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The UK’s Global Screen Fund, which was created to fill the void left by the absence of funding from Creative Europe’s Media program post-Brexit, has awarded a further £1.32M ($1.75M) in grants spread across nine film and TV projects.

The £7M ($9.25M) fund, which is administered by the British Film Institute on behalf of the government department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), is being overseen by former All3Media and Endemol Shine exec Denitsa Yordanova.

The nine projects, all of which are international co-productions, are as follows: UK-Ireland co-pro The Miracle Club; UK-Germany co-pro The Tutor; UK-Ireland TV animation Ghastly Ghoul; UK-France co-pro Drift; UK-Chile-Argentina-France-Denmark co-pro The Settlers; UK-Germany-Denmark co-pro Merkel; UK-Canada Elephant Mother; UK-South Africa co-pro Stolen; UK-Belgium-Ireland co-pro Bring Them Down.

Full details of each title are at the bottom of this article.

The grants follow previously backed projects My Happy Ending (UK-Israel) and The...

Fremantle’s London-based director of global drama Sarah Doole, who has raised the super-indie’s game as a premium scripted heavyweight in recent years, is departing the company after six years.

Doole shared her news with staff on Tuesday afternoon, revealing that she’s stepping down to launch her own production incubator, Sow The Seed. The outfit will focus on new talent and champion diverse voices across drama, comedy, entertainment, documentaries and podcasts.

The executive will also stay in the Fremantle orbit, serving as creative consultant to CEO Jen Mullin.

Following her exit, Fremantle’s group chief operating officer Andrea Scrosati will extend his role and take on full responsibility for global drama. Meanwhile, creative director Christian Vesper will take on day-to-day management of the global drama team, reporting into Scrosati.

Doole, who has served as director of global drama since February 2014, was hired by former CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz, who...

Arte France, a bastion of quality European TV, is looking to make its French series ever less French , as it consolidates its position as one of Europe’s most internationally-minded TV operators.

Early fruit of that drive, “No Man’s Land,” – “in microcosm, and in a thriller format, what we’re trying to do in general,” Olivier Wotling, Arte France’s head of drama, told Variety – was selected for main competition at Series Mania. Had the TV festival taken place in Lille, it would surely have been a strong contender for its best series prize.

“No Man’s Land’s” main stars are French: Félix Moati, who plays initially dapper Parisian construction engineer Antoine, and Melanie Thierry. A lead producer is most certainly French, Paris-based Haut et Court, the reputed producer of “Les Revenants,” “The Last Panthers” and “The New Pope.”

But Antoine’s journey is certainly not as, unable to...

After scoring a coup with the TV adaptation of “My Brilliant Friend,” and with projects such as Paolo Sorrentino’s “The New Pope” and Oscar-nominated director Pawel Pawlikowski’s next film in the pipeline, Italy’s Wildside is in a pretty brilliant spot.

Ten years after being co-founded by producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli, the shingle is expanding its international footprint and is on its way toward becoming, as Mieli puts it, “a home for big auteurs, both directors and writers…who can generate stories that can travel.” This can also mean mainstream-minded talents, he said.

That game plan includes Wildside’s first English-language series, about the life of film and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn, and other high-end projects in various stages. Among these is an “ambitious” new film by U.S.-trained Italian director Emanuele Crialese, who broke out with “Respiro” and helmed an episode of the recent Getty kidnap series “Trust.

The winners from Series Mania Lille/Hauts-de-France were presented tonight during the closing ceremony at Nouveau Siegle in Lille, France. The international competition ran from April 27 through this evening, honoring the cream of contemporary drama series.

Leading the way was The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which won the Audience Award as the crowd favorite among new titles screening their first series, with votes collected after each screening. The series was created and directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino (USA), with production by Picrow and Amazon Studios. Its France broadcaster is Amazon Prime Video

The international jury, presided by Chris Brancato and composed of Maria Feldman, Maria Schrader, Clovis Cornillac and Pierre Lemaitre, gave four awards among the 10 series presented in world premiere.

The Grand Prize went to On The Spectrum, created by Dana Idisis and Yuval Shafferman (Israel), with direction by Yuval Shafferman and production from Sumayoko Mtd. The jury called it “a superb,...

Winners were announced on Saturday night for the 9th edition of France’s Series Mania, the first held in the Northern France city of Lille, and Israel’s “On the Spectrum” took home the top Grand Jury Prize, making it the second Israeli series in as many years to claim the award.

Also announced at the Series Mania Forum, the festival’s industry event, France’s Federation Entertainment is teaming with Donna Wiffen and Paul Marquess to create Long Story TV, a European drama series production company. The new outfit will look to create commercial content that is cost-effective, popular, and maintains a British sensibility. It’s one more example of Pascal Breton’s Federation pushing further into English-language programming.

Everything about this year’s edition spoke to the growth of the festival, the most immediate difference being the shear geographic scale. Whereas previous editions were held at the Forum...