‘Apples Never Fall’, ‘Hotel Cocaine’ & ‘So Long, Marianne’ In Main Competition At Series Mania

Peacock’s Apples Never Fall, MGM+’s Hotel Cocaine and NRK’s buzzy drama about Leonard Cohen, So Long, Marianne will be in the International Competition at Series Mania in March.

The shows will be up against BBC Three’s UK series Boarders, France 2 drama Dans L’Ombre (In the Shadows), ARD’s German series Herrhausen, the Banker and the Bomb (Herrhausen, Der Herr Des Geldes), ABC Australi’s House of Gods, and Franco-Hungarian co-production Rematch, which is for Arte, Disney+ and HBO Europe.

The shows comprise an interesting cross-section of U.S. and European projects, with the Anette Bening-starring thriller Apples Never Fall among the highest profile. Hot Cocaine, about a Cuban expatriate who re-made his life in Miami, is among MGM+’s biggest recent bets, while So Long, Marianne has been building steam as a study into the life of singer-songwriter Cohen and his muse, Marianne Ihlen.

The International Competition jury will comprise French-American director and screenwriter Zal Batmanglij (A Murder at the End of the World, The OA), German actor Malick Bauer (Sam: a Saxon), French-Argentinian actress Berenice Bejo, French-Swedish director Charlotte Brändström (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Occupied), and French actor and producer Sofiane Zermani (The Wages of Fear, Spirit of Ecstasy).

They will award a Grand Prize for Best Series and gongs for Best Script, Best Actress and Best Actor.

The International Panorama competition, whose jury chair is American writer Douglas Kennedy, will see TV4 and C-More’s Swedish series 8 Months (Doktrinen), SWR’s German show 30 Days of Lust (30 Tage Lust), TVNZ’s New Zealand show After the Party, Scandinavian co-pro All and Eva (All Och Eva), Showmax’s UK-South African drama Catch Me a Killer, NRK’s Norwegian entry Dates in Real Life, Atresplayer’s Spanish streamer series La Mesías and Show Yourself (Dejate Ver), Canada’s Société Distinct (Distinct Society), Latvian comedy Soviet Jeans (Padomju Dzinsi), Taiwan’s Three Tears in Borneo and Channel 4’s UK comedy-drama Truelove.

The French Competition will pit OCS’s Homejacking, Arte’s Le Monde M’Existe Pas (The World Does Not Exist) and Machine, M6’s Murder Club, Prime Video’s Ourika, and France Télévisions’ One Amitié Dangereuse (A Dangerous Friendship).

More to follow…