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Series Mania is an international TV series festival which takes place annually in Lille during the spring. It’s the largest of its kind in Europe, and this year, six of us studying the Global Cinema module, with our teacher Dr Sabrina Bouarour, had the privilege of attending. This class allowed us to study a film each week from a different country that had been presented at Cannes Film Festival and which highlighted key aspects of Indie Cinema. At Series Mania, we were able to extend our understanding of cinema to television. In Lille, we experienced watching premieres of international television series, interviews from the cast and crew, while also discovering the business insider talks.

Our favourite series were What it Feels Like For A Girl ; and Reunion, both of which were British; Reunion has just been released on the BBC, and What it Feels Like For A Girl will be released later this year. The first series explored identity, sexuality and coming of age in 2000’s Nottingham and we were lucky enough to hear from cast members in a Q&A such as main character played by Ellis Howard and the producer Ron O’Brest and Liza Marshall after the showing and even got a chance to meet them ourselves! Reunion follows the story of Daniel Brennan, a deaf man who has just been released from prison and highlights themes of isolation and injustices caused by deafness. It is the first series using both British Sign Language and English! Both were interesting to watch because of their portal of themes of sexuality and isolation and we can’t wait to watch when they are released! 

T-Rex, a Québécois series written by Louis-Philippe Vachon, and directed by Gabriel Savignac, was another favourite among us students. It follows the story of Édouard, a young man who struggles to conform to traditional standards of masculinity. Over the course of a weekend at a cabin with his childhood friends, Renaud and Xavier, playful adventures give way to tension as their dynamic is tested and the consequences of toxic masculinity begin to surface.

The title itself is rich with meaning: T-Rex is an acronym for their names, Renaud, Édouard, and Xavier, which firmly establishes the relationship at the centre of the narrative. However, the "T" also alludes to testosterone, a hormone that is frequently linked to violence, masculinity, and adolescence—all of which are important subjects that the series carefully explores. Naturally, the title also alludes to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, evoking visions of power and extinction, which serves as a clever allegory for the kind of outdated, harmful masculinity that the show aims to expose.

It was a brilliant opportunity for us to take part in the Q&A session afterwards. It was genuinely quite shocking to see the actors out of character, speaking candidly in their own clothes and hairstyles – such a contrast to their roles on screen. Hearing directly from the screenwriter, Vachon, and producer, Savignac, was incredibly insightful and gave us a much deeper appreciation for the creative process. For example, we learnt that the four main actors all had to live in the chalet together, which fostered the evident friendship and closeness seen on screen ! As Global Cinema students, this experience truly brought the subject to life – we all came away feeling inspired and grateful. To top it all off, Jérémie Bouclet, the producer, even gave us special bracelets that the cast wore in the film as a souvenir – a lovely and unexpected gesture that made the experience even more memorable!

Attending Series Mania 2025 was truly incredible and gave us all such a professional insight into global television. Thanks to our accreditation passes, we were able to visit the Forum, an area for professionals only and devoted to pitches and holding meetings. We attended the industry talks with Lisa Kramer and Lindsey Martin, executives for international distribution for Paramount and CBS Studios. We were given the opportunity to see how huge the business side of cinema and television really is, as there were stalls from all the French regions providing funding for co-productions, alongside stalls from countries around the world. We got to understand how pitches and deals are made to help with sales and film distribution. 

Being in an environment where we could apply what we’d learnt in our classes with Sabrina was a great opportunity. Through analysing a different film each week in the module, it developed our thought processes and analytical skills in regard to watching works of cinema, helping us to vote honestly for each series eligible for the prix du public. 

Meeting professionals and attending their talks and master classes gave us a brilliant understanding of the other side of analysis. Charlie Brooker, the showrunner of Black Mirror, a Netflix TV series with episodes which often give a social commentary on modern society and its technology, shared in his masterclass how he never starts out with this ‘commentary’, but rather the ‘wacky ideas’ he has for specific scenes or episode plots as a whole, and the commentary then writes itself.
After developing our analytical skills and learning about cinematic practices in the Global Cinema classes, it was really interesting to have the opportunity to find out about creative processes and how the television industry functions on an international and global scale.