Seriesly Berlin To Tease ‘German Cocaine Cowboy’; Prime Video’s Christoph Schneider & Mel Eslyn Among Speakers

Germany’s newest scripted confab, Seriously Berlin, takes place later this month and the schedule is coming together.

Four-part Prime Video series German Cocaine Cowboy will be teased, while the streamer’s Country Director for Germany, Christoph Schneider, will appear in a fireside chat that I’ll be moderating to offer insights into content strategy. German Cocaine Cowboy tells the story of a German who became involved in the Cali Cartel in the 1990s.

Also scheduled to appear at Seriesly is Mel Eslyn, the President of Duplass Brothers Productions, which is known for Netflix’s Wild Wild Country and HBO’s Somebody Somewhere. She’ll discuss indie filmmaking in the context of serial production, and will present the European premiere of Penelope, the indie young adult series that premiered at Sundance. Netflix later snagged U.S. rights to the show, which Eslyn co-created with Mark Duplass, who recently picked up an Emmy nom for The Morning Show.

The event’s Master of Ceremonies will be Yolanda Rother of The Impact Company and Pavlo Voytovych, a Ukrainian stand-up comedian who will do crowd work in between sessions. Moderators will include producer and former Berlinale Series head Julia Fidel and In-Transit Production boss Dana Stern.

German TikTok creator Theo Carow will appear on a panel about Gen Z content, while France’s Eric Benzekri will present his Studiocanal show La Fièvre (The Trigger). Joachim Landau and Benjamin Hoffman, creators of Canal+ and Showmax drama Spinners, will also appear.

Elsewhere, a Seriesly Pitches event will feature 10 international series projects seeking partners and development support, with a focus on stories related to Berlin. The participating producers will present their projects to potential co-production partners, financing partners or other collaboration partners. They will compete for a €2,500 ($2,800) monetary prize, which will be awarded by an international jury of experts.

The full line-up for Seriesly Pitches can be found below. Seriesly Berlin is funded by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.