The public program of Seriesly Berlin, is set. From September 16 to 18, the festival will present six international series in the Hackesche Höfe cinemas, all before their German TV or streaming premiere. Tickets for the screenings are available at www.hoefekino.de and on our program page www.serieslyberlin.com/program. Besides featuring brand new shows, the festival offers Seriesly Berlin Conference, a two-day industry gathering with panels, talks and interactive formats at the unique Fotografiska Berlin museum and gallery space.
Seriesly Berlin Screenings will open on September 16 at 7pm in the presence of cast and crew with the festival premiere of the comedy series "Der Upir", the most biting Joyn production to date. Seriesly shows four episodes of the first vampire comedy from Germany, an eight-part production by UFA Fiction. The series, in which "Jerks" star, Fahri Yardim, and indie icon, Rocko Schamoni, become creatures of the night, celebrates its festival premiere at Seriesly Berlin before it becomes available on the German streaming platform, Joyn. In addition to the two main actors Yardim and Schamoni, creator, writer and director Peter Meister (“The Black Square”), and actors Lana Cooper (“Love Steaks”), Aenne Schwarz (“All Is Well”), Bernhard Schütz (“Eichwald, MDB”) and Thelma Buabeng ("Käthe and I"), will also attend the premiere.
The festivals’ program also includes the world premiere of the Dutch eight-part documentary series, "The Underground Railroad". The well-known documentary film-makers, Martijn Blekendaal and Finbarr Wilbrink, take their viewers on a journey along the Underground Railroad, the resistance network that helped thousands of enslaved people escape from the southern states of the USA to freedom in the north in the mid-19th century. They show how strongly the history of slavery, although abolished over 150 years ago, still shapes the current social division in the USA.
The Spanish drama series, "Dressed in Blue" (“Vestidas de Azul”) uses its six protagonists to explore the reality of transgender people in the 1980s, a particularly hostile time for trans people in Spain. "Dressed in Blue" is the continuation of the successful series "Veneno", which tells the life story of La Veneno, Spain's most famous trans woman, and also her sudden death in 2016, under circumstances that remain unclear to this day. The series “Dressed in Blue” is one of the most watched series on the Spanish streaming service artresplayer, and Max has secured the broadcasting rights for Latin America. "Dressed in Blue" celebrates its German premiere at the Seriesly Festival.
The first episodes of the six-part French series for Canal+, "The Trigger" (La Fièvre), will also be making their German premiere at Seriesly Berlin Screenings. Set in the high-pressure world of professional football, the drama about a media scandal comes from Eric Benzekri, the former politician and creator of the acclaimed Canal+ series "Baron Noir", and from Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, producers of the global success, "Intouchables".
The series "Spinners" , also produced for Canal+, hails from South Africa and will be shown in Germany for the first time, Spinners had its world premiere at CANNESERIES, won three awards at the Dakar Series Festival, and the Magnolia Award for best foreign language TV series at the Shanghai TV Festival 2024. The series tells the story of Ethan, who develops a talent for spinning, a South African motorsport in which cars are driven in circles at high speed and stunts are performed in, and outside of, the car. Spinning originated in the 1980s in Soweto as a funeral ritual of the local gangster culture in which a car was spun around in honor of the deceased.
Finally, Seriesly Berlin will screen three episodes in the European premiere of the eight-part US series "Penelope", written, produced and directed by Mel Eslyn and Mark Duplass. Starring Megan Stott ("Little Fires Everywhere") and Austin Abrams ("Euphoria"),Penelope is the story of a sixteen-year-old who feels alienated from contemporary civilization and is pulled into the uncharted wilderness to build a new life for herself there. Penelope celebrated its world premiere at the renowned Sundance Film Festival 2024, and launches in the USA on September 24 on Netflix.
Matija Dragojevic, Head of Programming, comments: “The festival line-up is a reflection of Seriesly Berlin’s culture. Art meets mainstream, socially relevant topics meet entertainment. From big-budget shows to daring indie series, we want to challenge audiences' expectations, make them laugh, cry, and bring everyone together to experience the big screen—with phones off and minds wide open.”
To view the program, visit our program page: https://www.serieslyberlin.com/program/
