According to an article in the Monde.fr, the Ministry of Culture finally chose the capital of the Haute France region, while it was in competition with Paris and Cannes.
This ambitious project is of the same level as the Cannes Film Festival, series version. The idea would be to "set up a major international competition" between the various television works broadcast each year. Good news that would ensure the (re)development of the medium in France and Europe, bringing it a non-negligible credit.
The choice of Lille is the consequence of a consultation of the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Moving Image) on the entire sector, which officially selected Lille rather than Paris – where the Series Mania Festival has already taken place since 2009 – and Cannes – which decided to set up its own festival in the absence of that of the government – for several reasons.
It seemed difficult to make the festival coexist with those already existing in Île-De-France (Series Mania and Series Series), which would have led to a disadvantageous competition (the first receiving so far 700,000 euros from the State). In addition, the location of Lille would have been perceived as a boon to attract a larger audience at the European level, geographically closer to the United Kingdom and Northern Europe. Two of the supporters of the project, the mayor of Lille Martine Aubry (PS) herself and the president of the region Xavier Bertrand (LR) strongly defended their candidacy before the CNC. Note that in 2017, the budget for culture increased by 18%! The CNC should provide an amount close to one million euros for the establishment of the International Series Festival. Something to delight the seriesvores…
