Backed by Mediaset España and Movistar Plus+, Cadiz’s South International Series Festival made an inaugural splash last year, showcasing some of Spain‘s biggest series of the season.
In 2024, the Andalusia-based event has moved to a post-Mipcom stop-over berth, and with France as the guest country, attendance could well scale up.
Spain has hosted major TV markets for years now, including Conecta Fiction each summer and Iberseries & Platino Industria, which unspooled in Madrid last week. South sets itself apart by being a true festival in the vein of Canneseries or the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in France. While there will be plenty of roundtables, networking, and B2B get-togethers at South, the event’s main objective is to showcase some of the best new and new-ish series from around the world.
“From the very beginning, the idea was to create something different from what was already being done in Spain,” South Series Industry Director Carles Montiel explains to Variety. “Our idea was to gather the industry here, but in a much more celebratory environment where they could experience more than just the business side of their work.”
South Series is focused more on the storytelling artform than the commercial success of the titles it showcases. The emphasis is on the art form of storytelling, not the efficiency with which content can be churned out or the profits that can be made from shows designed to be as broadly appealing as possible.
He goes on, “Deals are made here every day, but we also want producers and talent to see how audiences are watching and reacting to their series, how much they enjoy them. That already exists for films, but we didn’t have this for series in Spain.”
South features five main screening sections: Official Fiction; Official Non-Fiction; Jewelry, for series that have already been released but deserve a second look; Panorama, dedicated exclusively to popular shows from Spain; and South – for titles with roots in Andalusia.
This year’s South Series fiction jury will be presided over by BetaSeries CEO Rémi Tereszkiewicz, who will be joined by writer-director Ramón Salazar (“20 centímetros,” “10,000 Nights Nowhere”), producer Juan Parodi (“Impostores”), screenwriter Virginia Yagüe (“The Wild Ones”) and actor Ana Torrent (“The Nest”).
South Series non-fiction jury will be headed by screenwriter Ángeles González Sinde (“La suerte dormida,” “Una palabra tuya”), who will deliberate with producer Anna Saura (“Diarios de la cuarentena”) and Chilean screenwriter-director Julio Rojas (“Caso 63,” “La Jauría”).
Standouts from the 2024 competition lineups come from home and abroad, with Spanish titles such as fest opening period dramedy “La vida breve” (Movistar+ and Zera Studios), internal affairs drama “Asuntos Internos” (RTVE) and 20th century-set melodrama “La Favorita 1922” (Mediterraneo) all looking to impress.
Ghislain Barrois is CEO of Mediterraneo, a production company owned by South Series backer Mediaset España. Speaking to Variety, he emphasizes the importance of events like South and why his company was eager to get on board.
When asked ahead of last year’s inaugural edition, “We jumped at the opportunity,” he explained, noting that previously the company avoided TV festivals like South, but that with changes in leadership and the current TV landscape, in-person get-togethers are increasingly vital for the sector. “Last year was a big success, and I think we are coming back at this year’s edition with a vengeance.”
One of South Series’ most alluring aspects is its ability to introduce international series to Spanish audiences. In many cases, South Series attendees may be seeing some of the shows for the first time, as several are exclusive to certain pay TV broadcasters or platforms in Spain.
Exciting international titles heading to South take in Steven Knight’s ’80s-set British band drama “This Town,” AMC (U.S., Spain) and Prime Video (U.K., Ireland) pickup “Nautilus” and Caracol TV’s Colombian drama “Escupiré sobre sus tumbas,” which will close out South Series 2024.
According to Montiel, the goal was to hit a 60/40 split with this year’s lineup, 40% of the titles being Spanish and 60% from the rest of the world.
By hosting South Series in Cadiz, organizers hope to ride a wave of industry decentralization for film and TV production, which has historically been based out of Madrid and Barcelona.
“It’s important for us to be close to our audiences,” says Movistar Plus+ executive producer and manager of original fiction production Susana Herreras. “Coming here gets us away from the big cities and have direct contact with and helps us see how our programming is viewed in other areas.”
Barrois agrees and recalls that at the 2023 edition, “The audiences were overwhelming.” He says reactions were even more enthusiastic than at Canneseries, and that “the people were so grateful that the stars of these shows came to see them.”
Herrera points to titles such as Canneseries winner “The Left-Handed Son,” which was made in Andalusia, and recent San Sebastian standout “Querer” – screening at this year’s South Series, as examples of productions that can be made outside of traditional production hubs while maintaining a high-end quality that modern audiences are looking for.
RTVE has a regional example of its own at this year’s South Series, the standout procedural “Detective Touré,” one of the broadcaster’s crown jewels and the first Spanish free-to-air series to feature a Black protagonist. The show was created by Bilbao native David Perez Sañudo and shot in Pais Vasco’s Bizkaia, like”Querer.”
For the local Andalusian government, South Series stands as an opportunity to show off the benefits of shooting in the region. When this year’s lineup was announced back in September, Andalusia’s Vice-Minister for Tourism and External Relations, Victor Manuel González, explained that the festival’s presence will help “to the strengthening of the audiovisual industry in Andalusia and its positioning as a destination for filming.”
He emphasized that year-round film and TV production production and high-profile events like South are boons to the local economy, boosting tourism and providing short-term and long-term work for locals.
SOUTH SERIES 2024 COMPETITION SECTIONS
OFFICIAL FICTION SECTION
“La vida breve,” (Cristóbal Garrido, Adolfo Valor, Spain)
“This Town,” (Steven Knight, U.S., United Kingdom)
“Asuntos internos,” (Pedro García Ríos, Rodrigo Martín Antora, Spain)
“Nautilus,” (James Dormer, United Kingdom)
“Sea Shadows,” (Jonathan Rio and Monica Rattazzi, France)
“Muertos S.L.,” (Alberto Caballero, Daniel Deorador, Julián Sastre, Nando Abad, Spain)
“Oderbruch,” (Christian Alvart, Adolfo J. Kolmerer, Germany)
“Dogpack,” (Edgar Medina, Portugal)
“The Big Jump,” (José Rodríguez, Spain)
“Joan,” (Richard Laxton, U.K.)
“La Favorita 1922,” (Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, Paula Fernández, Curro Serrano, Spain)
“Escupiré sobre sus tumbas,” (Mónica Botero, Carlos Mario Urrea, Colombia)
OFFICIAL NON-FICTION SECTION
“Luz en la oscuridad,” (Carles Porta, Spain)
“Xuxa, a Life on TV,” (Cassia Dian, Monica Almeida and Pedro Bial, Brazil)
“SAC, en la mente del criminal,” (Eduardo López-Jamar, Spain)
“(In)visible,” (Gonzalo Lamela, Panama, Uruguay)
“Leonardo da Vinci,” (David McMahon, Sarah Burns, U.S.)
“The History of Reggaeton,” (Omar Acosta, Daddy Yankee, U.S.)
“Alive: The Andes Plane Disaster,” (Oliver Price, United Kingdom)
“On Thin Ice: Putin vs. Greenpeace,” (Chloe Campbell, Alice Mcmahon-Major, United Kingdom)
“Dead in the Water,” (Niamh Kennedy, United Kingdom)
JEWELRY
“Las noches de Tefía,” (Miguel del Arco, Rómulo Aguillaume, Spain)
“Pancho Villa, El Centauro del Norte,” (Rafa Lara, Mexico)
“The Offer,” (Michael Tolkin, U.S.)
“Dieciocho,” (Hammudi Al-Rahmoun Font, Spain)
“All Creatures Great and Small,” (Andy Hay, Metin Hüseyin, Brian Percival, United Kingdom)
“Querer,” (Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, Eduard Sola, Júlia de Paz, Spain)
PANORAMA
“Detective Touré,” (Carlos Vila, Esteban Crespo, Violeta Salama, Spain)
“La que se avecina,” (Alberto Caballero, Laura Caballero, Daniel Deorador, Spain)
“What Are You Waiting For,” (David Martín-Porras, Salvador García, Spain)
SOUTH
“Blanca Bocanegra,” (Julio Blez, Spain)
“El hijo zurdo,” (Rafael Cobos, Spain)
“Canal Sur Special: Wild Andalusia. The Land of the Iberian Lynx,” (Nacho Ruiz, Spain)
“Canal Sur Special: Tartessos, a Kingdom Between Two Seas,” (José Antonio Hergueta, Spain)
“The Marquess,” (José Ramón Ayerra, Begoña Álvarez Rojas, Spain)
“En fin,” (David Sainz, Spain)
“The Trades of Cinema,” (Antonio Cadenas Vidal, Spain)
