Festivals and organizations from Canada and France have partnered on a joint venture to encourage new coproduction opportunities between the two countries.

The Canada-France Series Lab is a year-long initiative formed between Telefilm Canada, the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), the French National Center of Cinema (CNC) and the Series Mania Forum.

The program is designed to forge new relationships between French and Canadian producers, as well as foster the development of projects with “strong international potential,” according to a press release. Additional partners include the Embassy of Canada to France and the French Embassy in Canada.

The Canada-France Series Lab will begin at the Series Mania Forum in March 2023, where 30 producers – 15 from Canada and 15 from France – will meet and form pairs. Producers will present their projects to a jury, with up to five projects selected to take part in a series of workshops, with the first beginning in-person at BANFF in June 2023. The workshops will continue virtually into 2024, where the initiative culminates in a pitch at the 2024 Series Mania Forum to potential buyers. A webinar on the initiative will be held on Nov. 21.

The creation of the lab follows the implementation of a new Canada-France coproduction treaty earlier this year, which covers film, television and on-demand audiovisual media services. The treaty combined the previous 1983 agreements, where one covered television projects, and the other covered film. The treaty was signed July 2021 and implemented in May.

Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, said the initiative will “help foster meetings between French and Canadian producers, highlight certain projects on the international scene and revive ongoing coproductions between the two territories,” in a statement.

Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of BANFF and VP and publisher of Playback, added that the lab was formed with the “goal of igniting new drama series,” while Francesca Accinelli, interim executive director and CEO of Telefilm said the initiative “supports projects with strong international potential and strives to showcase to a wider audience the stories and talents that make our two industries so dynamic and complementary.”

The news comes as BANFF opens applications for its next round of the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative, with up to 100 eligible producers selected to attend the festival and take part in custom sessions.

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