Deental @ Séries Mania: A week of creativity and networking for ACP audiovisual professionals

From March 15 to 22, the city of Lille vibrated to the rhythm of the audiovisual industry with the 14th edition of the International Series Festival – Séries Mania – , also the 6th edition in the Hauts-de-France region. At the same time, the Deental Programme and its partners orchestrated the 4th Deental Series Workshops, offering residency and networking opportunities to five writer-producer pairs from ACP countries.

Since its launch in 2021, the Deental ACP programme has been a major player in supporting the audiovisual industry in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, alongside the other two audiovisual co-production support funds in the ACP-EU Culture Programme. Deental ACP has supported around forty audiovisual projects, providing customized assistance to writers, directors, and producers. Alexiane Jarin, Coordinator of the Deental Programme at the CNC, explains: “Through initiatives such as the Deental Series Workshops, we aim to empower industry actors, refine their project presentation techniques, and identify potential partners and investors.”

This edition of the Deental Series Workshops was characterised by the introduction of a new format: a residency programme as part of the Series Mania Forum in Lille, followed by a remote mentoring period to fine-tune the projects, and then participation in the Dakar Series Festival next October, thereby offering the laureates the opportunity to present their projects to distributors, broadcasters, and investors.

After a week of intensive professional workshops dedicated to supporting the creative development of their respective projects, the teams testified to the positive impact of the mentoring program. Layla Swaft, a producer from Johannesburg, shares: “Our mentors deconstructed our proposals to help us understand what could work or not, thus putting our projects back on track. Now, we have new avenues to move our projects forward in the right direction.”

Following the numerous professional contacts established, both producers and authors are realizing they can contribute more effectively to the development of the audiovisual industry in their respective countries. They are also motivated to encourage their peers to draw inspiration from practices observed elsewhere.

The Deental 2024 Forum

As the Deental ACP initiative enters its final year of implementation, the CNC and its partners plan to host the Deental Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 23-25 April 2024. This large-scale event will bring together approximately sixty program beneficiaries, as well as broadcasters, distributors, and other audiovisual support funds and institutions, for a film market. The forum will serve as an additional platform to showcase the rich variety of emerging talents and projects, while providing networking opportunities and fostering strategic partnerships.