The Canadian and French producers have been selected for the Canada-France Series Lab.

The initiative was created as a joint venture between the Series Mania Forum, Telefilm Canada, the French National Center of Cinema (CNC), and the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF). It was first announced in November 2022 as a lab intended to foster deeper connections between Canadian and French producers as they develop projects with strong potential for the international market, with the ultimate goal of creating more coproduction opportunities.

Two groups of 15 producers and/or creatives from each country were selected to take part, with the first phase of the lab beginning at Series Mania Forum, which runs from March 21 to 23.

The Canadian participants hail from Quebec, Ontario, B.C., and New Brunswick. Vancouver-based producers include Emily Alden of Brightlight Pictures and Andrew Williamson of Cedar Island Films, and producer Josh Epstein on behalf of Screen Siren Pictures.

From Quebec, François Rozon and Dominique Simard of Montreal’s Encore Télévision will take part, as well as Gatineau’s Jason Brennan of Nish Media. Montreal’s Chantal Lafleur of Avenida was also selected as part of a partnership with Caraquet, N.B.-based Renée Blanchar of Ça Tourne Productions.

Other New Brunswick producers set for the lab are Saint John, N.B.’s Steven Suntres of Hemmings Films and Moncton, M.B.-based René Savoie of Productions du milieu.

Rounding out the Canadian producers are Toronto-based Rua Wani and Jessica Adams of Adani Pictures, and Susan Nation, Ted Nation and Paul Melville of Hop To It Productions.

The French producers all hail from Paris-based prodcos, including Tatiana Maksimenko and Azilys Tanneau of Effervescence Fiction, Olivier Rohde and creator/director Nicolas Cambier of Filming, Samuel Kaminka and Stéphane Kaminka of KAMandKA, and Marc Andreani and Vivien Desouches of Etoile Noire Production.

Also selected were Hugo Brisbois of Oble, Caroline Houben of Paragon, Gini Lorin of Script Line, Odile McDonald of Wildcats Productions, Barthélemy Fougea of Winds, and Vienna and Paris-based Georg Tiller and Maéva Ranaïvojaona of Subobscura Films.

The producers will form pairs when they meet at Series Mania Forum as part of the first phase of the lab. A jury of experts will select four to five projects to move on to the second phase, which includes a series of workshops that kick off in-person at BANFF in June and continue online from September to March 2024. The program culminates in a presentation of the projects to potential financiers at the Series Mania Forum in 2024.

Updated on March 1 to reflect that Josh Epstein will attend in the place of Kyle Rideout for Screen Siren Pictures

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