken“. The director Dror Zahavi, producer Simone Höller (FFP New Media) and SWR commissioning editor Claudia Gerlach-Benz l will present the historical event series „Little America“. The production was backed by the Filmstiftung NRW and shot extensively in NRW.

The hit Danish series „When the Dust Settles“ will be presented digitally by show runner duo Ida Rydén and Dorte W. Høgh. The event will then wrap with a presentation by Jens Wolf, CEO of Cologne’s MMC Studios, and Michael Brink, CEO LAVAlabs, of the MMC Studios' new virtual production set – a revolution for studio shoots.

Torsten Zarges, Editor in Chief at DWDL, will serve as the event’s host.

In cooperation with European Series Day and Series Mania, the Film Festival Cologne will show the first two episodes of the creator and producer Aitor Gabilondo's Basque series "Patria" which spans a narrative arc across 30 years of separatist terror in the Basque region. The eight-part series based on the eponymous novel by Fernando Aramburu began airing on HBO Europe on September 27.

The event is being held in compliance with the necessary hygiene and social distancing rules.