South’s Industry section kicked off in style with a sold-out first session. The audience did not want to miss the start of the forum for Spanish-language series creators (Un café con), a collaboration between South and DAMA, Derechos de autor de Medios Audiovisuales. With a presentation by Virginia Yagüe, president of Dama, the session featured producer and screenwriter Curro Royo and screenwriter Alicia Luna. Curro Royo, who for eleven seasons was the scriptwriter of TVE’s Cuéntame cómo pasó, for which he wrote 42 episodes, wanted to delve into the creation of series in co-production with Mexico, while Alicia Luna, Goya Award for Te doy mis ojos, focused on how to create a series in a multinational team. One of the keys shared was that “to do shared work, you have to understand the idiosyncrasies of the places, but the viewer’s point of view is fundamental for the story to be well understood outside its localism, so that the story is universal”.
Creatives talks has focused on the successful productions, a lecture on project development of series based on literary adaptations, podcasts or remakes, with José Pastor, RTVE film and fiction director, in charge of the RTVE group’s film and fiction strategy, with a special focus on independent production and a firm commitment to co-productions with European public broadcasters; Julio Rojas, screenwriter and director, creator of the multi-award winning podcast Caso 63; José Mª García, executive director Lantia Films and Silvia Cotino, deputy director of sales and business development of Mediterráneo, Mediaset España, with the moderation of Víctor Lamadrid (Spain Film Commission).
Festivals like South are essential to establish contact between partners
”
The first of the Industry talks dealt with successful series under the question “Is there a magic formula? with a debate on what content sells and the evolution of audience preferences, with the presence of Al de Azpiazu, fremantle, SVP for International Distribution; José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and international sales at Atresmedia; Xavier Marchand, CEO and producer at Moon River Content and JJ Lousberg, producer and general manager at Magical Society, moderated by John Hopewell (Variety). A key shared in tune with others commented on this day was the need to “transfer a personal story to an international level”, giving as an example the biopic Veneno, by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. “The public is very intelligent and increasingly demands good productions”, they commented. On the other hand, they wanted to highlight the need to establish good connections with partners, and in this sense “festivals like South are essential to establish contact between partners”. They also wanted to emphasize as something positive the evolution experienced in recent years in terms of diversity and inclusion: “There are commercial reasons that give way to diversity”. The Pitch Andalucía South Boost, a pitching session for Andalusian series projects in development, with Xelo Montesinos, general director Unicorn Content; Isabel Cabrera,deputy director CSRTV; Manuela Ocón,director Movistar + Production and Sara Sevilla, from Navarra Film Commission .
Ageism, work-life balance, diversity and senior management in the audiovisual industry made by women
The second of the creative talks focused on the role of female roles in the series we produce, a talk about how we decide to design the female characters in our series that was attended by Estíbaliz Burgaleta, screenwriter and professor at ECAM; Ingrid Rubio, actress; Montse García, Atresmedia fiction director; Juliana Barrera, international fiction development at Grupo Izen, moderated by journalist Mariola Cubells. One of the biggest challenges common to all the participants is to get women to also occupy high positions in the audiovisual industry, although they share optimism for the progress made in recent years, especially in terms of diversity of stories, presence of women in front of and behind the cameras and creation of new professional roles such as privacy coordinators. “We networks have a responsibility to include stories written by women because they are a reflection of what society demands.” The second industry talks focused on selling series to the audience, a conversation between communication and marketing managers of television channels, platforms and production companies on how we connect series with the audience, with Irene Lara, deputy director of marketing Atresmedia; Esteban Calle, deputy director of marketing RTVE; Javier Tomás of Komodo Comunicación, moderated by Carlos Chaguaceda, director of communication of the Museo de El Prado. The afterwork conversations, Beyond the IMDB, is a panel whose objective was for directors and screenwriters to share their experiences in this process of reinvention: how they have managed to break with the expectations that weighed on them and have ventured into new creative areas, or how the lack of confidence in the market has prevented them from taking this creative leap. Beyond IMDb seeks to generate an enriching debate to reflect, hand in hand with the creators, on the versatility of creative and authorial talent in the Spanish audiovisual scene. The panel was attended by Chloé Wallace, director and screenwriter; Jordi Vallejo, screenwriter and playwright; and Hugo Stuven, director and screenwriter, moderated by Paula Cobo, producer of Espotlight.
South International Series Festival is a private initiative, co-financed by the Feder Andalucía 2021-2027 Program and the Junta de Andalucía, with the City Council of Cádiz and the Diputación de Cádiz as official entities. It also counts with the participation of Mediaset España as media sponsor; Movistar Plus+, Port Authority of the Bay of Cadiz and Spain Film Commission, Unicaja Foundation, Andalucía Film Commission and Rims Mobility as sponsor; and with the collaboration of Canal Sur Radio and Television, Iberia and Cultura Inquieta, with the financing of CREA SGR , and with Renfe as Official Train.
