Series from such creative heavyweights as Ken Burns, Ruben Ostlund and Fernando Meirelles galvanize the most powerful edition to date of the Berlinale Series Market, its TV forum and market.
More projects from top talent hitting the BSM include “The Granddaughter,” from İlker Çatak (“Yellow Letters”), whose “Yellow Letters” has emerged as an early Berlin 2026 Golden Bear frontrunner,; “Mugre Rosa,” from “Andor” helmer Alonso Ruizpalacios; “Hedgehogs in the Haze,” directed by Bosnia’s Danis Tanović an Oscar winner for “No Man’s Land”; “Seven Women,” from Angela Chaves, creator of Netflix hit “Desperate Lies”; and “Monika,” with “Sissi” co-head writer attached as a scribe.
In one sign of growth, the BSM, which runs through Feb. 18, gets a new prize, the Studio Babelsberg Production Excellence Award, given to an outstanding series in Berlinale Series Market Selects, a 20-title section of completed series screening at Berlin.
The BSM also adds Series Match, organized with Iberseries & Platino Industry, which hosts the producers of eight projects from Latin America, Spain and Germany, to pitch in one-to-one meetings at the Berlinale.
Meanwhile, led by “Lord of the Flies,” from “Adolescence” co-creator Jack Thorne, and the Amazon-backed “The House of the Spirits,” a makeover of Isabel Allende’s novel, six series are featured in the Berlin Festival’s official lineup as Berlinale Special Series.
Battling streaming service pull-back, still sagging post-pandemic box office, spiralling production costs and volatile public support systems, the world’s independent film producers still need to look to where potential industry growth could come from.
Berlin 2026 has wisely highlighted three potential answers. launching a packed – and highly successful by reports – EFM Animation Days over Feb.12-14, plus a Feb 14’s genre-focused EFM Frontières Focus and now amped up Berlin Series Market.
“Including series within the European Film Market and also within the official selection of the Berlinale isn’t just logical, it’s essential,” Tanja Meissner, director of Berlinale Pro, told Variety as the BSM line-up was announced.
Berlinale Series Market titles also say much about state and priorities of the current independent TV industry, such as series’ need for timeliness and co-production.
In country terms, Spain has five BSM film titles across the festival BSM Selects and the BSM’s Co-Pro Series projects, set to be talked up at a marathon pitching session on Tuesday. No other country come near. “Creators are bringing forward shows with real narrative assurance—smart, incisive dialogue, rich character development, and a confident sense of pacing that hooks viewers from the outset,” BSM Co-ordinator Jana Daedelow tells Variety.
The film-to-TV talent diaspora continues, turbo-charging scripted series creativity. Set to pitch at Tuesday’s Co-Pro Series, “A Phone Rings in the Middle of the Night” marks the first fiction series from Östlund’s label Plattform Production, while “The Granddaughter” is Çatak’s first series of any type.
And the series featured reflect audience demand as well as creator concern. About half of the BSM titles turn on true events, such as the dramatic 1971 jailbreak of 101 political prisoners in Uruguay in Meirelles’ “El Abuso.” Co-Pro Series project “Angelmakers” turns on a true-life historical event where Romanian women arsenic poisoned their husbands returning from WWI.
Or they tell stories of real people, such as “Monika,” the daughter of Leni Riefenstahl’s lover, who shot dead Che Guevara’s killer. Burns’ “The American Revolution” has a host of international actors bringing to life the key figures of the U.S. Revolution through their letters and other writings.
Multiple BSM Selects series tackle hot-button issues: immigration (“Cold Haven”), climate change (“Phoenix”), life on the margins (“All Heroes Are Bastards”), soccer passions (“Raza Brava”), an underfunded health system (the buzzy “Emergency 53”) and the world’s water crisis (“The Struggle for Mother Water,” another buzz title).
The BSM bows just two weeks after Sweden’s Göteborg Festival’s TV Drama Vision event, where Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson noted in his keynote that “we are still at 75% peak TV,” with, globally, first-run TV commissions over 2024-25 still down 25% on the peak.
To score orders and sales, the industry is often playing to market demand — which is where crime really pays — but streaming services and broadcasters still need signature shows. Many producers at the BSM still harbor premium series ambition.
“‘Monika’ speaks directly to today’s demand for bold, high-end storytelling rooted in real events,” says producer Maria Elena Wood of the Series Match title.
When asked about a way forward for the TV industry, producers unanimously cite international co-production, which “remains a key opportunity, especially for projects with strong creative voices and clear international appeal,” says Arnar Benjamín Kristjánsson, at the Co-Pro Series with “Cold Haven.”
“International markets and co-production forums such as Berlinale Co-Pro Series, Cinelink and Seriesly function less as deal-closing spaces and more as strategic platforms for long-term partnerships and financing alignment,” adds Lara Grozdanić, at the Co-Pro Series with “Hedgehogs in the Haze.”