More than 300 delegates attended the industry days, part of Barcelona's Serielizados festival, where co-production, distribution, microdramas and broadcast networks alliances came under the spotlight Serielizados Pro, the industry segment of the fast-expanding series festival Serielizados in Barcelona, had a mandate to “inspire, connect Catalan and Spanish producers, series creators with international players and get projects going,” as the event’s co-founder Victor Sala said in his opening speech Oct. 22 at the modernised Renaissance Palau Bru in the Gothic Quarter. It delivered again on all fronts. The industry days’ star event – the Mind the Gap international co-pro pitch – drew twice the number of submissions from the 2025 inaugural gig and closed with a top award to rising Spanish talents Laura Roqué, Eloy Zamora and Luis Sorolla for“El Observatorio,” a drama in early development.
At the Mind the Gap awards ceremony, held at the stunning 19th century Moritz brewery renovated by French architect Jean Nouvel, Arte France’s Alexios Kastrissianakis, co-juror with Mubi’s Ben Driscoll, Movistar Plus’ Laura Escrivá, ZDF Studios’ Susanne Frank and Beta Film’s Peter Lohner said: “After a great deliberation we’ve decided to award new talent who need to be discovered.” The jury also handed out honorable mentions to two female-led series about abuse, produced by high-profile Euro-banners: Finland’s “Dangerous Woman,” to be helmed by Zaida Bergroth (“Tove”) for Gutsy Pictures (“Moominvalley”), and “Callback,” a second series by Catalan sister act Joana and Mireia Vilapuig for Barcelona’s Funicular Films (“This is Not Sweden”) and Left Tackle Films. The industry day on Oct. 22 which hosted 300+professionals at Barcelona’s CCCB arts centre saw top-tier European drama content creators, distributors, commissioners and series fest execs such as Arte France, Beta Film, Imagina Sales, DR Sales, Oble, 3Cat, RTVE take turns on stage to discuss co-production, financing, digital strategies, the state of global distribution and series production in Catalonia. Other highlights at Serielizados Pro held under the motto ‘An Eye for It’, included masterclasses with “Sherlock” creator Steven Moffat and producer Sue Vertue, and drama heavyweight Hagai Levi.
The latter bagged on Saturday the Serielizados Best International Series Prize for his drama “Etty” from the hands of Palme d’Or contender Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“The Beloved”). Finally the Miniput 12-hour marathon of quality TV programs from international pubcasters focusing on risk, innovation and public service drew hundreds of young Spanish students. That made it easy to have proper conversations and really get to know people,” said first-time attendee Ella Glantz of Denmark’s DR Sales, before adding: “The series were strong too, and I liked how confident the Spanish-language slate felt, with an interesting mix of international work alongside.” “Serielizados is pushing new forms of digital storytelling, while keeping at its core quality linear content available for pick up.
It’s been very useful to attend and meet up with traditional Spanish producers open to exploring new types of digital formats,” said Alexios Kastrissianakis, commissioner, digital content at Arte France. Taking stock of the 13th Serielizados festival and industry days, a few days before wrap, the event’s co-founder Betu Martínez Molero said: “This year, we solidified our position as the leading international TV series festival in Spain and one of the most prominent in Southern Europe, reaching 18.000 attendees across more than 60 activities, including more than 30 national and international premieres.” “We’ve seen a growing interest from both media and audiences for our national and international competitions, packing our main venues,” he added. According to a report from OPA (Observatori de la Producció Audiovisual), 67 Catalan series were produced between 2024-2026 – most of them one-off dramas.
Over 2024-25, 3Cat was by far the biggest commissioner of local drama (19 series), ahead of Netflix (7), RTVE Play (7), Atresplayer (5), Prime Video (4), Movistar Plus+ (3) and HBO Max (3). Another trend is that in an atomized ecosystem, Catalan producers are weighing in more heavily in Catalan language series (28.6% of productions in 2024 versus 52.2% in 2025) although collaborations with international partners continue to rise (8.7% in 2024 to 28.6% in 2025). Onecase in point: two projects pitched last year at Serielizados inaugural Mind the Gap, have wrapped.
A third series pitched last year at Mind the Gap – the comedy “Robbery, Beating & Death” from “This is Not Sweden”’s Funicular Films, is in pre-production. As reported in Variety, Filmin and Belgium’s Boucan Film Production have boarded the project, backed by ICEC.
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