Seriesly Berlin Project Pitches: A New Era of Storytelling

The Seriesly Berlin Project Pitches has announced the selection of 18 international projects for its new-look pitching competition. This year’s lineup features a diverse range of stories from acclaimed writers and producers from around the world.

Among the selected projects is Have You Seen Sabine?, an Australia-Germany title developed by Australian producer Susan Schmidt and Avenue Road Productions. This project is based on the true story of a German backpacker who was murdered in Australia in 2005, and the investigation that followed. The story explores themes of trauma, loss, and redemption.

Other notable projects include The Man Behind a Mask, a Cold War thriller from Latvia, and Vamos, a sports dramedy from Italy. The Man Behind a Mask is based on the true story of a Latvian surgeon who performed the Soviet Union’s first gender-affirming surgery in the 1970s. Vamos, on the other hand, explores the rise of padel, a sport that is gaining popularity in Italy.

The Writers’ Pitch will be contested by Ireland’s Black Valley, which pairs Irish actor-writer Michael Patric with U.S. writer-producer Ted Sullivan and producer Mairtín de Barra of Tailored Films. This project tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a traumatised former Army Ranger and a refugee from Sierra Leone.

The Co-Production Pitch will feature seven titles, including The Verdict (Das Urteil), a psychological thriller from Germany that explores the far-right movement in the country. The Baseball Bat Years (Baseballjägerjahre) is another German project that depicts far-right and racist violence in Germany’s post-reunification years.

For the first time, Seriesly Berlin will also feature a Vertical Drama Pitch. This new strand will showcase projects that are specifically designed for vertical storytelling, with a focus on social media and online platforms. Among the selected projects is Deep Fake, a 30-part romcom thriller from France, and Just Do It (Einfach Ma Machen), a social thriller from Germany that follows an overconfident influencer who goes into local politics.

The juries for this year’s Seriesly Berlin Project Pitches include writer Anna Winger, director Mattie Do, agent Silke Bacher, and producer Fleur Winter. The winning project in the Co-Production Pitch Selection will receive an in-kind post-production award worth €25,000 ($30,000) for colour grading services.

Seriesly Berlin is a premier event for the European television industry, and this year’s pitching competition is expected to attract a large audience of producers, writers, and industry professionals.

"With more than 250 submissions, making this year’s selection was anything but easy," says Dennis Ruh, Festival Director of Seriesly Berlin. "What stood out was how strongly many of the projects engage with the world we are living in right now. Creators are responding to political and social realities, but they are doing so through deeply personal stories. At the same time, there is plenty of humour and optimism in the selection. These are very different stories, but many of them have the potential to resonate far beyond the places they come from."

The Seriesly Berlin Project Pitches will take place on September 15-16 at the Fotografiska Berlin.