Boulevard des Séries – The Factory announces winning projects
Los Angeles, June 4, 2025 – Villa Albertine, SACD, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), and the Writers Guild Foundation are pleased to announce the six projects selected for the fourth edition of Boulevard des Séries – The Factory, a professional development incubator for French TV series screenwriters.
The screenwriters, directors, and their winning projects are:
- Iris Brey, Paris Lesbienne (co-writer Anna Albelo, known as La Chocha)
- Sophie Dab, Toxique
- Sarah Farkas, Pas devant les enfants
- Marc Kressman, Bloody Marie
- Elodie Namer, Illumio
- Louise Silberio, Belleblue (co-writer Miao Yu, produced by Jericho)
This professional writing residency will take place in Los Angeles from October 6 to 24, 2025. Participants will receive personalized accompaniment in English from series writing experts who will help them develop their projects.
Over the course of three weeks of immersion, featuring discussions, professional meetings, and visits to local institutions, the French screenwriters will also gain a deep understanding of the practices and workings of the Hollywood industry.
An international selection committee
The call for applications, open from January to March 2025, received 26 submissions.
The six selected projects were carefully chosen by a jury comprised of renowned professionals from both the French and American audiovisual industries:
- Matthieu Ageron, French producer
- Katie Buckland, Executive Director of the Writers Guild Foundation
- Stéphane Carrié, French screewriter (program laureate in 2023)
- Teresa Huang, American screenwriter, producer, and actress
- Odile McDonald, French producer
- Charlotte Sanson, French director and screenwriter (program laureate in 2023)
- Spiro Skentzos, American screenwriter and producer.
The jury evaluated each project based on several criteria: artistic value, coherence, originality of concept and perspective, as well as international potential. Special attention was also given to emerging voices.
Among the selected projects are a thrilling virtual quest blending drama and adventure, a bittersweet comedy that delves back into lesbian Paris in the 1990s, a police series full of twists and turns led by a former alcoholic investigator, a coming-of-age drama that questions the evolution of the perception of gender in our society, a dramedy exploring the unspoken stories of a family whose parents, in the midst of separation, choose not to tell the truth to their children, and finally, a crime comedy that seeks to unravel the mystery of the murder of a famous influencer, which occurred on a yacht.
The jury praised the overall excellence of the submitted projects. They emphasized that this year, despite the wide range of themes explored – trust, social bonds, parenthood, investigation, personal quests – many of the stories conveyed a subtle yet palpable sense of anxiety about our time, turning fiction into a powerful reflection of today’s societal unrest.