In the final stretch leading up to the announcement of the Oscars winners, Kawther Ben Hania’s project, alongside a curated selection of international projects, has been chosen for the second edition of Seriesmakers, a collaborative development program for television series between Series Mania, Europe’s largest TV festival, and Beta Group, a prominent European film and TV production company.
This edition’s Seriesmakers showcases 10 projects of which we can mention; in-development drama series “George Blake” from Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, “Doctor’s Oath” by Finnish director Mikko Myllylahti, the 2016 Cannes Un Certain Regard winner. “Freedom Academy” by Kaouther Ben Hania, the double Oscar nominee for the “Four Daughters,” in the documentary category, and for “The Man Who Sold His Skin”.
Produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha, “Freedom Academy” is a reality show set in a high security prison that follows the rivalry between the radical inmates confounded by the jury’s different takes on rehabilitation.
The award is a grant of €50,000, offered to the two winning teams and the third team will receive a prize of €20,000 provided by the Kirch Foundation in collaboration with the HFF / University of Television and Film Munich (Kirch Foundation Award) as means of supporting talents working on new television series.
It is worth to mention that Seriemakers’ first edition winners are “Yours,Margot”by director Juho Kuosmanen and “The Invisible Ink” by director César Díaz.