Series from creative heavyweights such as Ken Burns, Ruben Østlund and Fernando Meirelles energize the most powerful edition to date of the Berlinale Series Market, TV Forum and Market.
Other top talent projects appearing on BSM include “The Granddaughter” by Ilker Çatak (“Yellow Letters”). His Yellow Letters has emerged as a frontrunner for the 2026 Berlin Golden Bear. “Mugre Rosa” by “Andor” helmer Alonso Ruizpalacios. “Hedgehog in the Mist” is directed by Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, who won an Oscar for “No Man’s Land.” “Seven Women” by Angela Chavez, creator of the Netflix hit “Desperate Lies.” And “Monika” has the co-head writer of “Sissi” as a scribe.
In a sign of growth, BSM, which runs until February 18, has won a new award: the Studio Babelsberg Production Excellence Award, which is given to outstanding series in the Berlinale Series Market Select, a 20-title section of completed series screenings in Berlin.
BSM will also add a series match hosted by Iberseries & Platino Industry, which hosts producers of eight projects from Latin America, Spain and Germany, who will participate in one-on-one meetings at the Berlinale.
Meanwhile, six series will appear on the Berlin Festival’s official lineup as Bernale Special Series, led by Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne’s Lord of the Flies and the Amazon-backed The House of Spirits, a remake of Isabel Allende’s novel.
Facing the withdrawal of streaming services, a still-slumping post-pandemic box office, soaring production costs and a shaky public support system, the world’s independent filmmakers still need to look to where the industry’s growth potential lies.
Berlin 2026 wisely highlights three potential answers. We are currently heating up the Berlin Series Market with the packed and successful EFM Animation Days, which kicked off on February 14th from February 12th to 14th, followed by the genre-focused EFM Frontier Focus on February 14th.
When the BSM lineup was announced, Berlinale Pro director Tanya Meisner told Variety that “the inclusion of the series within the European Film Market and in the official selection of the Berlinale is not only logical, but essential.”
The Berlinale Series Market title also says a lot about the current state and priorities of the independent television industry, including the timeliness of series and the need for co-production.
Country-wise, Spain has five BSM film titles across the festival’s BSM Select and BSM Copro Series projects that will be featured in Tuesday’s marathon pitch session. No other country comes close. “The creators have ensured that the show delivers authentic storytelling, with smart, sharp dialogue, rich character development, and a confident sense of pacing that hooks viewers from the get-go,” BSM coordinator Jana Deiderou told Variety.
The diaspora of talent from film to television continues, accelerating the creativity of scripted series. “A Phone Rings in the Middle of the Night,” which will be featured in Tuesday’s Copro Series, is the first fiction series for Ostlund’s label Platform Production, and “The Granddaughter” is Chatak’s first series of any type.
And the featured series reflect not only creators’ concerns but also audience demands. About half of BSM’s titles are based on real events, such as the dramatic escape of 101 political prisoners in Uruguay in 1971 in Meirelles’ El Abso. The Co-Pro series project “Angelmakers” is based on a true historical incident in which a Romanian woman returned from World War I and poisoned her husband with arsenic poison.
Or the stories of real people, such as Monica, the daughter of Leni Riefenstahl’s lover who shot and killed Che Guevara’s killer. Burns’ The American Revolution features a host of international actors bringing key figures of the American Revolution to life through letters and other writings.
Multiple BSM Select series tackle hot-button issues such as immigration (“Cold Heaven”), climate change (“Phoenix”), life on the frontier (“All our heroes are bastards”), passion for soccer (“Laza Brava”), underfunded health systems (the topical “Emergency 53”), and the world’s water crisis (another topical title: “The Struggle for Mother Water”).
BSM closed just two weeks after Sweden’s Gothenburg Festival’s TV Drama Vision event, but Guy Bisson of Ampere Analysis pointed out in his keynote that globally, first-run TV commissions for 2024-25 are still down 25% from their peak, and that “TV is still at 75% of its peak.”
To get orders and sales, the industry often takes advantage of market demand, and that’s where Crime really pays, but streaming services and broadcasters still need marquee shows. Many producers at BSM still have ambitions for premium series.
“‘Monica’ speaks directly to today’s demand for bold, high-end storytelling rooted in real-life events,” says producer Maria Elena Wood of the series match title.
When asked about the future direction of the television industry, producers unanimously point to international co-productions, which “remain an important opportunity, especially for projects with a strong creative voice and clear international appeal,” said Arnal Benjamin Kristiansson, co-producer series with “Cold Heaven.”
“International markets and co-production forums such as the Berlinale Copro Series, Cinelink and Seriesly serve not only as venues for signing contracts, but also as strategic platforms for long-term partnerships and financing arrangements,” added Lara Grozdanic, co-producer of the “Hedgehog in the Haze” co-production series.
