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Lille, France – Producers, commissioning editors and creative talents from across La Belle Province took the spotlight at a Series Mania showcase of the best of recent Quebecois scripted offerings. Below are the seven series that drew whoops and appreciative hollers from a room full of international buyers.

Late summer doldrums, young adult love, and the generally placid rhythms of suburban life take on additional heft and resonance for a group of friends all suffering from cystic fibrosis – especially once one’s condition takes a turn for the worst. Far from jerking tears, the offbeat comedy “Thin Air” finds irreverent and life-affirming humor following young adult characters that feel the pangs of mortality more acutely than most. Produced by Urbania and created by acclaimed writer Jean-Christophe Réhel, the bittersweet series offers another plum role to “Mommy” star Antoine Olivier Pilon.

Produced by Saint Laurent TV and directed by Jean-Francois Rivard and Mathieu Cyr,...

Montreal-based Also Productions, the rising premium outfit behind the Series Mania title “Disobey” and the popular police drama “The Sketch Artist,” will next hit international waters with the facts-are-stranger-than-fiction geopolitical thriller “Chain Reaction.”

Based on the best-selling book from investigative journalist Vincent Larouche, the development project will untangle a multinational web that connected Quebecois businessmen to Swiss bankers to FBI agents to former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, telling the unbelievable true story of a corruption scandal that nearly brought down the Canadian government.

“The Sketch Artist” head writer André Gulluni will freely adapt Larouche’s page-turning exposé, which revealed the misdoings of Snc-Lavalin, a Montreal-based construction company alleged to have bribed and defrauded the Libyan government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The ensuing (and cascading) financial scandal would soon rope in everyone from top politicos to Texas-based associates of Pablo Escobar.

“They were excellent at what they did,...

Series Mania has always been about discovery: Of drama series as an art form, in its early days from launch in 2009; then of key players on a burgeoning international premium TV scene.

Series Mania’s International Panorama now catches a new wave of creatives transitioning from film to scripted TV – Israel’s Yaron Shani with “Innermost,” Spain’s Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo with episodes of “Apagón”; and highlights notable emerging auteurs: Denmark’s Kasper Møller Rask, Canada’s Alexis Durand-Brault, Spain’s Fran Araujo, Pakistan’s Assim Abassi and Germany’s Jakob and Jonas Weydemann.

But for having already bowed at national festivals, some of the 12 titles below could well have been in the running for a Competition berth.

Below, the Series Mania’s rich 2023 International Panorama:

“Apagón,” (“Offworld,” Spain)

One of Variety’s Best International TV Shows of 2022, a realistic, sophisticated disaster thriller from Movistar+ and Buendía Estudios...

Premiering in Series Mania’s International Panorama section, the Quebecois limited series “Disobey” tackles the docudrama as urgent thriller, finding notes of tension in the lead up to a 1980s ruling the guaranteed abortion rights to women across Canada.

With the visual polish that has become signature for Montreal-based Also Productions, the six-part premium drama follows the real case of Chantale Daigle (Éléonore Loiselle), a 21-year-old woman who pushed against an abusive ex-partner and two court injunctions, eventually leading to a Supreme Court ruling that secured body autonomy for Canadian women. And all that in just a matter of weeks.

“For us, it was important [to hit that urgency], because that’s what really happened,” says Also founder Sophie Lorain. “Chantale went through three steps of jurisdiction and all the way to the Supreme Court in less than two months. While a child grew inside, these gentlemen were chatting along, not making up their...