Serielizados Takeaways: From HBO Max-3CAT New Show ‘The Orphans’ to ‘This is Not Finland,’ Catalonia Shows the Way to Quality Content and Partnerships

Serielizados Pro, the industry segment of the fast-expanding series festival Serielizados in Barcelona, had a mandate to “inspire, connect Catalan and Spanish producers, series creators with international players and get projects going,” as the event’s co-founder Victor Sala said in his opening speech Oct. 22 at the modernised Renaissance Palau Bru in the Gothic Quarter.

It delivered again on all fronts. The industry days’ star event – the Mind the Gap international co-pro pitch – drew twice the number of submissions from the 2025 inaugural gig and closed with a top award to rising Spanish talents Laura Roqué, Eloy Zamora and Luis Sorolla for“El Observatorio,” a drama in early development.

At the Mind the Gap awards ceremony, held at the stunning 19^th century Moritz brewery renovated by French architect Jean Nouvel, Arte France’s Alexios Kastrissianakis, co-juror with Mubi’s Ben Driscoll, Movistar Plus’ Laura Escrivá, ZDF Studios’ Susanne Frank and Beta Film’s Peter Lohner said: “After a great deliberation we’ve decided to award new talent who need to be discovered.”

The jury also handed out honorable mentions to two female-led series about abuse, produced by high-profile Euro-banners: Finland’s “Dangerous Woman,” to be helmed by Zaida Bergroth (“Tove”) for Gutsy Pictures (“Moominvalley”), and “Callback,” a second series by Catalan sister act Joana and Mireia Vilapuig for Barcelona’s Funicular Films (“This is Not Sweden”) and Left Tackle Films.

The industry day on Oct. 22 which hosted 300+professionals at Barcelona’s CCCB arts centre saw top-tier European drama content creators, distributors, commissioners and series fest execs such as Arte France, Beta Film, Imagina Sales, DR Sales, Oble, 3Cat, RTVE take turns on stage to discuss co-production, financing, digital strategies, the state of global distribution and series production in Catalonia.

Other highlights at Serielizados Pro held under the motto ‘An Eye for It’, included masterclasses with “Sherlock” creator Steven Moffat and producer Sue Vertue, and drama heavyweight Hagai Levi. The latter bagged on Saturday the Serielizados Best International Series Prize for his drama “Etty” from the hands of Palme d’Or contender Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“The Beloved”).

Finally the Miniput 12-hour marathon of quality TV programs from international pubcasters focusing on risk, innovation and public service drew hundreds of young Spanish students.

“The festival was compact, well run and very welcoming, with a team that clearly cared about making the days work for everyone. That made it easy to have proper conversations and really get to know people,” said first-time attendee Ella Glantz of Denmark’s DR Sales, before adding: “The series were strong too, and I liked how confident the Spanish-language slate felt, with an interesting mix of international work alongside.”

“Serielizados is pushing new forms of digital storytelling, while keeping at its core quality linear content available for pick up. It’s been very useful to attend and meet up with traditional Spanish producers open to exploring new types of digital formats,” said Alexios Kastrissianakis, commissioner, digital content at Arte France.

Taking stock of the 13^th Serielizados festival and industry days, a few days before wrap, the event’s co-founder Betu Martínez Molero said: “This year, we solidified our position as the leading international TV series festival in Spain and one of the most prominent in Southern Europe, reaching 18.000 attendees across more than 60 activities, including more than 30 national and international premieres.”

“We’ve seen a growing interest from both media and audiences for our national and international competitions, packing our main venues,” he added. “It’s also been great to see how presenting non-distributed international shows helps put them on the radar of Spanish platforms looking to acquire new series, while also helping local creators connect with key international players in the TV industry.”

A few takeaways in this event:

Healthy Catalan ecosystem

Amid headwinds in the global audiovisual sector, Catalonia holds strong thanks to healthy public support from its governmnetal ICEC (Catalan Institute for Cultural Enterprises) which can pump in up to €1.5m ($1.7m) per TV project and its 3Cat public media group. According to a report from OPA (Observatori de la Producció Audiovisual), 67 Catalan series were produced between 2024-2026 – most of them one-off dramas. Over 2024-25, 3Cat was by far the biggest commissioner of local drama (19 series), ahead of Netflix (7), RTVE Play (7), Atresplayer (5), Prime Video (4), Movistar Plus+ (3) and HBO Max (3). Another trend is that in an atomized ecosystem, Catalan producers are weighing in more heavily in Catalan language series (28.6% of productions in 2024 versus 52.2% in 2025) although collaborations with international partners continue to rise (8.7% in 2024 to 28.6% in 2025).

Mind the Gap Works

Onecase in point: two projects pitched last year at Serielizados inaugural Mind the Gap, have wrapped. “Genesis”, the 3Cat drama about Catalan iconic chef Ferran Adrià co-produced by Netflix world premiered at San Sebastian. “Past Waters” (“Aguas Pasadas”) produced by Portugal’s Caracol and Spain’s TV ON Producciones for RTP has been boarded by “Money Heist”’s Enrique Arce, and Helena Caldeira. A third series pitched last year at Mind the Gap – the comedy “Robbery, Beating & Death” from “This is Not Sweden”’s Funicular Films, is in pre-production. As reported in Variety, Filmin and Belgium’s Boucan Film Production have boarded the project, backed by ICEC.

“This is Not Finland” After “This is Not Sweden”

Double Mind the Gap winner this year for “Callback” from the Vilapuig sisters, buzzy Funicular Films whose series “This is Not Sweden” was a game changer for Catalonia, is now in full swing with the follow up series “This is Not Finland, currently filming in Barcelona.” Toplining the stellar creative team are creators Aina Clotet, Valentina Viso and Daniel González. Wizz talent Clotet directs with Celia Giraldo and Sara Fantova, and reprises her title role as Marianna, next to Marcel Borras as Samuel. Here the focus is on “bladed families, dining one’s place within the evolving family structure and reconciling expectations with reality,” says the logline. Funicular is producing with Nanouk Films for 3Cat, Movistar Plus+ and Yle in Finland.

Vertical Drive: Arte France, RTVE Show the Way

Microdrama is here to stay and to expand, said Arte France and RTVE digital commissioners Alexios Kastrissianakis and Alberto Fernández respectively. In a major coup, Kastrissianakis said the cultural channel has bought its first Spanish microdrama “A Christmas Bride” (“Una novia por navidad”) from Atresmedia. The one-minute 55-episode show will play as a Christmas calendar, from Nov. 2 until Dec. 22 on arte.tv and Youtube. “It’s a love story, with a queer element, which tries to push the typical micro-romance genre,” said the Arte executive who is attentively following Atresmedia microdrama release strategies.

Meanwhile Fernández said its youth-oriented platform PlayZ will morph into an App for vertical drama in November, with the premiere of its first microdrama “Estúpido Cupido.” Fernández said the Spanish pubcaster is fully committed to microdrama to fight off competition from the global streamers and to attract GenZ viewers. However, next to the popular mini soap operas, “making relevant content is the way ahead,” he said, while warning the industry about the rise of AI-generated microdrama, now ruling in China. “This is the real threat for us in Europe,” he said.

Microdrama in Catalan language was also celebrated at Serielizados via the Microseries Showcase where five projects competing for the EVA Award and Young Jury Award (AVisual Pro) were presented: “Barna Rupestte,” “Barcelona pos’t guapa”, “Currelas,” “Megaestructures en un Minut!” and “Neocurros.”

HBO Max-3Cat Successful Partnership

At a time of shrinking budgets and acute competition, alliances between broadcasters – public and commercial – and streamers is now common practice in Spain as internationally. One success story – the collaboration between 3Cat’s fiction division and HBO Max’s acquisition team – was a highlight at Serielizados. The partners received the inaugural Audiovisual 451 Award, honoring “outstanding contributions to the development of the Catalan audiovisual industry through co-productions and alliances.”

So far three high quality premium series, deeply rooted in Catalan culture have come out of that collaboration: Leticia Dolera’s family drama “Pubertat” (“Puberty”) which bowed at San Sebastian 2025, Pol Rodríguez’s crime show “Ravalear” (“Not for Sale”), which premiered this year at Berlin’s Special Series section, and Marc Crehuet and Alejandra Guimerà’s dramedy “In Vitro.” Launched Oct. 19 simultaneously on 3Cat and HBO Max, the show won a Special Mention from the national competition at Serializados. “In Vitro” and “Pubertat” are both sold by Beta Film and “Ravalear” by Filmax.

A fourth series has just started filming in Barcelona, before moving to Tenerife and Paris: “Los Huerfanos (“The Orphans”) created by Miguel Ibáñez (“Frontera”) with helmer Patricia Font for NewCo Audiovisual. From the starting point of children abandoned in a train station, the story – inspired by true events – turns on the past and present of a family. The show, starring Iria del Río, Enric Auquer, Mima Riera and Carlos Cuevas, will premiere in 2027 on HBO Max and subsequently on 3Cat.

“Everyone wants the first window, but with HBO Max, we decide on a project by project. It’s exceptional to have this collaboration with a huge platform like HBO Max. On all our projects, we share our creative vision. We’re super happy to work with them,” 3Cat’s head of fiction and film Oriol Sala Palao told Variety.

“Our collaboration with 3Cat reflects HBO Max’s commitment to support the local industry by fostering synergies between the various Spanish players,” added HBO Max’s acquisition executives Joana Correia da Silva and Jessica Ortiz.

Distributors Cautiously Optimistic

“Consolidation is happening, budgets are shrinking, but we remain truly independent – fiercely European, and Mipcom was super busy for us,” said Beta Film’ Peter Lohrer at a panel on the state of distribution. “Before you would finance product with public coin, get an minimum guarantee. Now everything is more detailed in every aspect. Trust is key, work is intensive, but you need to find a way to finance product to distribute.”

“One key job which is needed to navigate the windowing puzzle today is a head of business affairs. Producers underestimate how important this job is,” said Oble’s Katia Sol, who was repping at Serielizados “Segunda Temporada” which won Best Screenplay at the national competition. “As an indie distributor, we are more relevant, aggressive and daring than ever to get the best window. Streamers don’t do 100% buyouts for huge money anymore. Everyone is open to new solutions.”

Imagina Sales’ Béatrice Nough, concurred. “We are more relevant than before and elaborate international strategies, working with everyone.” The sales exec was pushing at Serielizados “Celeste” Season 2 for which Carmen Machi nabbed Best Actress in a Spanish series.

Optimistic by nature, DR Sales’ Ella Glantz said “the market is slightly opening up. As distributors, we collaborate strategically with producers at an earlier stage to improve the sales prospects. Being part of the Danish public group DR means we take risks, and it pays off,” she said, mentioning the politically-charged Danish doc “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” which won an Oscar.