Crave original Empathie from Montreal’s Trio Orange will have its world premiere at this year’s Series Mania.

The Lille, France-based television festival released its lineup Thursday (Feb. 13) with the Guillaume Lonergan-directed series as one of nine taking part in the festival’s International Competition program. This year’s Series Mania takes place from March 21 to 28.

Empathie, written by Florence Longpré (Audrey est revenue), is produced by Trio Orange in collaboration with Bell Media. The project’s producers are Trio’s Sophie Bégin, Julia Langlois and Mélissa Tétu, a Bell Media spokesperson told Playback Daily. Executive producers are Trio’s Annie Sirois and Carlos Soldevila. It was filmed from July 3 to Oct. 8, 2024 in the Montreal area.

The 10 x 60-minute series stars Longpré as a former criminologist-turned-psychologist and French actor Thomas Ngijol (Case départ) as a security officer. The two work at the Institut psychiatrique Mont-Royal, where Longpré’s character interacts with a variety of patients.

Also starring in the series is Josée Deschênes (La petite vie), Benoît Brière (Madame Lebrun) and Brigitte Lafleur (La galère). It releases on Crave on April 10.

Bell Media said in a release that Empathie is the first series produced entirely in Quebec to take part in Series Mania’s international competition.

Empathie was produced with the support of Bell Media, the Canada Media Fund, SODEC, the Telus Fund, the Quebecor Fund, Cogeco’s TV Production Program and federal and Quebec tax credits.

“This nomination confirms yet again how Quebeckers’ creative talent stands tall on the international stage,” said Suzane Landry, Bell Media’s VP, content development, programming and news, in a statement.

Last year’s Series Mania saw two Canadian projects make their world premieres: Crave’s So Long, Marianne and the Club illico (now illico+) drama Société distincte.

Image courtesy of Bell Media; photo by Laurence Grandbois Bernard